23 images Created 30 Mar 2018
The Southwest Border
The southwest border of the United States, akin to a continental socio-economic fault line, separates two worlds. To the south is Latin America, which for centuries has borne the brunt of harsh colonial interference. Foreign intervention and exploitation have deprived many Latin American countries of regular peaceful transitions of power, something virtually unknown north of the border in the US and Canada. Social, political and economic upheaval regularly drive migrants and asylum seekers to the US border in hope of a better life. Many never survive the quest, falling prey to organized crime or succumbing to the harsh elements of the borderlands.
Since the 1990’s, the southwest border has become one of the most heavily barricaded borders in the world. NAFTA planners, knowing their 1994 trade agreement would ruin the livelihoods of millions of Mexican farmers, proposed a metal border wall to stem the flow of migrants northward. After 9/11, investment in border control grew exponentially. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) and ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) now form a security juggernaut in the US. The ever longer and higher border wall now works in tandem with a “virtual wall” of cutting-edge high-tech surveillance equipment positioned along the 3,000-km border. The same phenomenon is occurring elsewhere: the number of border walls in the world has quadrupled since 1990.
And then there is legislation. The Trump Administration, for example, has proposed or implemented a steady stream of shocking anti-immigrant policies, most contested in the courts and some eventually abandoned. While the Trump Administration’s policies are extreme, US immigration practices in previous decades have left 12 million undocumented immigrants living in fear of deportation from the US, without access to citizenship or the basic services and rights enjoyed by US citizens. Mexican border cities from Tijuana to Matamoros have been flooded with deportees, their lives turned upside down since being expelled from the country they called home. Over the years, a nation-wide network of activists, solidarity and legal organizations have fought back, helping migrants and calling for comprehensive immigration reform.
Photographing policies is of course impossible, but their impact is very visible: landscapes lined with steel walls and surveillance towers, border police, refugee camps, water barrels in barren landscapes, graveyards and other signs can be found throughout the border region. In this project, the story told by the land is enriched by the testimonials of those caught up in the drama that plays out on the southwest border every day of the year.
Since the 1990’s, the southwest border has become one of the most heavily barricaded borders in the world. NAFTA planners, knowing their 1994 trade agreement would ruin the livelihoods of millions of Mexican farmers, proposed a metal border wall to stem the flow of migrants northward. After 9/11, investment in border control grew exponentially. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) and ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) now form a security juggernaut in the US. The ever longer and higher border wall now works in tandem with a “virtual wall” of cutting-edge high-tech surveillance equipment positioned along the 3,000-km border. The same phenomenon is occurring elsewhere: the number of border walls in the world has quadrupled since 1990.
And then there is legislation. The Trump Administration, for example, has proposed or implemented a steady stream of shocking anti-immigrant policies, most contested in the courts and some eventually abandoned. While the Trump Administration’s policies are extreme, US immigration practices in previous decades have left 12 million undocumented immigrants living in fear of deportation from the US, without access to citizenship or the basic services and rights enjoyed by US citizens. Mexican border cities from Tijuana to Matamoros have been flooded with deportees, their lives turned upside down since being expelled from the country they called home. Over the years, a nation-wide network of activists, solidarity and legal organizations have fought back, helping migrants and calling for comprehensive immigration reform.
Photographing policies is of course impossible, but their impact is very visible: landscapes lined with steel walls and surveillance towers, border police, refugee camps, water barrels in barren landscapes, graveyards and other signs can be found throughout the border region. In this project, the story told by the land is enriched by the testimonials of those caught up in the drama that plays out on the southwest border every day of the year.
