Managed Migrations examines the concurrent development of a border agricultural industry and changing methods of border enforcement in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas during the past century.

Introduction -- "Where uncle Sam meets Mexico" : narratives of frontier and progress in early twentieth-century South Texas -- The social space of agriculture -- The flexible border : mobility within restriction in US immigration laws and enforcement -- Exploitative villains or community leaders? Agricultural labor contractors, the state, and control over worker mobility -- El Paso/the passage : the 1948 El Paso incident and the politics of mobility -- The high price of immigration politics during the 1950s -- Epilogue.