Recent political events, such as the “Title 42” expulsions, have led to growing prominence in United States-Mexico border discourses. The Trump Administration used the law during the COVID-19 pandemic to remove migrants from the Mexican border, resulting in family separations and the denial of protection to asylum seekers. More recently, the Biden Administration implemented a policy in May 2023 that prohibited people from gaining asylum in the United States (US) if they had not already applied for asylum in a country they had travelled through in their journey to the border. In line with this, media and political rhetoric frequently present the idea of a permeable border as a threat to the US.
Two films that engage in ideas of the permeability of the US-Mexico border are Sicario (Denis Villeneuve, 2015) and The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada (Tommy Lee Jones, 2005). This article will explore how these films either reimpose or dismantle the border. To construct these arguments, an analysis of cinematic techniques will be undertaken for each film, with a focus on mise-en-scène. It will be argued that the negative depiction of Mexico in Sicario reimposes border ideology. Subsequently, the article will assert that The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada instead dismantles the border division. In both texts, however, there are challenges and nuances to these arguments, as will be explored. These include border permeability in instances that are beneficial to the hegemony of the US in Sicario, and some aspects of Mexico’s romanticised portrayal that reinforce a divide in The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada.
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