“People on the move face new barriers in a globalizing world. Some of these barriers are related with the rise of an increasingly security-oriented approach towards international migrants. Notwithstanding the forces of globalization, states have maintained their monopoly power over whom to admit and whom to deny within their borders. In other words, they remain the sovereign authority regulating the entry and exit of people. However, in recent years, a number of states have singled out international immigration as the greatest political and social threat to their cultural and national security. The securitization of immigration is founded upon the premise that the international movement of people represents an exceptional risk for the survival of the nation and this is often associated with terrorism, instability and criminality. The securitization of immigration is also based on the idea that the ‘traditional’ authority vested in states to regulate immigration is somehow insufficient and needs to be enhanced. These assumptions correspond with a real policy shift in some countries such as the United States, where the government is planning to spend approximately 23 Billion Dollars on border security and immigration enforcement in 2019 alone.”