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A civic border–comprised of government institutions, the laws that govern them and their charge to regulate immigration, and the partial and incomplete circulation of legal knowledge about immigration–determines patterns of lawful immigration and naturalization among immigrants in the United States. The process of naturalization, the voluntary passage from lawful permanent residence to citizenship, sheds light on the structure of the Untied States as polity and as a nation, and reveals its terms of membership. Drawing on ethnographic and documentary research in San Diego, California, this paper argues that immigration and naturalization involve not merely border crossings over physical spaces, but also the traversing of a complex and significant civic border that delineates the citizenry of the United States.

On January 19, 2017, the United States federal government issued revisions to the Common Rule under which scientists who receive federal funding conduct research involving human subjects. The revised Common Rule expressly addresses public health surveillance in relation to scientific research and the protection of human subjects, and its impacts are anticipated to contribute to the efficiency of activities, including cancer registration and surveillance, and research that uses cancer registry data.

Population-based cancer registration, mandated throughout the United States, is central to quantifying the breadth and impact of cancer. It facilitates research to learn what causes cancer to develop and, in many cases, lead to death. However, as concerns about privacy increase, cancer registration has come under question. Recently, its constitutionality was challenged on the basis of 1) the vagueness of statutory aims to pursue public health versus the individual privacy interests of cancer patients, and 2) the alleged indignity of one's individual medical information being transmitted to government authorities. Examining cancer registry statutes in states covered by the US National Cancer Institute's SEER Program and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Program of Cancer Registries, we found that cancer registration laws do state specific public health benefits, and offer reasonable limits and safeguards on the government's possession of private medical information. Thus, we argue that cancer registration would survive constitutional review, is compatible with the civil liberties protected by privacy rights in the U.S., satisfies the conditions that justify public health expenditures, and serves human rights to enjoy the highest attainable standards of health, the advances of science, and the benefits of government efforts to prevent and control disease.