Why Walls Won't Work: Repairing the US-Mexico Divide (EXCERPT)

The Huffington Post
Michael Dear
March 19, 2013

There are no magic words to solve the problems of immigration in the US or drug-related violence in Mexico. Instead, I offer one incontrovertible conclusion regarding the borderlands: the Wall will not work.
Here's why.

Because the Border Has Long Been a Place of Connection

The borderline is a permeable membrane connecting two countries. The inhabitants of this "in-between" territory thrive on cross-border exchange and collaboration, both of which have flourished for many centuries. There are strong senses of mutuality and attachment to territory among border residents.

Throughout time, many great dramas have been played out along what is today the border zone, including cataclysmic invasion, war, and revolution. The current afflictions in this troubled geographical vortex pertain to immigration and drug wars. The region has survived past upheavals, and will undoubtedly outlast the present woes.

A principal reason why border tensions are today so intense is that neither the migration nor drug problem has its origin in the borderlands. Instead, they originated from outside, and borderland communities have limited capacity for self-determination in these matters. At the national level, the US and Mexico each stand to gain from the sacrifices of that small subset of their populations that resides in the border zones. These are the people who must endure the exogenously-induced threats, with little assistance from their national and local governments beyond military and police actions. In the meantime, they have made what adjustments they can: some people have left , tired of the stresses and dangers; others simply await the future.  Read more. 

US, Mexico Disagree Over Border Fence

AP: An agency that monitors the U.S.-Mexico boundary is agreeing to a U.S. proposal to build border fence segments in a South Texas flood plain, a move Mexico opposes.

The decision by the U.S. International Boundary and Water Commission comes despite objections from its Mexican counterpart. Mexico argues the fence would deflect floodwaters to its side of the Rio Grande and violate a bi-national treaty. Read more.

¡Viva Mexico!: Nogales, Mexico - A Few Steps, and a Whole World Away

NYTimes.com: "A SIMPLE painted sign on a wooden board — “To Mexico” — was propped near the door in the fence, but it was the fence itself that fascinated me. Some masterpieces are unintentional, the result of a freakish accident or an explosive act of sheer weirdness, and the fence that divides Nogales, Ariz., from Nogales, Mexico, is one of them." read more

Border Control: Texans On Wrong Side Of Border Fence Grow Anxious

AP/Fox News: "Max Pons is already anticipating the anxiety he'll feel when the heavy steel gate shuts behind him, leaving his home isolated on a strip of land between America's border fence and the violence raging across the Rio Grande in Mexico.

For the past year, the manager of a sprawling preserve on the southern tip of Texas has been comforted by a gap in the rust-colored fence that gave him a quick escape route north in case of emergency. Now the U.S. government is installing the first gates to fill in this part of the fence along the Southwest border, and Pons admits he's pondering drastic scenarios." read more

Border Control: New Fences Block Access To U.S.-Mexico Border Monuments

An interesting article about another unforeseen consequence of barricading the border with Mexico.

Fronteras Desk: "Before there was a fence, all that marked the border between Mexico and the United States were stone and steel monuments, 276 of them dotting the southwestern landscape. They were installed by Mexican and American surveyors starting in 1850, after the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ended the Mexican-American War and the two countries agreed to define their shared border.

But as the U.S. Border Patrol has reinforced the boundary with a new fence, many of these bi-national monuments have been left entirely on the Mexican side of the barriers." read more

The Border: U.S. to extend border fence 300 feet into Pacific

Los Angeles Times: "Pounding surf and corrosive sea air have stymied efforts for years to erect a sturdy fence at the westernmost edge of the U.S.-Mexico border. Now, the U.S. Border Patrol is trying again, with a $4.3-million project that would extend a nearly quarter-mile barrier 300 feet into the Pacific Ocean and remake one of the more scenic spots on the border." read more

Border Madness: Border Fence Upends a Rio Grande Valley Farmer’s Life

NYTimes.com: "In 2009 the Department of Homeland Security informed Tim Loop, ... who lives on his family farm in Brownsville, Texas, along the northern bank of the Rio Grande, that the new border fence, which in some areas stands more than a mile from the river, would be cutting through his properties. (A water treaty with Mexico that restricts building within the flood plain prevented the department from simply hugging the north bank.) The three-bedroom home where Mr. Loop lives with his wife and two children ended up on the south side of the fence, inside what essentially became a no-man’s land.

Now, ... the Homeland Security Department plans to install motorized gates and keypads. Like a handful of other border dwellers in the same situation, Mr. Loop and his family will be required to use a secret code to reach their home — and to re-enter the rest of his country." read more

The Border: If you build it, they'll still come: Border fence can't stem tide

kens5.com San Antonio: ""Every time we implement any new type of fencing we learn from the limitations of the last fencing that we had in place," says U.S. Border Patrol agent Colleen Agle. "The first generation was a lot shorter so people did have a lot easier time climbing over it, and it was also just sheet metal so it was very thin," Agle explains.

The oldest barrier along a particular stretch of border is known as a "picket fence" because of the white bars. Mesh was added later because people used to stick their hands through the bars, using them to climb over the fence, and then it would take just a few minutes to make it into town.

"We know that over time they’re going to defeat this fencing, this brand new fencing as well. But as of right now this is the best stuff we’ve got and it’s doing a much better job for us," says Agle." read more