A pdf is available upon request to jmheyman@utep.edu . Centered on the process of escalation of enforcement at borders. Argues that state border enforcement bureaucracies and migrant smuggling organizations/networks are involved in a mutually constitutive and mutually reinforcing growth process, resulting in escalation. Argues that so far, the flexible tactics of smugglers has been able to defeat state power (resulting in more state reinforcement). Considers an analogy of guerrilla/conventional state armies. Also argues for a cultural-political basis for U.S. border escalation in a period of decline through globalization, flexible production, and declining geopolitical hegemony.