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In July 2009 the Canadian government abruptly imposed visa requirements on all Mexicans traveling into Canada. This action sought to curtail the unprecedented rise in the number of Mexican asylum seekers reaching Canadian soil. Based on a series of interviews conducted with Mexican asylum seekers and refugees in Montreal, Canada, this paper seeks to explore critically the causes of this phenomenon. In particular, we are interested in analyzing the ways in which Mexican asylum-seeking constitutes an "act" of citizenship (following Isin, 2008), and how this act should be contextualized and understood within the rapidly evolving context of the North American geopolitical space. Indeed, as their stories demonstrate, Mexican asylum seekers actively question and rework dominant political and economic discourses associated with contemporary North America. Their stories suggest that Mexican mobility is not simply driven by economics but is also deeply political in nature. Second, their stories demonstrate that political, economic and social violences are embedded within the contemporary transnational edifice of North American governance. Finally, their stories highlight the deep inequalities in access to mobility within North America. In sum, Mexican asylumseekers force into a transnational arena issues that destabilize received notions about Mexico and Mexicans, and in so doing attempt to rework the limits of contemporary transnational justice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]