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Immigration America in transition

This article was first published in early 2021. It has been updated to reflect current events. It was part of a series on America in Transition.

As 2023 begins there is a new crisis at the border over immigration. In December, thousands of people from Central American countries began to the flood into the region anticipating a lifting of rules put in place during the Covid pandemic that prevented many from entering the United States. Those rules - known as Title 42 - remain in place as the issue is considered by the U.S. Supreme Court. There may not be a decision on the matter until June.

Clearly the U.S. immigration system is not up to the task of managing the influx of people fleeing economic and political repression in their home countries. It is reasonable to think things will only get worse as a new Congress convenes in Washington, D.C. with the House controlled by Republicans and the Senate controlled by Democrats. Both sides have been unable to come to agreement on immigration reform over the past several decades.

The border between the United States and Mexico is almost 2,000 miles long and most of it, about 1,200 miles, stretches across south Texas. This line between two friendly nations has been at the center of American politics in the form of an unbridgeable divide.

The border wall southwest of El Paso, Texas.

The story is full of contradiction. It begins at the border itself, where for the most part, people on either side find ways to live with each other. The U.S./Mexican border is one of the most transited in the world. Cities, towns and pueblos on both sides rely on each other for jobs and business. Conversations are easily conducted in a mix of English and Spanish. Mexican food is served on both sides.

Economic disparity in the region does lead to social problems, but not in a manner that makes life impossible. The further you travel from the border the more the issue begins to fade as a factor in daily life.

El Paso, Texas and Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. The "X" sculpture is on the Mexican side of the border.

Nowhere is the melting pot of Mexican and American culture more evident than in the twin cities of El Paso, Texas and Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. Except for the border line running between them, from the hillsides, the two cities appear as one. Despite the fear mongering of those who live far from the border, some reports rank El Paso as one of the safest communities in the United States.

Nevertheless, the December surge of immigrants led the mayor of El Paso to declare a state of emergency and ask the federal government to do more.

Downtown El Paso.

Beginning with his campaign, and continuing through his four years in office, former President Trump used the threat of an invasion of immigrants, from south of the border, as a political weapon to garner support based on racism and fear of the other. President Biden has tried to unwind some of those policies, but not all. Though Biden has had several legislative and foreign policy successes in his first two years in office, he has made almost no progress on immigration. Republicans see it as one of his greatest vulnerabilities.

Both political parties have been using immigration as a wedge issue to divide American voters. There is general agreement in Washington, D.C. on the outline of immigration changes that would tighten border security and provide a path to citizenship for those who came to this country without proper documentation, but the last time a deal was at hand, it was scuttled for partisan advantage. It seems both sides would prefer to have immigration as an issue to campaign on rather than as an issue to lead on.

As a result of partisan stalemate President Trump was able to push forward a series of harsh, zero-tolerance style executive orders, that included separating children from their families at the border. Recent reporting has shown the cruelty of the separations was the point of the policy. Before Trump, President Obama used executive orders to address immigration and President Biden continued the trend.

The most visible and political aspect of Trump's immigration policies is the construction of the border wall he made the centerpiece of his 2016 campaign. The wall is so central to the legacy of Trump's administration that he made a visit to Texas during his final days in office to signal that he had delivered on his promise to seal off the southern border with a physical barrier.

Top: Two Mexican children try to make friends through the wall.

Traveling along the border a few days before the January 6 insurrection in 2021, I approached the wall very carefully. The high steel fence, with the patina of industrial rust, is imposing and there is purposeful ambiguity about how close you can get without attracting the attention of the Border Patrol.

On the outskirts of El Paso, I saw the deep scar on the horizon and began driving toward it. I crossed train tracks, drove through an industrial area that included a huge power plant, and through a neighborhood of junk yards, mobile homes and crumbling adobe structures. Finally, the pavement ran out and I was driving over dirt, gravel and sage brush until I found an opening about fifty yards from the wall to park my car.

Up the hill and to my right I saw a white and green Border Patrol vehicle parked parallel to the fence and facing my location. I began taking photographs and calculated that if the Border Patrol was going to approach me I would have gotten what I needed by the time they chased me away. But there was no interference.

The way the wall is constructed, it's hard to see through it. I could see fragments of a Mexican village on the other side and I could hear children playing, but I couldn't see them. Their voices seemed to be getting closer and closer, but they remained hidden until they stuck their faces through the openings directly in front of me, appearing as if they were contained in a cage.

A young boy of about twelve or thirteen was very talkative. A younger girl, who I presume was his sister, was shy at first, but became more interested when I began taking their picture. We had a brief conversation in English and Spanish and then a woman appeared on the Mexican side of the border with a baby in her arms and she began asking for money for diapers. And I thought, this is who the wall is protecting us from. And I was embarrassed for our country and that the wall had been built in my name with my tax money.

This scene, that was playing out in front of me, is the end result of the policy debate in Washington, D.C. This is where the politics of immigration shows up in the lives of real people on both sides of the border, and as we know, there are other scenes that are much worse.

As I walked back to my car, the Border Patrol agent who had been watching my interaction came barreling down the dusty dirt road in his Chevy Tahoe. I thought I was going to have to explain myself to him, but he drove right past me into the sage brush as if he was responding to a report of suspicious activity. In this case, it appears that as an American I had a right to be there even if I was right on the edge of America.

Texas-New Mexico border. About a mile from the international border with Mexico.

Except for cities like El Paso, most of the border region is wild, barren land or agricultural land. The wall is not protecting property, it is simply keeping people out. Mexicans and nationals from countries further to the south. The Border Patrol is omnipresent. There are blimps tethered above the cotton fields, and the desert, using technology to watch closely for illegal border crossings.

There is no doubt people are constantly trying to cross into the United States in pursuit of a better life. Whether it be for a day, a week, or the rest of their lives.

Top: Near Fort Hancock. The mountain range is in Mexico. LL: Even the wall has a door. LR: Cotton fields on the Texas side of the border.

It is so easy to exploit the fear of some Americans by demonizing, or de-humanizing, people who are seeking opportunity here. For a politician, having an unseen enemy is always a winning issue, but in the case of immigration policy closing the door to foreigners at a zero tolerance level is a losing long term strategy. It deprives the United States of growth opportunity, it denies our history as a nation of immigrants, and it sends a message of intolerance to the rest of the world. It is not who we should want to be.

The United States is still a big, wide open country. There's room for all of us and a few more. I think that as Americans we know that and I think most Americans want to do the right thing.

With a divided Congress most political observers are predicting legislative gridlock for the next two years, but with the crisis at the border growing, Congress and the president may have no choice, but to act.

The political pressure created by this decisive moment could be so great that it forces the two sides toward compromise. Politicians tend to respond quickly when it is in their own immediate interest to do so. The wave of new immigrants pushing toward the southern border may make it impossible to look the other way. With power, even divided power, comes a responsibility to lead. Both sides now have something to lose if they persist in doing nothing.

West of Fort Hancock.

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© Dean Pagani 2021

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© Dean Pagani 2021

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