Internal borders are a major but understudied site of crimmigration as most scholarship has
focused on external borders (Van der Woude and Van Berlo, 2015). Internal borders were
supposed to disappear under the principle of free movement within the European Union. But
today we see EU member states policing the borders inside Schengen, checking identification,
verifying passage, and regulating mobility in so-called ‘gray zones’. This article investigates this
type of policing within the EU, focusing on the case of the Netherlands. It argues that the
policing of internal borders is highly dependent upon discretionary power, a significant factor
in the crimmigration process that we do not know enough about. Following Hawkins (1992,
2003), Schneider (1992), and Bushway and Forst (2013) on discretion and discretionary decisionmaking,
we examine the interaction between decisions by law-makers and policy-makers that
create discretionary space for law enforcement officials on the ground, and the way in which
these street-level bureaucrats perceive the discretionary space attributed to them. By zeroing
in on the interaction between these two actors, we aim to find the discretionary decision that
matters the most in terms of explaining the crimmigration practices, offering a more holistic and
interdisciplinary approach to border control. We discuss the implications of this power and the
consequences for the European Project as such.Criminal Justice: Legitimacy, accountability, and effectivit