tag:theconversation.com,2011:/global/topics/us-mexico-border-wall-37990/articlesUS-Mexico border wall – The Conversation2023-07-27T12:26:58Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2105172023-07-27T12:26:58Z2023-07-27T12:26:58ZFederal government is challenging Texas’s buoys in the Rio Grande – here’s why these kinds of border blockades wind up complicating immigration enforcement<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/539616/original/file-20230726-21-pfd09i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Buoy barriers are shown in the middle of the Rio Grande in Eagle Pass, Texas, on July 18, 2023. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/buoy-barriers-are-installed-and-situated-in-the-middle-of-news-photo/1554459107?adppopup=true">Brandon Bell/Getty Images </a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>The Rio Grande is only about 328 feet, or about 99 meters, wide. But the waterway dividing Texas from northern Mexico is deceptively dangerous and routinely <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/sep/05/migrants-risk-death-crossing-treacherous-rio-grande-river-for-american-dream">claims the lives of migrants</a> who try to cross it, but get caught in undetected rip currents or otherwise drown.</em> </p>
<p><em>Now, it’s the site of a legal battle between the U.S. federal government and the state of Texas regarding the right to enact blockades in the river</em>. </p>
<p><em>The U.S. Justice Department announced on July 24, 2023, that it <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-files-complaint-against-state-texas-illegally-placing-floating-buoy">filed a civil lawsuit</a> against Texas for illegally placing a floating buoy barrier in a section of the Rio Grande that runs about 1,000 feet, or 304 meters, long.</em> </p>
<p><em>Texas Gov. Greg Abbott <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/7/21/biden-administration-warns-texas-over-floating-barriers-at-border">rejected the Justice Department’s appeal in mid-July </a> to remove the buoys, saying that they were necessary to keep migrants out of Texas.</em> </p>
<p><em>The case raises questions about federal versus state control over the border – as well as whether tactics like buoys are actually effective at deterring migrants. In some cases, they frustrate immigration enforcement efforts in other ways, according to immigration legal scholar <a href="https://gould.usc.edu/faculty/?id=72708">Jean Lantz Reisz</a>.</em> </p>
<p><em>The Conversation’s politics and society editor Amy Lieberman spoke with Reisz to better understand the significance of this conflict.</em></p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/539617/original/file-20230726-23-wdarm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A group of people are seen walking through knee-deep water, in front of a long row of large orange circular buoys." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/539617/original/file-20230726-23-wdarm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/539617/original/file-20230726-23-wdarm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539617/original/file-20230726-23-wdarm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539617/original/file-20230726-23-wdarm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539617/original/file-20230726-23-wdarm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539617/original/file-20230726-23-wdarm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539617/original/file-20230726-23-wdarm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Migrants walk between a wire fence and a string of buoys in the Rio Grande on July 16, 2023.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/migrants-walk-between-concertina-wire-and-a-string-of-buoys-news-photo/1536221750?adppopup=true">Suzanne Cordeiro/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Who controls this section of the Rio Grande?</h2>
<p>I believe a patchwork of private owners and entities own the section of the Rio Grande where the buoys are located. And on the Mexico side it is the Mexican government – the border goes down the middle. The International Boundary Water Commission manages the Rio Grande border and is jointly run by U.S. and Mexico. </p>
<p>Typically, federal authorities regulate the border territories. All ports of entry are federal, for example. And a state like Texas cannot interfere with U.S. border enforcement. Texas could not claim that it owns this land and thus can erect whatever structures they want on it. And if it impedes the objective of the federal government of securing the border, that is unlawful. </p>
<h2>But the lawsuit’s claims are more specific than this question, right?</h2>
<p>The lawsuit alleges that Texas is violating the <a href="https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/inport/item/59646">Rivers and Harbors Act,</a> which is a federal act that says if a state wants to erect any structure in navigable waters of the United States, it has to seek a permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. That has to do with the federal power over interstate and foreign commerce. </p>
<p>Getting a permit like this would have required an investigation of potential humanitarian and environmental consequences to the buoys. I think that, in this case, the Rio Grande is a navigable water that is on the border and the permit would have been denied. </p>
<p>The bigger picture is that a state is impeding the federal government’s jurisdiction. </p>
<h2>How could the buoys complicate federal immigration enforcement?</h2>
<p>The U.S. <a href="https://www.cbp.gov/border-security#:%7E:text=CBP%27s%20top%20priority%20is%20to,narcotics%20smuggling%20and%20illegal%20importation.">has a strategy</a> in enforcing the border that involves physical border patrol enforcement, <a href="https://www.cbp.gov/frontline/cbp-small-drones-program">drones</a>, <a href="https://www.codastory.com/authoritarian-tech/us-border-surveillance/">heat sensors</a> and so on. So when a state comes and physically blocks off a part of the border, that frustrates the entire strategy. </p>
<p>It means that certain identifiable routes where people are being apprehended are now obstructed. This creates new migration routes, so people might not cross at this particular small section of the river, but they will find another section of the river and cross there, instead. </p>
<p>And if the buoys create an unsafe situation that results in rescue operations of migrants, it adds to the cost – not on enforcing the border, but on rescuing people. </p>
<p>In addition, Mexico’s cooperation is part of U.S. border enforcement strategy, and the buoys affect agreements between U.S. and Mexico over the use of the river. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/539618/original/file-20230726-17-fgerr5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A person with a cowboy hat is seen from behind, talking on the phone as he looks at large trucks with big orange buoys lined up behind them." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/539618/original/file-20230726-17-fgerr5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/539618/original/file-20230726-17-fgerr5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539618/original/file-20230726-17-fgerr5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539618/original/file-20230726-17-fgerr5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539618/original/file-20230726-17-fgerr5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539618/original/file-20230726-17-fgerr5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539618/original/file-20230726-17-fgerr5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A person surveys buoy barriers before they are installed in the Rio Grande on July 7, 2023.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/person-speaks-on-the-phone-while-surveying-the-preparation-news-photo/1523062022?adppopup=true">Brandon Bell/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>How often does this kind of conflict over immigration authority happen?</h2>
<p>There have been previous legal challenges regarding Texas wanting to have control over border enforcement. Issues like state police arresting people who <a href="https://www.khou.com/article/news/special-reports/at-the-border/texas-border-force/285-54daeb32-72d9-4d72-bbfb-af906d744b9a">are in violation of immigration law</a> – those kinds of laws have been passed in states like Texas and Arizona and were found to <a href="https://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-arizona-law-20160915-snap-story.html">violate federal law</a>. </p>
<p>This is because the federal government enforces immigration. The states cannot also <a href="https://cis.org/Arthur/States-Are-Utterly-Dependent-Feds-Secure-Border-Enforce-Immigration-Laws">enforce federal immigration law</a>. States can arrest people suspected of breaking state laws, but not federal immigration laws. </p>
<p>In the 2012 case of <a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/2011/11-182">Arizona v. the United States,</a> for example, Arizona tried to penalize noncitizens for working without federal work authorization. The state authorized law enforcement to arrest people suspected of being in violation of immigration law. And the court found that Arizona could not do anything that is within the jurisdiction of the federal government, or obstruct the federal government’s objectives when it comes to immigration.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/210517/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jean Lantz Reisz does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Setting up buoys in a section of the Rio Grande is more likely to result in migrants seeking pathways elsewhere, rather than deterring migration altogether.Jean Lantz Reisz, Co-Director, USC Immigration Clinic and Adjunct Assistant Professor of Law, University of Southern CaliforniaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1779902022-04-19T12:20:41Z2022-04-19T12:20:41ZJaguars could return to the US Southwest – but only if they have pathways to move north<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/458210/original/file-20220414-20-zyhn8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=15%2C7%2C5068%2C3402&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A jaguar in Brazil's Patanal region.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/jaguar-panthera-onca-drinking-pantanal-mato-grosso-brazil-news-photo/1371864203">Sergio Pitamitz /VWPics/Universal Images Group via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Jaguars are the only species of <a href="https://carnegiemnh.org/big-cats-big-personalities/">big cat</a> found on the American continent. They range as far south as Argentina, and once roamed <a href="https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/15953/123791436#geographic-range">as far north as the Grand Canyon</a> in the U.S. Today the northernmost breeding population is in the northwest Mexican state of Sonora, just south of the border with Arizona.</p>
<p>In the Americas, the jaguar has long been an <a href="https://doi.org/10.7440/antipoda28.2017.06">icon and symbol</a> of power and connection to the spiritual world in mythology, philosophies, culture and art. Jaguars are <a href="http://scienceline.ucsb.edu/getkey.php?key=4532">apex predators</a> with diverse diets that include more than <a href="https://doi.org/10.2307/3504096">85 different prey species</a>. This gives them a specific but prominent role in each ecosystem where they are found.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.iucn.org/">International Union for the Conservation of Nature</a> classifies jaguars as “near threatened,” with total population estimates <a href="https://www.iucncongress2020.org/motion/106">ranging between 64,000 and 173,000</a>. But evidence shows that local populations across the continent are <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0030605316001046">decreasing at alarming rates</a>. Jaguars’ total range has <a href="https://www.iucncongress2020.org/motion/106">shrunk by more than half in the past 70 years</a>, mainly because of hunting and habitat loss.</p>
<p>Could jaguars return to the Southwest U.S.? Some experts think it’s possible. Jaguars from southern populations in Mexico could recolonize their former territories in Arizona and New Mexico, or humans could <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/csp2.392">reintroduce them there</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/458213/original/file-20220414-1583-8ybnh.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Map showing jaguar distribution in Mexico" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/458213/original/file-20220414-1583-8ybnh.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/458213/original/file-20220414-1583-8ybnh.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458213/original/file-20220414-1583-8ybnh.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458213/original/file-20220414-1583-8ybnh.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458213/original/file-20220414-1583-8ybnh.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=474&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458213/original/file-20220414-1583-8ybnh.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=474&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458213/original/file-20220414-1583-8ybnh.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=474&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Current range of jaguars in Mexico (green zones). Dots represent sightings, and numbers denote jaguar conservation regions.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0255555">Ceballos et al., 2021</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We study <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=LunXQjoAAAAJ&hl=en">biodiversity</a> and <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.org/find-explorers/ganesh-marin">wildlife conservation</a> in the U.S.-Mexico borderlands and have documented jaguar movements close to the border. From our research we know there are only two main corridors in the western borderlands that jaguars could use to get into the U.S. </p>
<p>In our view, maintaining these corridors is crucial to connect fragmented habitats for jaguars and other mammals, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-020-01185-4">such as black bears, pumas, ocelots and Mexican wolves</a>. Increasing connectivity – linking small patches of habitat into larger networks – is a key strategy for conserving large animals that range over wide areas and for maintaining functional ecological communities.</p>
<h2>The northern jaguars</h2>
<p>The arid environment of the American Southwest has naturally limited jaguars’ distribution in North America. Once these cats were top predators in the forested ecosystems of the U.S. Southwest, but predator control programs and hunting decimated their populations in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The last female jaguar in the U.S. was <a href="https://doi.org/10.2181/036.049.0205">killed in Arizona in 1949</a>.</p>
<p>In 1996 an outdoor guide and a hunter <a href="https://doi.org/10.2307/3672607">photographed a male jaguar</a> in the Peloncillo Mountains in southeastern Arizona. Since that date other jaguars have been identified, but no females or cubs have been reported.</p>
<p>In contrast, jaguars are known to be present in the northeast corner of Sonora state in Mexico. Here the <a href="http://wildsonora.com/gallery/cajon-bonito-creek-sierra-san-luis">Cajon Bonito stream</a>, which flows from the west slope of the San Luis mountain range in the Continental Divide, supports jaguars and other large animals, including black bears, American beavers and ocelots.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/AH9Ih4ceAJE?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">El Bonito, a jaguar that lives in the borderlands between Mexico and the United States, using the Cajon Bonito area in northeast Sonora.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For two decades lands surrounding the stream have been under a restoration program run by <a href="https://www.cuencalosojos.org/">Cuenca Los Ojos</a>, a nonprofit that works to protect and restore land on both sides of the border. They now are part of a voluntary protected area program under Mexico’s <a href="https://www.gob.mx/conanp">Natural Protected Areas system</a>. </p>
<p>To the east, the <a href="https://www.mexicanist.com/l/janos-biosphere-reserve-chihuahua/">Janos Biosphere Reserve</a> includes habitat for jaguars. North and south, a combination of ranches dedicated to conservation and natural protected areas provides the habitat connectivity that jaguars need to move between Mexico and the U.S.</p>
<h2>Ranging in the borderlands</h2>
<p>In 2021 we filmed <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/jaguar-near-arizona-border-wall-mexico">a young jaguar whom we called El Bonito</a> roaming in the U.S.-Mexico borderlands. Each individual jaguar has a unique pattern of spots on its skin; when we acquired videos of both of the cat’s flanks, we realized that we actually were seeing two jaguars in our study area.</p>
<p>We dubbed the second jaguar Valerio. Lately, he has been spotted more frequently than El Bonito in the Cajon Bonito stream area.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/r54In7hJcNA?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">After El Bonito, a second male jaguar appeared in our camera traps in borderlands between Sonora and Arizona. We dubbed him Valerio.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Male jaguars have to disperse as they become adults to find available territories and potential mates. Females tend to occupy areas near where they were born, a pattern common among mammals. The size of a female jaguar’s territory depends on prey abundance and the availability of shelter. Jaguar males will travel across several female home ranges to increase their mating opportunities, so males’ home ranges can measure <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-03463-4_13">from roughly 15 to 400 square miles (35 to 1,000 square kilometers)</a>.</p>
<p>El Bonito and Valerio were juveniles when we first recorded them. We first filmed Valerio at our study site in January 2021. Since then, both cats have been using the stream as a corridor. Recent videos show Valerio cheek-rubbing a fallen tree, which suggests he is <a href="https://doi.org/10.1644/07-MAMM-F-268.1">establishing a territory</a> in this borderlands area. </p>
<p>At our study site, we have recorded both jaguars just 2 miles (3 kilometers) south of the U.S.-Mexico border. North of this site is <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guadalupe_Canyon">Guadalupe Canyon</a>, a natural corridor in the Peloncillo Mountains that runs into the U.S. at the border between Arizona and New Mexico.</p>
<p>In 2021 the border wall <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/02/19/trump-biden-border-wall/">was constructed across Guadalupe Canyon</a>, stopping at the Arizona-New Mexico line. The New Mexico portion of the Peloncillo and San Luis mountain ranges remains open.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/458215/original/file-20220414-18-a7v8xq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Workers adding slats to a barrier across shrub-covered land." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/458215/original/file-20220414-18-a7v8xq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/458215/original/file-20220414-18-a7v8xq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458215/original/file-20220414-18-a7v8xq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458215/original/file-20220414-18-a7v8xq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458215/original/file-20220414-18-a7v8xq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458215/original/file-20220414-18-a7v8xq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458215/original/file-20220414-18-a7v8xq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Construction on the border wall in Guadalupe Canyon, Arizona, looking south into Mexico, Dec. 9, 2020.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/BorderWallEnvironmentalDamage/608af71109bf424cb25e46d365497228/photo">AP Photo/Matt York</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Keeping corridors open</h2>
<p>U.S. and Mexican government agencies and conservation organizations are working together to restore western species at the brink of extinction. Growing populations of <a href="https://www.azgfd.com/wildlife/speciesofgreatestconservneed/mexicanwolves/">Mexican wolves</a>, <a href="https://www.fws.gov/story/new-hope-ferrets">black-footed ferrets</a>, <a href="https://www.nps.gov/articles/california-condor-recovery.htm">California condors</a> and <a href="https://www.americanprairie.org/project/bison-restoration">bison</a> offer hope that recovery is also possible for jaguars.</p>
<p>According to a 2021 study, the population of jaguars in Mexico increased during the past decade and now is <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-021-01264-0">estimated at 4,800</a>. As the number of jaguars in Sonora increases, so do the chances that females could reach the border and potentially mate with the male jaguars we have documented there.</p>
<p>Habitat loss and illegal killings are still the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0255555">main threats to jaguars in northern Mexico</a>. Creating natural protected areas that could support breeding populations and offer routes for northward expansion would help accelerate natural recolonization of jaguars into the U.S. Multiple institutions and scientific research projects have highlighted the need to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/biosci/biy063">keep natural corridors open</a> to maintain habitat for diverse communities of plants and animals.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/458295/original/file-20220414-22-ov97b6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A windswept grassy hillside with mountains in the distance." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/458295/original/file-20220414-22-ov97b6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/458295/original/file-20220414-22-ov97b6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458295/original/file-20220414-22-ov97b6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458295/original/file-20220414-22-ov97b6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458295/original/file-20220414-22-ov97b6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458295/original/file-20220414-22-ov97b6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458295/original/file-20220414-22-ov97b6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">View of the Peloncillo Mountains, a corridor still open for wildlife movements between Mexico and the U.S. The photo was taken in the Mexican borderlands looking north into New Mexico.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ganesh Marin</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In addition to jaguars, our camera traps have identified 28 other species of mammals, including ocelots, pumas and black bears. All of these animals have at least some need for connected landscapes if they are to survive for the long term.</p>
<p>In our view, making it possible for jaguars to naturally recolonize suitable habitat in the U.S. is a unique opportunity to foster animal movement in the borderlands. Keeping these landscapes connected will benefit all species in this ecologically unique region that serves as a wildlife source and pathway.</p>
<p>[<em>Get fascinating science, health and technology news.</em> <a href="https://memberservices.theconversation.com/newsletters/?nl=science&source=inline-science-fascinating">Sign up for The Conversation’s weekly science newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/177990/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ganesh Marin receives funding from the Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología. The research described in this article is funded by the University of Wyoming, the University of Arizona, the National Geographic Society, and T&E small grants. The project is in collaboration with Cuenca Los Ojos organization with partners from the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance and Santa Lucia Conservancy.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>John Koprowski does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Keeping landscapes connected can help protect wild animals and plants. In the US Southwest, border wall construction is closing off corridors that jaguars and other at-risk species use.Ganesh Marin, Ph.D. Candidate in Wildlife Conservation and Management, University of ArizonaJohn Koprowski, Dean, Haub School of Environment and Natural Resources, University of WyomingLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1550072021-02-15T13:41:12Z2021-02-15T13:41:12ZHow border walls threaten species trying to escape rising temperatures<p>Whether it’s <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13280-014-0606-8">blackbirds in Sweden</a>, <a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/106/5/1479">moths in Borneo</a>, or <a href="https://science.sciencemag.org/content/322/5899/261">mice in California</a>, animals around the world are on the move thanks to climate change. Species are shifting higher up mountains and closer to the poles as global temperatures rise, following the climate conditions to which they’re adapted. Their futures depend not only on their changing natural environment but the countries in which they happen to live.</p>
<p>As conservation scientists, we need to know how species will move between countries to understand how they’re likely to fare. National borders define where the authority of laws and policies begins and ends, so a species living on one side of a border can sometimes expect very different levels of protection – and very different threats – compared to one living on the other side. </p>
<p>But national borders have become increasingly fortified over the <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14650045.2011.574653">last two decades</a>. Walls and fences erected to control immigration don’t just affect humans; they present an obstacle to all kinds of animals seeking safe habitats as the planet warms. </p>
<p>Our <a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/118/7/e2011204118">new study</a> simulated how 12,700 bird and mammal species might move between countries as a result of global warming between now and 2070. We found that the ranges which 29% of birds and 35% of mammals currently occupy are likely to shift so significantly in that time that more than half of their distribution will fall in countries they’re not currently found in. Most of these cross-border movements of species will be in the western Amazon, around the Himalayas, and in central and eastern Africa.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A border wall running along a dirt track in a hot, dry plain." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/384221/original/file-20210215-23-15bacex.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/384221/original/file-20210215-23-15bacex.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384221/original/file-20210215-23-15bacex.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384221/original/file-20210215-23-15bacex.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384221/original/file-20210215-23-15bacex.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384221/original/file-20210215-23-15bacex.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384221/original/file-20210215-23-15bacex.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The US-Mexico border is an impenetrable obstacle for people and wildlife.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Steve Hillebrand/USFWS</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Between a wall and a hot place</h2>
<p>Walls and fences now cover more than 32,000km of the world’s political borders. Placed end to end, the combined structure would nearly circle the Earth. Fences are generally <a href="https://theconversation.com/fences-have-big-effects-on-land-and-wildlife-around-the-world-that-are-rarely-measured-147797">bad for wildlife</a> as they break up habitats and animals can get tangled in them. But border walls are on another scale entirely, dividing entire regions or even entire continents in two. </p>
<p>Most birds and bats will have no problem flying over borders, though <a href="https://conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1523-1739.2009.01277.x">some low-flying species</a> might struggle. Others may be reluctant to cross <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1600-0706.2008.16842.x">even small areas</a> of border habitat if they’re put off by the lack of trees, human noise or artificial lighting. Mammals that can’t fly are of greater concern. We estimated that almost 700 species could be prevented from moving into new countries to escape intolerable temperature rises as a result. </p>
<p>Three border barriers are particularly worrying. The US-Mexico border – which alone could trap 122 mammal species in either country – the India-Myanmar border, and the border between Russia and China. The first two are still under construction, but their completion will prevent many species passing safely. </p>
<p>Centuries ago, jaguars are thought to have been widespread in <a href="https://www.biophiliafoundation.org/jaguars-united-states/">the southern states of the US</a>, but now they’re largely found south of the US-Mexico border. This solitary feline predator is likely to spread north again as the climate changes, but an increasingly fortified border with the rest of North America could impede its passage. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/s/sloth-bear/">Sloth bears</a> – familiar to many as Baloo from The Jungle Book – and <a href="https://www.pangolinsg.org/pangolins/indian-pangolin/">Indian pangolins</a> are set to face the same problem when trying to cross between India and Myanmar. Walls and fences along borders in Africa and the Middle East could affect <a href="https://theconversation.com/not-so-fast-why-indias-plan-to-reintroduce-cheetahs-may-run-into-problems-152301">cheetahs</a> and <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/l/leopard/">leopards</a>, while barriers in central Asia could interrupt the migration of the critically endangered <a href="https://theconversation.com/planet-earth-ii-why-more-than-200-000-saiga-antelopes-died-in-just-days-69859">Saiga antelope</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A jaguar sitting on a rock in a tropical forest." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/384220/original/file-20210215-19-h3de8h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/384220/original/file-20210215-19-h3de8h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384220/original/file-20210215-19-h3de8h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384220/original/file-20210215-19-h3de8h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384220/original/file-20210215-19-h3de8h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384220/original/file-20210215-19-h3de8h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384220/original/file-20210215-19-h3de8h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Jaguars seeking cooler habitats further north face a difficult journey.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Stephen Willis</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Our modelling also showed that the largest proportion of species will be lost from tropical regions. Here, species are adapted to more stable climates and so are <a href="https://theconversation.com/biodiversity-why-foods-grown-in-warm-climates-could-be-doing-the-most-damage-to-wildlife-147584">most sensitive</a> to rising temperatures. Many of the countries most affected tend to be poorer, with weaker systems of governance and less responsibility for the emissions driving climate change in the first place. Conservation efforts to save species might be harder to fund and enforce in these hardest-hit places. </p>
<p>This also raises important questions of international justice. Via their greenhouse gas emissions, wealthier countries are <a href="https://www.economicshelp.org/blog/10296/economics/top-co2-polluters-highest-per-capita/">effectively exporting</a> species extinctions – and all their <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/final-report-the-economics-of-biodiversity-the-dasgupta-review">ramifications</a> – to less wealthy countries. Limiting the cross-border movements of wildlife will only exacerbate the problem.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/fences-have-big-effects-on-land-and-wildlife-around-the-world-that-are-rarely-measured-147797">Fences have big effects on land and wildlife around the world that are rarely measured</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Our research shows how important it is to ensure habitats stay connected across borders, whether security measures are present or not. Where walls and fences exist, governments must minimise their effects by ensuring they are as permeable to wildlife as possible. Or they should create wildlife passage points, such as <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/animals-are-using-utahs-largest-wildlife-overpass-earlier-expected-180976420/">bridges</a> and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/jan/23/how-wildlife-crossings-are-helping-reindeer-bears-and-even-crabs-aoe#:%7E:text=On%20Christmas%20Island%2C%20bridges%20have,beaches%20on%20their%20annual%20migration.&text=A%202014%20study%20found%20that,black%20and%20grizzly%20bear%20populations.">other crossings</a>, that can circumvent these unnatural barriers.</p>
<p>In an era of rapid global change, policymakers must zoom out from their usual national focus to ensure they protect species wherever they live, and wherever they need to move. Ahead of the UN’s COP26 climate conference in November 2021, our findings underscore the importance of deep and swift cuts to greenhouse gas emissions. This is the best way to reduce the effects of climate change on the wildlife we share our planet with, and the best way to relieve the unfair burden of biodiversity loss on the least culpable parts of the world.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/155007/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mark Titley receives funding from the Natural Environment Research Council, part of UK Research and Innovation. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stephen Willis receives funding from the Natural Environment Research Council, part of UK Research and Innovation.</span></em></p>Nearly 700 species of flightless mammal could be barred entry to cooler habitats due to national borders by 2070.Mark Titley, PhD Candidate in Conservation Ecology, Durham UniversityStephen Willis, Professor of Conservation Ecology, Durham UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1477972020-11-30T13:32:27Z2020-11-30T13:32:27ZFences have big effects on land and wildlife around the world that are rarely measured<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/371160/original/file-20201124-13-z1fcxa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=9%2C0%2C1016%2C693&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Australia's dingo fences, built to protect livestock from wild dogs, stretch for thousands of kilometers.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dog_Fence_(dingo_fence)_on_the_William_Creek_Road_between_Coober_Pedy_and_William_Creek,_South_Australia.jpg">Marian Deschain/Wikimedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>What is the most common form of human infrastructure in the world? It may well be the fence. Recent estimates suggest that the total length of all fencing around the globe is <a href="http://jhwildlife.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Fence-paper-by-Paige-et-al-1.pdf">10 times greater than the total length of roads</a>. If our planet’s fences were stretched end to end, they would likely bridge the distance from Earth to the Sun multiple times. </p>
<p>On every continent, from cities to rural areas and from <a href="https://pages.nyu.edu/counterblast/fence.htm">ancient</a> to <a href="https://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/economics/rousseau/inequality/ch02.htm">modern</a> times, humans have built fences. But we know almost nothing about their ecological effects. <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/world/border-barriers/global-illegal-immigration-prevention/">Border fences are often in the news</a>, but other fences are so ubiquitous that they disappear into the landscape, becoming scenery rather than subject. </p>
<p>In a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/biosci/biaa103">recently published study</a>, our team sought to change this situation by offering a set of findings, frameworks and questions that can form the basis of a new discipline: fence ecology. By compiling studies from ecosystems around the world, our research shows that fences produce a complex range of ecological effects. </p>
<p>Some of them influence small-scale processes like <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/beheco/ary158">the building of spider webs</a>. Others have much broader effects, such as <a href="https://sciencenordic.com/animals-archaeology-denmark/fences-are-disrupting-african-wildlife-on-an-unprecedented-scale/1441998">hastening the collapse of Kenya’s Mara ecosystem</a>. Our findings reveal a world that has been utterly reorganized by a rapidly growing latticework of fences. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/H1dGSpA7cl4?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Conservationists and scientists have raised concerns about the ecological effects of the U.S.-Mexico border wall, most of which is essentially a fence.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Connecting the dots</h2>
<p>If fences seem like an odd thing for ecologists to study, consider that until recently no one thought much about how roads affected the places around them. Then, in a burst of research in the 1990s, scientists showed that roads – which also have been part of human civilization for millennia – had narrow footprints but produced enormous environmental effects. </p>
<p>For example, roads can <a href="https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/4385/deforestation-patterns-in-the-amazon">destroy or fragment habitats</a> that wild species rely on to survive. They also can promote <a href="http://courses.washington.edu/gmforum/topics/trans_water/trans_water.htm">air and water pollution</a> and <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/2019/04/wildlife-overpasses-underpasses-make-animals-people-safer/">vehicle collisions with wildlife</a>. This work generated a <a href="https://roadecology.ucdavis.edu/">new scientific discipline</a>, <a href="https://www.wiley.com/en-us/Handbook+of+Road+Ecology-p-9781118568187">road ecology</a>, that offers unique insights into the startling extent of humanity’s reach. </p>
<p>Our research team became interested in fences by watching animals. In California, Kenya, China and Mongolia, we had all observed animals behaving oddly around fences – <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2664.13380">gazelles taking long detours</a> around them, for example, or predators following “highways” along fence lines. </p>
<p>We reviewed a large body of academic literature looking for explanations. There were many studies of individual species, but each of them told us only a little on its own. Research had not yet connected the dots between many disparate findings. By linking all these studies together, we uncovered important new discoveries about our fenced world. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/371325/original/file-20201125-13-txqiem.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Vintage ad for barbed wire." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/371325/original/file-20201125-13-txqiem.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/371325/original/file-20201125-13-txqiem.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=926&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/371325/original/file-20201125-13-txqiem.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=926&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/371325/original/file-20201125-13-txqiem.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=926&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/371325/original/file-20201125-13-txqiem.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1164&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/371325/original/file-20201125-13-txqiem.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1164&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/371325/original/file-20201125-13-txqiem.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1164&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Early advertisement for barbed wire fencing, 1880-1889. The advent of barbed wire dramatically changed ranching and land use in the American West by ending the open range system.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.kshs.org/index.php?url=km/items/view/208762">Kansas Historical Society</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Remaking ecosystems</h2>
<p>Perhaps the most striking pattern we found was that fences rarely are unambiguously good or bad for an ecosystem. Instead, they have myriad ecological effects that produce winners and losers, helping to dictate the rules of the ecosystems where they occur. </p>
<p>Even “good” fences that are designed to protect threatened species or restore sensitive habitats can still <a href="http://dx.doi.org/">fragment and isolate ecosystems</a>. For example, fences constructed in Botswana to prevent disease transmission between wildlife and livestock have <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2019/03/a-plea-to-botswana-please-rethink-a-not-enough-fences-approach-commentary/">stopped migrating wildebeests in their tracks</a>, producing haunting images of injured and dead animals strewn along fencelines. </p>
<p>Enclosing an area to protect one species may <a href="https://www.canberra.edu.au/about-uc/media/newsroom/2015/february/conservation-fences-costing-turtle-lives">injure or kill others</a>, or create entry pathways for <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1526-100X.2008.00378.x">invasive species</a>. </p>
<p>One finding that we believe is critical is that for every winner, fences typically produce multiple losers. As a result, they can create ecological “no man’s lands” where only species and ecosystems with a narrow range of traits can survive and thrive.</p>
<h2>Altering regions and continents</h2>
<p>Examples from around the world demonstrate fences’ powerful and often unintended consequences. The U.S.-Mexico border wall – most of which fits our definition of a fence – has <a href="https://earth.stanford.edu/news/how-would-border-wall-affect-wildlife#gs.il0l5m">genetically isolated populations of large mammals</a> such as bighorn sheep, leading to population declines and genetic isolation. It has even had surprising effects on birds, <a href="https://www.audubon.org/news/us-mexico-border-fence-hinders-wildlife-study-says">like ferruginous pygmy owls</a>, that fly low to the ground.</p>
<p>Australia’s dingo fences, built to protect livestock from the nation’s iconic canines, are among the world’s longest man-made structures, stretching thousands of kilometers each. These fences have started ecological chain reactions called trophic cascades that have <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/australias-dingo-proof-fence-changing-ecosystem-outback-180963273/">affected an entire continent’s ecology</a>. </p>
<p>The absence of dingoes, a top predator, from one side of the fence means that populations of prey species like kangaroos can explode, causing categorical shifts in plant composition and even depleting the soil of nutrients. On either side of the fence there now are two distinct “<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature.2017.21962">ecological universes</a>.”</p>
<p>Our review shows that fences affect ecosystems at every scale, leading to cascades of change that may, in the worst cases, culminate in what some conservation biologists have described as total “<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1246251">ecological meltdown</a>.” But this peril often is overlooked. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/371163/original/file-20201124-17-1d495iy.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Map showing the density of fencing in the western U.S." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/371163/original/file-20201124-17-1d495iy.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/371163/original/file-20201124-17-1d495iy.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=647&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/371163/original/file-20201124-17-1d495iy.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=647&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/371163/original/file-20201124-17-1d495iy.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=647&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/371163/original/file-20201124-17-1d495iy.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=813&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/371163/original/file-20201124-17-1d495iy.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=813&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/371163/original/file-20201124-17-1d495iy.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=813&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The authors assembled a conservative data set of potential fence lines across the U.S. West. They calculated the nearest distance to any given fence to be less than 31 miles (50 kilometers), with a mean of about 2 miles (3.1 kilometers).</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://doi.org/10.1093/biosci/biaa103">McInturff et al,. 2020</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>To demonstrate this point, we looked more closely at the western U.S., which is known for huge open spaces but also is the <a href="https://www.popsci.com/barbed-wire-invention-history/">homeland of barbed wire fencing</a>. Our analysis shows that vast areas viewed by researchers as <a href="https://earthdata.nasa.gov/learn/sensing-our-planet/the-human-footprint#:%7E:text=Increased%20human%20population%20often%20leads,the%20earliest%20lasting%20human%20impact">relatively untrodden by the human footprint</a> are silently entangled in dense networks of fences. </p>
<h2>Do less harm</h2>
<p>Fences clearly are here to stay. As fence ecology develops into a discipline, its practitioners should consider the complex roles fences play in human social, economic and political systems. Even now, however, there is enough evidence to identify actions that could reduce their harmful impacts. </p>
<p>There are many ways to change fence design and construction without affecting their functionality. For example, in <a href="https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/detailfull/wy/technical/landuse/pasture/?cid=nrcs142p2_026826">Wyoming</a> and <a href="http://fwp.mt.gov/fwpDoc.html?id=34461">Montana</a>, federal land managers have experimented with wildlife-friendly designs that allow species like pronghorn antelope to pass through fences with fewer obstacles and injuries. This kind of modification shows great promise for wildlife and may produce broader ecological benefits. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1240336705846042624"}"></div></p>
<p>Another option is aligning fences along natural ecological boundaries, like watercourses or topographical features. This approach can help minimize their effects on ecosystems at low cost. And land agencies or nonprofit organizations could offer incentives for land owners to remove fences that are derelict and no longer serve a purpose.</p>
<p>[<em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>.]</p>
<p>Nonetheless, once a fence is built its effects are long lasting. Even after removal, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.5950">ghost fences</a>” can live on, with species continuing to <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-27129727">behave as if a fence were still present for generations</a>. </p>
<p>Knowing this, we believe that policymakers and landowners should be more cautious about installing fences in the first place. Instead of considering only a fence’s short-term purpose and the landscape nearby, we would like to see people view a new fence as yet another permanent link in a chain encircling the planet many times over.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/147797/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Wenjing Xu receives funding from the Smithsonian Institute. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alex McInturff and Christine Wilkinson do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Millions of miles of fences crisscross the Earth’s surface. They divide ecosystems and affect wild species in ways that often are harmful, but are virtually unstudied.Alex McInturff, Postdoctoral Researcher, University of California, Santa BarbaraChristine Wilkinson, Ph.D. Candidate in Environmental Science, Policy and Management, University of California, BerkeleyWenjing Xu, PhD Candidate in Environmental Science, Policy and Management, University of California, BerkeleyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1448342020-08-21T12:39:07Z2020-08-21T12:39:07ZWhy Steve Bannon faces fraud charges: 4 questions answered<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/353925/original/file-20200820-20-1z7bby.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C3999%2C3940&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The former Trump aide and others allegedly misused funds donated to build a border wall.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/former-white-house-chief-stratgist-and-senior-counselor-to-news-photo/1079585016">Sylvain Lefevre/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Editor’s note: Federal prosecutors in New York have arrested former senior Trump adviser Steve Bannon and three other men, and charged them with allegedly defrauding hundreds of thousands of donors to an online fundraising campaign to build portions of wall along the U.S. border with Mexico. <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=uplx-M8AAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">Lloyd Hitoshi Mayer</a>, a University of Notre Dame law professor who researches nonprofits, explains what’s going on and what the consequences could be.</em></p>
<h2>1. Who is accused of what, exactly?</h2>
<p>Audrey Strauss, the acting <a href="https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/press-release/file/1306611/download">U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York</a>, has accused Bannon and the founder of the “We Build the Wall” crowdfunding campaign, Brian Kolfage, of lying to donors about how their gifts would be used. Two other men, Andrew Badolato and Timothy Shea, are also accused of participating in this alleged scheme.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.courthousenews.com/steve-bannon-indicted-with-others-on-border-wall-scheme/">Kolfage launched the GoFundMe campaign in 2018</a>, originally calling it “We the People Build the Wall.” With Shea’s help, he sought to raise a US$1 billion to support the Trump administration’s effort to build a wall on the Mexican border. But when the campaign only raised <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/behind-viral-gofundthewall-fundraiser-rising-conservative-star-shadowy-email-harvesting-n957896">around $20 million</a> and it turned out the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/11/us/gofundme-border-wall-refund.html">government could not legally accept the funds</a>, GoFundMe insisted that the funds be returned to about 325,000 donors. In response, Kolfage launched <a href="https://webuildthewall.us/">We Build the Wall, Inc.</a>, a nonprofit, to receive and use the donations.</p>
<p>To convince donors to redirect their gifts, Kolfage promised that the funds would go “<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/fund-the-border-wall-gofundme-refund-build-privately-2019-1">toward wall construction only</a>.” The indictment alleges that <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/20/politics/bannon-indictment/index.html">Bannon and Badolato helped Kolfage set up the new nonprofit</a>, and that all four defendants told donors that if they agreed to redirect their gifts to the nonprofit “100% of the funds raised” would be used to construct the wall and that no one would be compensated for work tied to this effort. Most donors agreed to shift their money.</p>
<p>But the nonprofit, the authorities determined, paid Kolfage an initial salary of $100,000 in February 2019, followed by monthly payments of $20,000. All told, Kolfage received $350,000 in compensation he spent on personal expenses, including boat payments, home renovations and a SUV. The nonprofit also paid for hundreds of thousands of dollars of personal expenses for Bannon, Badolato and Shea. To hide these transfers, the four defendants allegedly funneled money through another nonprofit, a for-profit shell company under Kolfage’s control and accounts controlled by unnamed associates using “<a href="https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/leaders-we-build-wall-online-fundraising-campaign-charged-defrauding-hundreds-thousands">fake invoices</a>,” according to the indictment. </p>
<p>The defendants stand accused of lying to obtain money using electronic communications (<a href="https://criminal.findlaw.com/criminal-charges/wire-fraud.html">wire fraud</a>) and the U.S. Postal Service (<a href="https://criminal.findlaw.com/criminal-charges/mail-fraud.html">mail fraud</a>). They also stand accused of <a href="https://criminal.findlaw.com/criminal-charges/money-laundering.html">money laundering</a>, that is transferring funds to conceal criminal activity. Strauss brought the charges because at least some of the actions occurred in New York.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.courthousenews.com/steve-bannon-indicted-with-others-on-border-wall-scheme/">Bannon pleaded not guilty</a> and will remain in Washington, D.C. on a <a href="https://apnews.com/6119b50079aaf30ba54b8e40bd36033b">$5 million bond</a> while awaiting trial.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1296438759198687232"}"></div></p>
<h2>2. What’s the big deal?</h2>
<p>Nonprofits may legally <a href="https://www.thebalancesmb.com/can-nonprofits-pay-staff-2501893#:%7E:text=Yes.,most%20nonprofits%20have%20paid%20staff">pay their leaders</a>. What the defendants did wrong was lie to donors about whether Kolfage would be paid and how the funds would be used. But of course without those lies, it’s hard to know how many donors would have agreed to transfer their gifts to the nonprofit.</p>
<p>Bannon is a former senior adviser to President Donald Trump, making this a high-profile case with potential ramifications for the Republican Party.</p>
<p>Several prominent Republicans have supported We Build the Wall. For example, Donald J. Trump Jr. <a href="https://twitter.com/KFILE/status/1296470804058832899?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet">spoke at a fundraiser</a> and former Kansas Secretary of State <a href="https://webuildthewall.us/ourteam/">Kris Kobach</a> serves as the group’s general counsel and sits on its advisory board, along with <a href="https://apnews.com/944c880ea47c94bf7bf43677c831b904">Erik Prince</a> – a major Trump campaign donor who founded the controversial security company formerly known as Blackwater and whose sister is Education Secretary Betsy DeVos. The indictment didn’t name Prince, Kobach or Donald Trump Jr.</p>
<p>Bannon now joins Trump associates <a href="https://www.vox.com/2020/8/20/21377209/bannon-arrested-indicted-build-border-wall-gofundme">Paul Manafort, Michael Cohen, Roger Stone, Michael Flynn, Rick Gates and George Papadopoulos</a> in facing federal charges. </p>
<p>The allegations also fit into a larger pattern of Bannon’s <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/steve-bannon-guo-wengui-private-jet-campaign-finance-law">questionable use of nonprofits</a>. In April 2020, Bannon faced questions about his co-founding of two nonprofits with <a href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/rosiegray/a-conservative-journalist-admitted-to-taking-100000-from">Guo Wengui</a>, a fugitive Chinese billionaire. Bannon was <a href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2020/08/this-is-the-very-expensive-yacht-steve-bannon-got-arrested-on/">aboard Guo’s yacht</a> off the Connecticut coastline when federal agents arrested him.</p>
<h2>3. How has President Trump responded?</h2>
<p>Asked about Bannon’s arrest shortly after it occurred, Trump called it “<a href="https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/politics/former-trump-campaign-manager-steve-bannon-indicted-for-fraud-in-ny/2576990/">a very sad thing</a>” but stressed that he had not been dealing with his former adviser “for a very long period of time.” The <a href="https://twitter.com/kaitlancollins/status/1296468544473968641">White House also issued a statement</a> that claimed Trump “does not know the people involved with this project,” which was immediately contradicted <a href="https://twitter.com/GeoffRBennett/status/1296454156560015360">by media reports</a> and other evidence. </p>
<h2>4. What are some of the potential consequences?</h2>
<p>The federal charges could lead to prison sentences of <a href="https://criminal.findlaw.com/criminal-charges/wire-fraud.html">up to 20 years and fines in the hundreds of thousands of dollars</a>. On top of these penalties, the defendants may have to repay the fraudulently obtained funds to their donors.</p>
<p>It is also unclear what the future holds for We Build the Wall, especially with the arrest of its leaders. It has funded various private wall-building efforts, but those have run into <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/he-built-a-privately-funded-border-wall-its-already-at-risk-of-falling-down-if-not-fixed">structural and legal challenges</a>. Prosecutors have asked for funds in various We Build the Wall bank accounts to be forfeited, which could leave the group without the means to continue operating.</p>
<p>[<em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/144834/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lloyd Hitoshi Mayer does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A nonprofit law expert explains the federal case against the former Trump adviser.Lloyd Hitoshi Mayer, Professor of Law, University of Notre DameLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1325012020-03-09T12:22:10Z2020-03-09T12:22:10ZFrom border security to climate change, national emergency declarations raise hard questions about presidential power<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/319139/original/file-20200306-118913-cc1l7d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C4031%2C3024&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Global Climate Strike NYC in New York, Sept. 20, 2019.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Global-Climate-Strike-And-Rally/fdf71056a5d34c308e0aca3f639fbd44/90/0">Rainmaker Photo/MediaPunch /IPX via AP Photo</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>As wildfires, storms and other climate-driven disasters grow larger and more damaging, climate change is a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kIUyCczgf8">major concern for many Democratic voters</a>, who are in the midst of a primary fight that has come down to two major candidates: Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden. Both candidates say climate change would be one of their top priorities as president – but there’s an important difference between their approaches.</p>
<p>Sanders has pledged to <a href="https://berniesanders.com/issues/green-new-deal/">declare climate change a national emergency</a> and use executive power to lead “<a href="https://berniesanders.com/issues/green-new-deal/">a ten-year, nationwide mobilization</a>” to remake the U.S. economy. </p>
<p>Biden has also proposed an ambitious plan for <a href="https://joebiden.com/Climate/">“achieving a 100% clean energy economy</a>,” but would rely on legislation and regulation to achieve many of his goals.</p>
<p>As a legal scholar <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=SHAqMV0AAAAJ&hl=en">specializing in energy and the environment</a>, I believe that voters should consider this distinction carefully. </p>
<p>Presidential emergency powers could provide useful tools for addressing climate change, but taking this route sets an important precedent. As I see it, if presidents increasingly make free use of emergency powers to achieve policy goals, this approach could become the new normal – with a serious potential for abuse of power and ill-considered decisions.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/T_cvymQ_Z1o?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">President Trump declared a national emergency on border security in 2019 in order to redirect funds from other programs to wall construction.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Today, the border; tomorrow, the climate</h2>
<p>President Trump <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/presidential-proclamation-declaring-national-emergency-concerning-southern-border-united-states/">declared a national emergency on border security</a> on Feb. 15, 2019, after Congress <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/2/14/18224457/congress-border-security-deal">refused to fund</a> most of his US$5.7 billion request for border wall construction. As Trump’s intent became clear, Republican Sen. Marco Rubio <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/1/11/18178438/national-emergency-marco-rubio-precedent-democrats-climate">warned</a> that “tomorrow the national security emergency might be, you know, climate change.” </p>
<p>Rubio was right to take this possibility seriously. In my view, declaring a climate emergency would probably be legal, and would unlock provisions in many laws that authorize the president or subordinates to <a href="https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/trumps-hidden-powers">take specific actions under a national emergency declaration</a>. </p>
<p>Like Trump, a Democratic president might use the power to divert military construction funds to other projects, such as renewable energy projects for military bases. A Democrat could also use trade measures – for example, restricting imports from countries with high carbon emissions, or imposing a carbon fee on goods from those countries to level the playing field.</p>
<p>Another potential action would be ordering businesses to produce certain goods. Just as the Trump administration reportedly has considered using a law dating from the 1950s to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/28/us/politics/trump-coronavirus.html?action=click&module=Spotlight&pgtype=Homepage">expand production of medical supplies for treating coronavirus patients</a>, a Democrat could use the same power to boost battery or electrical vehicle production. </p>
<p>After declaring an emergency, the president could provide loan guarantees to critical industries in order to help finance goals such as expanding renewable energy production. Oil and gas leases on federal lands and in federal waters contain clauses that allow the Interior Department to <a href="https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCODE-1994-title43/pdf/USCODE-1994-title43-chap28-subchapIII_2-sec1341.pdf">suspend them during national emergencies</a>. Declaring a national emergency would also enable the president to limit U.S. oil exports to other countries.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1148756419447021568"}"></div></p>
<h2>Is it legal?</h2>
<p>Emergency powers are only available assuming climate change qualifies as an emergency. The law empowering presidents to declare national emergencies doesn’t define the term.</p>
<p>Among recent precedents, President Obama <a href="https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2015/04/01/executive-order-blocking-property-certain-persons-engaging-significant-m">declared a cybersecurity emergency</a> on April 1, 2015 that is still in effect, and Trump has declared that steel imports are <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/presidential-proclamation-adjusting-imports-steel-united-states/">an urgent threat to national security</a>. </p>
<p>It’s not hard to make a case that climate change is an equally critical problem. Recent science indicates that major action will be needed in the next decade to <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/sr15/">hold warming below extreme levels</a>. There’s also clear support for the idea that climate change is <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-military-perspective-on-climate-change-could-bridge-the-gap-between-believers-and-doubters-128609">a major national security threat</a>. </p>
<p>To date, courts have never overturned a presidential emergency declaration, and I believe a climate emergency seems unlikely to be an exception. Legal challenges to President Trump’s border security declaration <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-immigration-court/u-s-appeals-court-stays-judges-ruling-blocking-military-funds-for-border-wall-idUSKBN1Z806H">so far have failed</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/319144/original/file-20200306-64601-hz4yt1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/319144/original/file-20200306-64601-hz4yt1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/319144/original/file-20200306-64601-hz4yt1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/319144/original/file-20200306-64601-hz4yt1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/319144/original/file-20200306-64601-hz4yt1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/319144/original/file-20200306-64601-hz4yt1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/319144/original/file-20200306-64601-hz4yt1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/319144/original/file-20200306-64601-hz4yt1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Border wall construction in Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, Ariz.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/resourcespace/pages/view.php?ref=13201&k=b91f42ce65&search=&offset=0&order_by=relevance&sort=ASC&archive=">Laiken Jordahl/Center for Biological Diversity</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Frustration with gridlock</h2>
<p>Emergency actions bypass bureaucracy and minimize the potential for litigation, compared to the cumbersome regulatory process. That makes them fast and decisive. They also place responsibility squarely on the president, which increases political accountability. There’s no question of who to blame if you don’t like the border wall – or emergency climate actions. </p>
<p>Unlike legislation, an emergency action does not have to move through Congress. And unlike federal regulations, there is no requirement for transparency or public comment, and less room for judicial oversight. </p>
<p>That can speed things up but it also makes major mistakes more likely. The <a href="https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/fdr-signs-executive-order-9066">internment of Japanese Americans</a> during World War II is a vivid example. </p>
<p>In addition, once an emergency is declared, a president may be able to use emergency powers in laws that aren’t even related to that emergency. “Even if the crisis at hand is, say, a nationwide crop blight, the president may activate the law that allows the secretary of transportation to <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/01/presidential-emergency-powers/576418/">requisition any privately owned vessel at sea</a>,” writes Elizabeth Goiten, director of the Brennan Center’s <a href="https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/policy-solutions/liberty-national-security-election-agenda-candidates-activists-and">Liberty and National Security Program</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/319121/original/file-20200306-118904-1ye5n7x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/319121/original/file-20200306-118904-1ye5n7x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/319121/original/file-20200306-118904-1ye5n7x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/319121/original/file-20200306-118904-1ye5n7x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/319121/original/file-20200306-118904-1ye5n7x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/319121/original/file-20200306-118904-1ye5n7x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/319121/original/file-20200306-118904-1ye5n7x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/319121/original/file-20200306-118904-1ye5n7x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Bernie Sanders’ climate plan would declare a national climate emergency, while Joe Biden’s relies on executive orders, legislation and regulation.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Election-2020-Debate/fc23b68484b6453181a452909e4fe796/1/0">AP Photo/Patrick Semansky</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>There’s no question that legislating is difficult and time-consuming. It requires the agreement of both houses of an increasingly polarized Congress. So long as the filibuster rule is in effect, it needs 60 votes in the Senate, which would require some Republican support even if Democrats regain a majority in the 2020 elections. </p>
<p>Americans seem <a href="https://www.people-press.org/2018/11/15/public-expects-gridlock-deeper-divisions-with-changed-political-landscape/">increasingly frustrated</a> by government’s inability to take bold action. If conventional means of policy change remain clogged, some people may find the national emergency approach all but irresistible. </p>
<p>Despite the appeal of breaking through gridlock, there are also real dangers to invoking emergency powers. Normalizing their use could make these expanded presidential powers hard to confine. </p>
<p>Congress has the power to nullify emergency declarations by passing a resolution of disapproval, but this has proved ineffective in practice. For instance, despite bipartisan support, Congress has <a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2019/09/25/senate-vote-national-emergency-border-wall-1510795">failed to muster veto-proof margins</a> for two resolutions overturning Trump’s border emergency, which the administration has used to divert billions of dollars to wall construction.</p>
<p>As Justice Robert Jackson wrote in <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/343/579">Youngstown Sheet & Tube Company v. Sawyer</a> – a famous 1952 Supreme Court decision in which the court held that President Truman did not have the constitutional authority to nationalize the U.S. steel industry during the Korean War – emergency powers “afford a ready pretext for usurpation,” and the potential for using those powers “can tend to kindle emergencies” to justify their use. </p>
<p>In my view, those risks may be worth taking only if all other avenues for dealing with an urgent problem like climate change are blocked. It remains to be seen whether that precondition will be met.</p>
<p>[<em>You’re smart and curious about the world. So are The Conversation’s authors and editors.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=youresmart">You can read us daily by subscribing to our newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/132501/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Daniel Farber does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Declaring an issue is a national emergency lets presidents act quickly and with few constraints. But once they get this kind of power, it’s hard to take it back – and it can produce bad policies.Daniel Farber, Professor of Law, University of California, BerkeleyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1207302019-12-04T13:30:08Z2019-12-04T13:30:08ZTrump’s border wall threatens an Arizona oasis with a long, diverse history<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/305009/original/file-20191203-67011-kxgj89.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=53%2C0%2C6000%2C3988&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The waters of Quitobaquito in southern Arizona have attracted diverse visitors for thousands of years.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jared Orsi</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>A few hundred yards from the Mexican border in southern Arizona lies a quiet pond, about the size of two football fields, called Quitobaquito. About 10 miles to the east, heavy machinery <a href="https://twitter.com/LaikenJordahl/status/1187803734090244096">grinds up the earth and removes vegetation</a> as construction of President Trump’s vaunted border wall advances toward the oasis. </p>
<p>I’m a <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/scientific-contributions/2047830484_Jared_Orsi">historian</a> and have studied Quitobaquito for six years. When I first started writing about this area, it was remote and little known, even though the land is part of <a href="https://www.nps.gov/orpi/index.htm">Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument</a>. But for the last few months, the park has <a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/10/11/769193107/border-wall-construction-in-arizona-bulldozes-cactus-columns">headlined national news</a>.</p>
<p>This spot is an occasional crossing point for transborder migrants, and some of the wall’s first stretches will traverse the national monument within steps of Quitobaquito. Many observers fear that the thirty-foot wall with nighttime floodlighting will <a href="https://wgntv.com/2019/09/28/border-wall-could-destroy-natural-wildlife-refuge-in-southern-arizona-environmentalist-says/">harm wildlife</a>, <a href="https://news.azpm.org/p/news-topical-nature/2019/9/4/157554-new-border-wall-could-further-deplete-groundwater-supplies/">lower the water table</a> and <a href="https://media.azpm.org/master/document/2019/9/20/pdf/orpi2019bdraftreport07252019b_final_redacted_reduced.pdf">destroy archaeological treasures</a>. Crowds are visiting the site to protest the <a href="https://news.azpm.org/p/news-articles/2019/11/12/161553-hundreds-protest-border-wall-construction-through-national-monument/">concrete and steel barrier</a>.</p>
<p>Trump’s promise to build a wall began as a rhetorical flourish during the 2016 presidential campaign. But in May 2019, his administration announced that it would <a href="https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2019/05/15/2019-10079/determination-pursuant-to-section-102-of-the-illegal-immigration-reform-and-immigrant-responsibility">waive 41 laws</a> to construct a high barrier. I believe this project could destroy an area with a diverse, multicultural history that challenges today’s border debates.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/305015/original/file-20191203-67028-1561qf3.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/305015/original/file-20191203-67028-1561qf3.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/305015/original/file-20191203-67028-1561qf3.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305015/original/file-20191203-67028-1561qf3.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305015/original/file-20191203-67028-1561qf3.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305015/original/file-20191203-67028-1561qf3.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305015/original/file-20191203-67028-1561qf3.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305015/original/file-20191203-67028-1561qf3.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Border wall construction in Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, photographed in November 2019.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jared Orsi</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Erasing cultures</h2>
<p>In my research on Quitobaquito, I’ve noticed that while its waters have attracted a wide array of peoples for more than 10,000 years, each wave of newcomers tends to erase the evidence of those who came before them. </p>
<p>Beginning in the late seventeenth century, Spanish missionaries tried to entice native peoples in this area to abandon their traditions in favor of Christian agricultural life. Then, in the early twentieth century, Americans confined indigenous peoples to reservations. For most of the 20th century, the National Park Service managed this swath of southern Arizona as an uninhabited wilderness. </p>
<p>These actions have erased Quitobaquito’s history. The border project is the latest phase of this rewrite.</p>
<h2>A farm that straddled the line</h2>
<p>Here’s some back story on the diverse cultures that have occupied this oasis. </p>
<p>Around 1860, a newcomer from Georgia named Andrew Dorsey dammed and enlarged the pond, and a small agricultural settlement grew at Quitobaquito. M.G. Levy, the German-educated son of a Jewish immigrant, kept a small store there, employing a French shopkeeper and doing business with American and Mexican suppliers. Chinese and Japanese migrants stopped there after crossing the border from Mexico to evade America’s Asian exclusion laws.</p>
<p>Sometime in the 1880s, Luis Orozco brought his family to Quitobaquito. They identified as members of the nomadic indigenous group Hia C’ed O’odham, who had moved throughout southern Arizona and northern Sonora long before there was a border. But their surname attested to generations of colonial Hispanicization of the region’s native peoples.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/300943/original/file-20191108-194624-1pstu3w.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/300943/original/file-20191108-194624-1pstu3w.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/300943/original/file-20191108-194624-1pstu3w.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/300943/original/file-20191108-194624-1pstu3w.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/300943/original/file-20191108-194624-1pstu3w.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/300943/original/file-20191108-194624-1pstu3w.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/300943/original/file-20191108-194624-1pstu3w.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/300943/original/file-20191108-194624-1pstu3w.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Orozco homestead, which spanned the U.S.-Mexico border in what became Organ Pipe National Monument, was demolished by the National Park Service in the late 1950s.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">National Park Service</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For three generations, the Orozcos homesteaded a plot that spanned the U.S.-Mexico border. They tended livestock, built structures and dug wells. Using a network of ditches, they planted and irrigated melons, figs, pomegranates and other non-native species. Like everyone else, they cut trees for firewood, fencing, and construction and hunted wild animals for food and materials. Nobody got rich, but they got by.</p>
<h2>Whose land?</h2>
<p>Over time, almost everybody but the Orozcos drifted away from Quitobaquito. But the family still lived there in 1937, when the U.S. government designated Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument. Luis’s son Jose Juan and grandson Jim were farming on public lands, but they could not prove title to the land or document their citizenship in either the U.S. or Mexico. </p>
<p>National Park Service officials believed that the ramshackle Orozco homestead undermined the wilderness ideals that had inspired designation of the area as a national monument. They harassed the family for cutting wood, constructing buildings and hunting deer – longstanding practices that now violated park rules. </p>
<p>After an outbreak of hoof-and-mouth disease in the mid-1940s, the agency began to fence the border to keep out Mexican cattle. The barrier severed the Orozco homestead. </p>
<p>Through a white rancher friend, Jim Orozco enlisted the aid of U.S. Sen. Carl Hayden, an Arizona Republican, who brokered a compromise: The Park Service built a gate allowing the family to move back and forth across the border. A decade later, in 1957, the government bought the Orozcos’ interest for $13,000 and then bulldozed their buildings.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/300942/original/file-20191108-194661-1v0o4vb.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/300942/original/file-20191108-194661-1v0o4vb.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/300942/original/file-20191108-194661-1v0o4vb.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/300942/original/file-20191108-194661-1v0o4vb.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/300942/original/file-20191108-194661-1v0o4vb.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/300942/original/file-20191108-194661-1v0o4vb.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/300942/original/file-20191108-194661-1v0o4vb.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/300942/original/file-20191108-194661-1v0o4vb.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The grave site of Lorenzo Sestier, a French shopkeeper who worked at M.G. Levy’s general store in the late-1800s, overlooks Quitobaquito.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jared Orsi</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>By the 1970s, national sentiment started to place greater value on historic preservation – especially of ordinary, or vernacular, landscapes like the Orozcos’ homestead. In response, Organ Pipe National Monument began sponsoring archeological and historical studies of Quitobaquito. </p>
<p>The park restored the graves of the Orozcos and other indigenous people who had lived at the oasis. Today it works with Hia C’ed O’odham and Tohono O’odham tribes to provide access to Quitobaquito and the national monument for ceremonial purposes and collection of plants. </p>
<h2>History resists caricatures</h2>
<p>Today, iron vehicle barriers and the dust and rumble of Border Patrol trucks intrude on visitors’ experience at Quitobaquito. The site lacks signs or historical markers, and the park’s visitor center does not detail the pond’s history. The Orozcos’ story is hard to discern. </p>
<p>But I believe Quitobaquito’s history is worth preserving. It reveals an American past populated by people who do not fit into current rhetorical boxes – Indian homesteaders, families living on both sides of the border, white ranchers who protect indigenous resource use and Republican Senators defending the rights of Arizonans who can’t prove their citizenship. These stories are part of this site – and they are incompatible with a wall.</p>
<p>[ <em><a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=expertise">Expertise in your inbox. Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter and get a digest of academic takes on today’s news, every day.</a></em> ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/120730/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jared Orsi receives funding from the National Park Service, but not for the research described in this article. Between 2013 and 2017, he received funding from the National Park Service to write an administrative history of Quitobaquito. Views expressed here are his and not those of the NPS.
</span></em></p>Border wall construction through Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument in Arizona is encroaching on a site where people from many cultures have interacted for thousands of years.Jared Orsi, Professor of History, Colorado State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1205562019-07-18T20:38:53Z2019-07-18T20:38:53ZCartel kingpin El Chapo is jailed for life, but the US-Mexico drug trade is booming<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/284797/original/file-20190718-116557-mxrtwm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Kingpin no longer.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/El-Chapo-Prosecution/635a9ecf92af43c78e2a31c6f9e7b25c/11/0">AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo, File</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The infamous Mexican drug lord Joaquín Archivaldo Guzmán Loera – aka “El Chapo” – has been <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jul/17/el-chapo-sentence-life-prison-mexican-drug-lord-trial">sentenced to life</a> plus an additional 30 years for <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/press-release/file/929896/download">drug trafficking, conspiracy, money laundering and weapons charges</a>, among other crimes committed over the past quarter-century as head of Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel, the <a href="https://fortune.com/2014/09/14/biggest-organized-crime-groups-in-the-world/">Western Hemisphere’s most powerful organized crime syndicate</a>. </p>
<p>Judge Brian Cogan also <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/joaquin-el-chapo-guzman-sinaloa-cartel-leader-sentenced-life-prison-plus-30-years">ordered</a> Guzmán – who was convicted in U.S. federal court in February after a <a href="https://theconversation.com/el-chapo-trial-shows-why-a-wall-wont-stop-drugs-from-crossing-the-us-mexico-border-110001">dramatic three-month trial</a> – to forfeit US$12.6 billion in illicit narcotics proceeds.</p>
<p>U.S. officials celebrated El Chapo’s demise as a triumph in the <a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/04/26/717389563/a-brief-history-of-the-war-on-drugs">war on drugs</a>. President Donald Trump has taken an aggressive <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ns7ocpRhDD8">stance on Mexican drug cartels</a>, vowing at his <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/inaugural-address">January 2017 inauguration</a> to stop “the crime and gangs and drugs that have stolen too many lives.” </p>
<p>“This sentencing shows the world that no matter how protected or powerful you are, DEA will ensure that you face justice,” <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/joaquin-el-chapo-guzman-sinaloa-cartel-leader-sentenced-life-prison-plus-30-years">said</a> the acting administrator of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, Uttam Dhillon, at Guzmán’s sentencing.</p>
<p>Having studied the <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-decade-of-murder-and-grief-mexicos-drug-war-turns-ten-70036">politics</a> and economics of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/el-chapo-jailbreak-is-both-a-mexican-and-an-american-story-44679">U.S.-Mexico drug trade</a>, I see a different lesson in Guzmán’s life story. The U.S. may have <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jul/17/el-chapo-sentence-life-prison-mexican-drug-lord-trial">locked up</a> Mexico’s worst “bad hombre,” but the business he ran is far too big to fail.</p>
<h2>‘Insatiable demand’</h2>
<p>Mexicans have greeted Guzmán’s demise with more skepticism.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.jornada.com.mx/ultimas/politica/2019/07/17/dan-cadena-perpetua-a-el-chapo-guzman-6225.html">Mexican newspaper La Jornada</a> noted that the flow of illicit drugs into the United States has not diminished since El Chapo’s arrest.</p>
<p>Mexican estimates suggest that each month the Sinaloa cartel <a href="http://www.nexos.com.mx/?p=19103">trades</a> two tons of cocaine and 10,000 tons of marijuana plus heroine, methamphetamine and other drugs. Founded in Sinaloa state in the late 1980s, the cartel now <a href="http://www.insightcrime.org/mexico-organized-crime-news/sinaloa-cartel-profile">distributes drugs</a> in 50 countries, including Argentina, the Philippines and Russia. </p>
<p>But Mexican cartels were born to serve consumers in the United States, the world’s <a href="https://www.unodc.org/wdr2016/interactive-map.html">biggest consumer</a> of illicit drugs. </p>
<p>It’s Americans’ “insatiable demand for illegal drugs,” as then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/26/world/americas/26mexico.html">said in 2009</a>, that allowed Guzmán’s Sinaloa cartel to become the world’s biggest supplier of illicit drugs. </p>
<p>Drug trafficking has a highly lucrative business model. According to data from 2016, the <a href="https://www.unodc.org/wdr2016/field/10.3_Price_and_Purity_-_Cocaine.xls">wholesale price</a> for a gram of cocaine is approximately US$2.30 in Colombia and $12.50 in Mexico. The same gram will cost $28 in the U.S. By the time it gets to Australia, it could fetch as much as $176.50. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.unodc.org/wdr2016/field/10.3_Price_and_Purity_-_Cocaine.xls">Retail prices</a> per gram are even higher: $82 in the U.S. and $400 in Australia. </p>
<p>Drug prices rise significantly during transit as intermediaries demand compensation for the <a href="http://faculty.publicpolicy.umd.edu/sites/default/files/reuter/files/Risks_and_prices.pdf">risk</a> they assume in getting the product to consumers. This liability markup is one reason that keeping drugs illegal has made them so expensive on the streets and so profitable for the people who trade in them. </p>
<h2>Killing, threats and bribes</h2>
<p>Illegality is also the reason that the drug trade is so violent.</p>
<p>Running an <a href="http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.503.9024&rep=rep1&type=pdf">illegal operation</a>, kingpins like Guzmán must enforce their own agreements and protect themselves from authorities and competitors. They do so using a combination of killing, threats and bribes.</p>
<p>At least eight <a href="http://www.excelsior.com.mx/nacional/2016/04/10/1085638#imagen-1">armed groups</a> once worked under Guzman’s command in Mexico, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jan/21/how-el-chapo-built-sinaloa-cartel">attacking</a> competing cartels and members deemed traitors.</p>
<p>Guzmán also <a href="http://time.com/3968992/joaquin-el-chapo-guzman-escape-seven-arrested/">bribed</a> as many officers as necessary to succeed in his business. </p>
<p>Alex Cifuentes, a close associate of Guzmán, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-mexico-el-chapo/el-chapo-paid-former-mexican-president-100-million-bribe-trial-witness-idUSKCN1P92OS">testified</a> in the trial that the cartel chief once paid a $100 million bribe to then-Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto – an accusation Peña Nieto’s administration <a href="https://twitter.com/fco__guzman/status/1085358965129654272?lang=es">dismissed</a> as “false, defamatory and absurd.”</p>
<p>Guzmán certainly <a href="https://mexiconewsdaily.com/news/prisons-former-security-chief-recalls-el-chapos-perks/">bribed Mexican prison officials</a>. In 2015, he <a href="https://theconversation.com/el-chapo-jailbreak-is-both-a-mexican-and-an-american-story-44679">escaped from jail</a> by riding a motorcycle through a lit, ventilated mile-long tunnel constructed directly underneath his cell.</p>
<h2>Walls versus profit</h2>
<p>For five decades since President Richard Nixon <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2016/03/23/politics/john-ehrlichman-richard-nixon-drug-war-blacks-hippie/index.html">launched the war on drugs</a>, the United States has chose not to focus on the economic forces driving this clandestine industry in favor of punishment, sending <a href="https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/criminal-justice/reports/2018/06/27/452819/ending-war-drugs-numbers/">millions</a> of drug traffickers, corner dealers and drug users to jail. </p>
<p>Even as states try to ease mass incarceration by <a href="https://theconversation.com/marijuana-is-on-the-ballot-in-four-states-but-legalization-may-soon-stall-researchers-say-105342">legalizing cannabis</a> and decriminalizing minor drug offenses like possession, President Trump has called for escalating the federal government’s drug war. </p>
<p>In 2018, Trump delivered an <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/remarks-president-trump-global-call-action-world-drug-problem-event/">incendiary speech</a> at the United Nations decrying the “scourge” of drugs, followed with a <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/4901223-Global-Call-to-Action-on-the-World-Drug-Problem.html">pledge</a> signed by 129 nations to “cut off the supply of illicit drugs by stopping their production…and flow across borders.”</p>
<p>Trump’s main proposals for ending the U.S.-Mexico drug trade are to more <a href="https://theconversation.com/trump-plan-to-execute-big-drug-pushers-will-do-nothing-to-stop-opioid-overdoses-93898">harshly punish drug dealers</a> and to build a border wall, which <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/01/25/presidential-executive-order-enhancing-public-safety-interior-united">will be monitored by</a> 10,000 additional immigration officers.</p>
<p>A <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-wall-and-the-beast-trumps-triumph-from-the-mexican-side-of-the-border-68559">physical barrier</a> is unlikely to thwart drug smugglers, particularly the wily Sinaloa cartel, history shows. </p>
<p>When confronted with a high-tech border fence in Arizona, constructed long before Trump’s administration, Mexican smugglers use a <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2017/02/15/us/marijuana-catapult-trnd/index.html">catapult</a> to fling <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/17/magazine/how-a-mexican-drug-cartel-makes-its-billions.html">hundred-pound bales of marijuana</a> over to the American side. </p>
<p>“We’ve got the best fence money can buy,” former DEA chief Michael Brown <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/17/magazine/how-a-mexican-drug-cartel-makes-its-billions.html">told</a> New York Times journalist Patrick Radden Keefe in 2017, “and they counter us with a 2,500-year-old technology.”</p>
<p>Then there’s the other ancient technology perfected by Guzmán: <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/08/03/underworld-monte-reel">the tunnel</a>. In the past quarter-century, <a href="https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/border-baja-california/sdut-border-tunnels-2013oct31-htmlstory.html">officials have discovered about 180</a> cleverly disguised illicit passages under the U.S.-Mexico border. Many, like the one Guzmán used to escape prison, are equipped with electricity, ventilation and elevators.</p>
<p>Corruption undermines the law outside Mexico, too. Between 2006 and 2016 some 200 employees and contractors of the Department of Homeland Security – the agency charged with defending the U.S. border – have accepted nearly $15 million in bribes, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/28/us/homeland-security-border-bribes.html?_r=0">according to The New York Times</a>.</p>
<p>“Almost no evidence about corrupt American officials” was allowed at El Chapo’s trial, the Times <a href="https://twitter.com/alanfeuer/status/1082820817438822400">reports</a>.</p>
<h2>After El Chapo</h2>
<p>El Chapo’s downfall hasn’t reduced the availability, price, use or lethality of currently illegal drugs. </p>
<p>In 2017, the year of Guzmán’s <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/el-chapo-trial-verdict-joaquin-guzman-drug-lord-mexico-court-new-york-a8776681.html">extradition</a> to the U.S., 70,237 people <a href="https://www.drugabuse.gov/related-topics/trends-statistics/overdose-death-rates">died of drug overdose</a> in the United States. </p>
<p>Another <a href="https://aristeguinoticias.com/2101/mexico/en-2017-mas-de-29-mil-asesinatos-en-mexico-671-fueron-feminicidios/">29,168 people were murdered</a> in Mexico, where the <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-decade-of-murder-and-grief-mexicos-drug-war-turns-ten-70036">government’s decade-long cartel war</a> has caused violence to escalate nationwide.</p>
<p>Guzmán’s capture hasn’t even hurt the Sinaloa cartel, which has a <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/ismael-el-mayo-zambada-sinaloa_n_56a0becce4b0404eb8f05313">new boss</a> who promotes a <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2019/07/18/el-chapo-is-contained-drug-war-is-not/?utm_term=.371867785d2c">more horizontal leadership structure</a> and is expanding its operations into other criminal activities like illegal mining and human trafficking.</p>
<p>Drug trafficking, of course, is not just a Mexican business. In June, U.S. authorities in Philadelphia <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2019/07/10/business/jpmorgan-msc-gayane-cocaine-seizure/index.html">seized</a> a cargo vessel carrying nearly 20 tons of cocaine. </p>
<p>The drug-running ship didn’t belong to the Sinaloa cartel. It was owned by a fund run by banking giant JPMorgan Chase.</p>
<p><em>This story is an updated version of an <a href="https://theconversation.com/el-chapo-story-of-a-kingpin-or-why-trumps-plan-to-defeat-mexican-cartels-is-doomed-to-fail-71781">article</a> originally published on Feb. 17, 2017.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/120556/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Luis Gómez Romero does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The conviction of Mexican drug kingpin Joaquín Guzmán Loera, who evaded justice in Mexico, is a win for US officials. But it’s a pyrrhic victory in the war on drugs.Luis Gómez Romero, Senior Lecturer in Human Rights, Constitutional Law and Legal Theory, University of WollongongLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1128072019-04-12T10:41:47Z2019-04-12T10:41:47ZThis small Mexican border town prizes its human and environmental links with the US<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/268665/original/file-20190410-2901-19nohdq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Lucia Orosco holding her daughter, Arely, in Boquillas. Much of the embroidery created here reads 'no el muro' (no wall).</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Matthew Moran</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The tiny Mexican town of Boquillas del Carmen sits nestled between the Sierra del Carmen Mountains and the Rio Grande. Its Chihuahuan Desert location is strikingly beautiful, with green vegetation along the river, the brown soil of the surrounding desert and pink mountain cliffs creating splendid color contrasts. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/268866/original/file-20190411-44802-zr74ta.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/268866/original/file-20190411-44802-zr74ta.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/268866/original/file-20190411-44802-zr74ta.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=902&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268866/original/file-20190411-44802-zr74ta.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=902&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268866/original/file-20190411-44802-zr74ta.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=902&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268866/original/file-20190411-44802-zr74ta.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1134&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268866/original/file-20190411-44802-zr74ta.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1134&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268866/original/file-20190411-44802-zr74ta.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1134&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Mexican jays range north into the U.S. through the Big Bend region and in southeastern Arizona.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.nps.gov/media/photo/gallery-item.htm?pg=2444503&id=2B0B1A0E-155D-451F-67347F1394B35383&gid=92602FA9-155D-451F-670D2BD28DC1E0DA">NPS/Cookie Ballou</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>I have been taking students to this magnificent landscape for 20 years – mostly to <a href="https://www.nps.gov/bibe/index.htm">Big Bend National Park</a> in Texas, just a mile north of Boquillas. My colleagues and I have also studied the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoser.2017.07.017">ecological and economic value of this habitat</a>, one of the most <a href="http://wwf.panda.org/knowledge_hub/where_we_work/chihuahuan_desert/">biodiverse and ecologically important desert regions in the world</a>. </p>
<p>Recently I returned to study the ecotourism and conservation potential of Boquillas. In the process, I learned about a local vision for the border that is markedly different from the prevailing U.S. view. </p>
<p>Here <a href="https://theconversation.com/heres-a-better-vision-for-the-us-mexico-border-make-the-rio-grande-grand-again-73111">the Rio Grande forms the line</a> between the United States and Mexico. The river is an ecological gathering place that draws humans and wildlife. For Boquillas residents, the idea of building a wall here is sacrilegious. As Lilia Falcon, manager of a local restaurant, said to me, “We have friends on both sides of the river, we want these interactions to continue.” Her husband, Bernardo Rogel, was more succinct: “We love both countries.”</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/268656/original/file-20190410-2921-1y07qvx.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/268656/original/file-20190410-2921-1y07qvx.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/268656/original/file-20190410-2921-1y07qvx.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268656/original/file-20190410-2921-1y07qvx.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268656/original/file-20190410-2921-1y07qvx.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268656/original/file-20190410-2921-1y07qvx.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268656/original/file-20190410-2921-1y07qvx.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268656/original/file-20190410-2921-1y07qvx.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">View of Boquillas, Mexico.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Matthew Moran</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A fragile ecotourism economy</h2>
<p>Boquillas was originally a mining town, with local deposits of silver, lead and zinc that attracted prospectors. By the early 20th century, 2,000 people lived there and a thriving industry was <a href="https://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/geology/publications/state/tx/1968-7/sec2.htm">exporting ore</a>. </p>
<p>That boom turned to bust, and by the end of World War I the mines were <a href="https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/hvb82">closed</a>. The town nearly disappeared in the 1960s, but in 1999 when I first visited there, it had about 200 residents. They made their living from cross-border tourism, with U.S. visitors to Big Bend National Park entering Mexico via a legal but unofficial border crossing. </p>
<p>After the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, however, the United States closed all of these informal crossings. Overnight Boquillas lost its income source, <a href="https://www.saveur.com/boquillas-mexican-border-town">ruining livelihoods</a> and jeopardizing years of effort by residents and government officials to <a href="https://splinternews.com/meet-los-diablos-the-mexican-firefighters-who-chase-th-1793857787">build cooperative border relations</a>. </p>
<p>The nearest place to get supplies was now a 300-mile round trip over rough roads deep into rural Mexico. Just three miles away on the U.S. side, gas, food and services in Big Bend National Park’s <a href="https://www.nps.gov/bibe/planyourvisit/rgv_campground.htm">Rio Grande Village campground</a> were now inaccessible. Relatives who were citizens on opposite sides of the border were <a href="https://www.expressnews.com/news/local/article/Divided-families-and-friends-meet-on-the-Rio-6253285.php">separated</a>, 115 miles from the nearest legal crossing point.</p>
<p>After more than a decade of lobbying by residents, the U.S. government created a “remote” passport facility, where people crossing the border could present their documentation by phone to a border agent located in El Paso. Boquillas reopened and merchants and guides returned. In 2018 <a href="https://explore.dot.gov/t/BTS/views/BTSBorderCrossingAnnualData/BorderCrossingTableDashboard?:embed=y&:showShareOptions=true&:display_count=no&:showVizHome=no">more than 11,000 visitors</a> crossed over from the United States. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/268660/original/file-20190410-2909-gtghut.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/268660/original/file-20190410-2909-gtghut.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/268660/original/file-20190410-2909-gtghut.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268660/original/file-20190410-2909-gtghut.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268660/original/file-20190410-2909-gtghut.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268660/original/file-20190410-2909-gtghut.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268660/original/file-20190410-2909-gtghut.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268660/original/file-20190410-2909-gtghut.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Crossing to Boquillas by rowboat from Big Bend National Park.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.nps.gov/bibe/planyourvisit/visiting-boquillas.htm">NPS / T. VandenBerg</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Today Boquillas residents are <a href="https://www.gonewiththewynns.com/boquillas-mexico-big-bend-texas">working again</a> to teach visitors about this part of Mexico, and ecotourism companies are expanding. People here envision a future for the border in which respect, cooperation and shared economic gain will create a prosperous and sustainable future for communities on both sides. </p>
<h2>Welcoming visitors and valuing connections</h2>
<p>It is obvious to me that people in Boquillas love their town and are hopeful about the future. “I want to show visitors the beauty of my home and to have a more prosperous life for my family,” Lacho Falcón, a local guide whose family owns the only grocery store in town, told me on my most recent visit as we hiked into Boquillas canyon, its massive vertical walls gleaming in soft morning light. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/268661/original/file-20190410-2931-jbt1z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/268661/original/file-20190410-2931-jbt1z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/268661/original/file-20190410-2931-jbt1z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268661/original/file-20190410-2931-jbt1z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268661/original/file-20190410-2931-jbt1z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268661/original/file-20190410-2931-jbt1z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268661/original/file-20190410-2931-jbt1z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268661/original/file-20190410-2931-jbt1z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Lacho Falcón (second from left, rear) and his family in Boquillas.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Matthew Moran</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>I have heard that sentiment repeated many times as I have gotten to know more people in the town. Thanks to economic activity from tourism, “We have been able to buy a vehicle, improve our house, and most importantly, send our oldest daughter Wendy to college,” said Lucia Orosco. She sells crafts to help support her family, which includes husband Adrián, who manages the ferry crossing over the Rio Grande, and their three children. </p>
<p>Canoeing the Rio Grande is a favorite tourist activity. The river cuts through spectacular canyons, supports abundant wildlife and provides water for this thirsty land. I spoke with Ernesto Hernández Morales from Vera Cruz, Mexico and Mike Davidson from Terlingua, Texas about the river’s potential to unify their countries. As partners with <a href="http://boquillas.org/guided-tours/">Boquillas Adventures</a>, a Mexican registered ecotourism company that focuses on natural and historic interpretation, they are working to expand sustainable tourism opportunities in nearby protected areas, hiring local residents as guides. </p>
<p>“We see our work as more than a business,” said Hernández Morales. “It’s an opportunity to show Mexico and the U.S. working together for security and prosperity.” Davidson concurs: “It is our goal to provide our guests a high-quality, safe experience…and offer them a glimpse of daily reality on this part of the border.” </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/268664/original/file-20190410-2912-od9ca3.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/268664/original/file-20190410-2912-od9ca3.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/268664/original/file-20190410-2912-od9ca3.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268664/original/file-20190410-2912-od9ca3.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268664/original/file-20190410-2912-od9ca3.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268664/original/file-20190410-2912-od9ca3.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268664/original/file-20190410-2912-od9ca3.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268664/original/file-20190410-2912-od9ca3.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Ernesto Hernández Morales helps run Boquillas Adventures, an ecotourism company in the Boquillas region.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Matthew Moran</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Chalo Diaz, a local guide who takes visitors on river trips, is excited about his work. “Boquillas is a beautiful town where you can visit friendly people. Now that the border has reopened, we have improved it and are connected to the world,” he told me.</p>
<h2>United ecologically, separated politically?</h2>
<p>In 2011 Mexico and the United States signed a cooperative agreement to <a href="https://www.doi.gov/news/pressreleases/US-Mexico-Announce-Binational-Cooperative-Conservation-Action-Plan">conserve the spectacular Chihuahuan Desert landscape</a>. This initiative builds on proposals dating back nearly a century to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/envhis/14.3.453">create a cross-border international peace park</a>.</p>
<p>American black bears, mountain lions, bighorn sheep and a host of smaller animals, as well as over 400 species of birds, move across this landscape. Studies show that conserving this region requires maintaining <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2004.07.007">free movement for wildlife</a>. Researchers warn that building a border wall through the area could <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/trump-rsquo-s-wall-may-threaten-thousands-of-plant-and-animal-species-on-the-u-s-mexico-border/">threaten thousands of plant and animal species</a> by preventing them from moving between patches of the best habitat. </p>
<p>Currently Boquillas is the only access point where people can cross between the protected areas in this region. This makes it critical to future conservation success. People in Boquillas believe that building a border wall would sever this connection, causing hardship and insecurity on both sides.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/112807/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Matthew D. Moran does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A scholar who travels regularly to the US-Mexico border finds ecological links and a community on the other side that welcomes American visitors.Matthew D. Moran, Professor of Biology, Hendrix CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1127162019-03-20T10:10:18Z2019-03-20T10:10:18ZThe unspoken violence of Donald Trump’s border wall<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/264154/original/file-20190315-28502-1wga7a9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/usmexican-border-arizona-usa-459602719">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Ever since his days on the election campaign trail the US president, Donald Trump, has assured voters of his intentions to build a wall along the US border with Mexico. He reiterated this promise during the 2019 State of the Union, and then declared a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/15/us/politics/national-emergency-trump.html">state of emergency soon after</a> in order to access funding that Congress had rejected. It is now included on Trump’s 2020 <a href="https://www.donaldjtrump.com">re-election campaign website</a> as part of a broader agenda to curb immigration. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/12/upshot/trump-border-wall-polls.html">Opponents</a> of Trump’s border wall have dismissed the project as politically self-serving and financially frivolous. But arguments against the border wall have primarily focused on the cost to US taxpayers, suggesting economics as the most compelling framework through which a border wall project could be shot down. </p>
<p>Some others have focused on the <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/2019/01/how-trump-us-mexico-border-wall-could-impact-environment-wildlife-water/">environmental impact</a> a border wall might have on the habitats and migration flows of North American wildlife. </p>
<p>It seems that many have avoided discussions of the moral issues raised by the border project and its long-lasting consequences for human civilisation. By contrast, Trump doesn’t rely on fiscal responsibility to justify his project, stressing his administration’s “moral duty to create an immigration system that protects the lives and jobs of […] citizens.” </p>
<p>But it is the moral costs of the border wall that should raise the greatest concern for the world at large. In <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1206331217723538?journalCode=saca">my study</a> on the lasting impact of border walls on society, I examined centuries of history and politics to uncover the consequences of the ancient walls surrounding Damascus on present-day Syrian society. </p>
<p>Those Roman walls, built around the 3rd century AD were <a href="http://archive.aawsat.com/details.asp?issueno=8800&article=154324#.XIKPjHdFxyw">intended to protect the city</a> and its inhabitants from invaders. They surrounded the city, allowing inhabitants to enter and exit at seven points, the famous seven gates of Damascus. In 749 AD, Abu Abbas al-Saffah destroyed the walls during his overthrow of the Umayyad Caliphate, leaving only a small portion that extended from the Bab Touma gate to the Bab al Salam gate. </p>
<p>Today, long after they were destroyed, the Roman walls continue to have an effect on the structure of Syrian society, dictating marriages, business networks, and many other elements of socio-economic status. There are websites which list the family names of notables who historically resided “within” the city walls, bestowing an enduring distinction on generations of Syrians born with last names like the one my mother bore. </p>
<p>These contemporary practices suggest that the Roman walls continue to divide society along the lines of “Jouwwa” (inside) and “Barra” (outside), discriminating against those who live beyond their boundaries as “other”. </p>
<p>In a recent <a href="https://www.peterlang.com/view/title/65580?format=PBK">book chapter</a>, I argue that walls act as communication devices that symbolise belonging or otherness to the communities that reside within and outside their bounds. As the archaeologist Oliver Creighton <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00438240701464822">has commented</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>The image of the walled city might outwardly be one of enclosure, cohesion, and privilege, equally important but underestimated is the enduring role of walled heritage in excluding […] populations. </p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Humanity, interrupted</h2>
<p>Walls communicate protection and social cohesion to those living inside their bounds. They also symbolise a community’s “worthiness” of protection. By contrast, people beyond their bounds are deemed unworthy of protection. More importantly, they become a dehumanised part of the landscape that the internal “we” must be protected from. </p>
<p>This distinction was apparent when <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/the-state-of-the-union-is-partisan-warfare-and-trumps-empty-rhetoric-didnt-change-that">Trump stated</a> that his administration was intent on ending “illegal immigration and putting the ruthless coyotes, cartels, drug dealers and human traffickers out of business.”</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/264155/original/file-20190315-28492-iyl23l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/264155/original/file-20190315-28492-iyl23l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/264155/original/file-20190315-28492-iyl23l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/264155/original/file-20190315-28492-iyl23l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/264155/original/file-20190315-28492-iyl23l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/264155/original/file-20190315-28492-iyl23l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/264155/original/file-20190315-28492-iyl23l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Israel and Palestine, walls apart .</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/israeli-separation-security-wall-palestine-627965915">Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Most alarmingly, the dehumanisation of populations outside the boundaries of walls threatens violence towards these communities. It also impedes their movement into the centre, criminalising their mobility. As such, the plans to build a border wall – and <a href="https://www.academia.edu/35336344/Fact_Sheet_On_Global_Proliferation_of_Border_Walls">the global proliferation of walls</a> including between India and Bangladesh, and on the Hungarian border – suggests an ever-increasing militarisation of border crossing and mobility, with lethal consequences for migrants across the globe. </p>
<p>As legal expert Jaya Ramji-Nogales has said of <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/9BD199AA01E418DA9BFFA21B5921CAEE/S2398772317000095a.pdf/moving_beyond_the_refugee_law_paradigm.pdf">global migration regimes</a>, the world needs “alternate approach to global migration law”. This must begin by <a href="https://global.upenn.edu/sites/default/files/Colloquium_Report_0.pdf">using evidence to challenge</a> the escalating militarisation of border crossings in order to advocate for mobility as a fundamental human right that should not be curtailed by walls or borders.</p>
<p>It is telling that we acknowledge migration as a necessary part of life for most organisms on earth. Zoologists and conservationists trace the migration patterns of different land animals, birds and fish. Yet the approach to discussions on global migration flows fails to seriously consider migration as crucial to human civilisation. That needs to change.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/112716/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nour Halabi does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>How man-made barriers can harm humanity for centuries.Nour Halabi, Lecturer in Media and Communications, University of LeedsLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1110432019-03-19T10:44:34Z2019-03-19T10:44:34ZFor Native Americans, US-Mexico border is an ‘imaginary line’<p>Immigration restrictions were making life difficult for Native Americans who live along – and across – the U.S.-Mexico border even before President Donald Trump <a href="https://www.msnbc.com/am-joy/watch/trump-declares-national-emergency-then-leaves-for-mar-a-lago-1443814979608">declared a national emergency</a> to build his border wall. </p>
<p>The traditional homelands of 36 <a href="https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2018/01/30/2018-01907/indian-entities-recognized-and-eligible-to-receive-services-from-the-united-states-bureau-of-indian">federally recognized tribes</a> – including the Kumeyaay, Pai, Cocopah, O’odham, Yaqui, Apache and Kickapoo peoples – were split in two by the <a href="https://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/guadalupe-hidalgo">1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo</a> and 1853 <a href="https://history.state.gov/milestones/1830-1860/gadsden-purchase">Gadsden Purchase</a>, which carved modern-day California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas out of northern Mexico. </p>
<p>Today, tens of thousands of people belonging to U.S. Native tribes live in the Mexican states of <a href="https://www.indigenousalliance.org/copy-of-border-crossing-manual">Baja California, Sonora, Coahuila and Chihuahua</a>, my research estimates. The Mexican government does not recognize indigenous peoples in Mexico as nations as the U.S. does, so there is no enrollment system there.</p>
<p>Still, many Native people in Mexico routinely cross the U.S.-Mexico border to participate in cultural events, visit religious sites, attend burials, go to school or visit family. Like other “non-resident aliens,” they must pass through <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/obama-signs-600-million-bill-to-boost-u-s-border-security">rigorous security checkpoints</a>, where they are subject to interrogation, inspection and <a href="https://www.denverpost.com/2018/08/29/us-denying-passports-to-americans-along-border/">rejection or delay</a>.</p>
<p>Many Native Americans I’ve interviewed for <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=KHsIs6YAAAAJ&hl=en">anthropological research on indigenous activism</a> call the U.S.-Mexico border “the imaginary line” – an invisible boundary created by colonial powers that <a href="https://theconversation.com/indigenous-people-invented-the-so-called-american-dream-85351">claim sovereign indigenous territories</a> as their own.</p>
<p>A <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/border-wall/story/tohono-oodham-nation-arizona-tribe/582487001/">border wall would further separate Native peoples</a> from friends, relatives and tribal resources that span the U.S.-Mexico border.</p>
<h2>Homelands divided</h2>
<p>Tribal members say that many Native Americans in the U.S. feel detached from their relatives in Mexico. </p>
<p>“The effect of a wall is already in us,” Mike Wilson, a member of the Tohono O'odham Nation, who lives in Tucson, Arizona, told me. “It already divides us.”</p>
<p>The Tohono O’odham are among the U.S. federal tribes <a href="http://www.tonation-nsn.gov/nowall/">fighting the government’s efforts</a> to beef up existing security with a border wall. In late January, the Tohono O'odham, Pascua Yaqui and National Congress of Indian Americans <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/1815670">met</a> to create a proposal for facilitating indigenous border crossing. </p>
<p>The Tohono O'odham already know how life changes when traditional lands are physically partitioned. </p>
<p>By U.S. law, enrolled Tohono O’odham members in Mexico are eligible to receive educational and medical services in <a href="https://digitalcommons.law.seattleu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1118&context=ailj">Tohono O'odham lands in the U.S.</a></p>
<p>That has become difficult since 2006, when a <a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/01/23/685812553/native-american-leader-a-border-wall-is-not-the-answer">steel vehicle barrier</a> was built along most of the 62-mile stretch of U.S.-Mexico border that bisects the Tohono O’odham Nation.</p>
<p>Previously, to get to the U.S. side of Tohono O’odham territory, many tribe members would simply drive across their land. Now, they must travel long distances to official ports of entry. </p>
<p>One Tohono O'odham rancher told The New York Times in 2017 that he must travel several miles to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/20/us/border-wall-tribe.html">draw water from a well 100 yards away from his home</a> – but in Mexico. </p>
<p>And Pacific Standard magazine <a href="https://psmag.com/social-justice/a-closed-border-gate-has-cut-off-three-tohono-oodham-villages">reported</a> in February 2019 that three Tohono O'odham villages in Sonora, Mexico, had been cut off from their nearest food supply, which was in the U.S.</p>
<h2>Native rights</h2>
<p>Land is central to Native communities’ <a href="http://www.un.org/en/events/indigenousday/pdf/Backgrounder_LTNR_FINAL.pdf">historic, spiritual and cultural identity</a>. </p>
<p>Several international agreements – including the <a href="https://www.un.org/development/desa/indigenouspeoples/declaration-on-the-rights-of-indigenous-peoples.html">United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples</a> – confirm these communities’ innate rights to <a href="https://www.ilo.org/dyn/normlex/en/f?p=NORMLEXPUB:12100:0::NO::P12100_ILO_CODE:C169">draw on cultural and natural resources</a> across international borders.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/263990/original/file-20190314-28499-1rf7g57.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/263990/original/file-20190314-28499-1rf7g57.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/263990/original/file-20190314-28499-1rf7g57.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=723&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263990/original/file-20190314-28499-1rf7g57.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=723&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263990/original/file-20190314-28499-1rf7g57.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=723&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263990/original/file-20190314-28499-1rf7g57.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=908&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263990/original/file-20190314-28499-1rf7g57.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=908&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263990/original/file-20190314-28499-1rf7g57.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=908&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An 1894 map of indigenous North American languages shows how Native homelands span modern-day national borders.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/britishlibrary/11227579796">British Library</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The United States offers few such protections. </p>
<p>Officially, various federal laws and treaties affirm the rights of federally recognized tribes to cross between the U.S., Mexico and Canada. </p>
<p>The <a href="http://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/jay.asp">Jay Treaty of 1794</a> grants indigenous peoples on the U.S.-Canada border the right to freely pass and repass the border. It also gives Canadian-born indigenous persons the right to live and work in the United States.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/STATUTE-92/pdf/STATUTE-92-Pg469.pdf">American Indian Religious Freedom Act</a> of 1978 says that the U.S. will protect and preserve Native American religious rights, including “access to sacred sites” and “possession of sacred objects.”
And the 1990 <a href="https://www.nps.gov/archeology/tools/laws/nagpra.htm">Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act</a> protects Native American human remains, burial sites and sacred objects. </p>
<p>United States law also requires that federally recognized sovereign tribal nations on the U.S.-Mexico border must be <a href="http://www.ncai.org/policy-issues/tribal-governance">consulted in federal border enforcement planning</a>. </p>
<p>In practice, however, the free passage of Native people who live across both the United States’ northern or southern border is curtailed by <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/18/travel/is-your-id-approved-for-travel-these-are-the-latest-rules.html">strict identification laws</a>. </p>
<p>The United States requires anyone entering the country to present a passport or other U.S.-approved identification confirming their citizenship or authorization to enter. The Real ID Act of 2005 allows the Department of Homeland Security secretary to waive any U.S. law – including those protecting indigenous rights – that may impede <a href="https://psmag.com/environment/the-little-known-law-that-the-trump-administration-is-using-to-build-a-border-wall">border enforcement</a>. </p>
<p>Several standard U.S. tribal identification documents – including <a href="https://help.cbp.gov/app/answers/list/search/1/kw/Form%20I-872%20American%20Indian%20Card/suggested/1">Form I-872 American Indian Card</a> and enhanced tribal photo identification cards – are <a href="https://help.cbp.gov/app/answers/detail/a_id/998/%7E/travel-documents-for-native-americans%2C-including-u.s.%2C-canadian-and-mexican">approved travel documents</a> that enable Native Americans to enter the U.S. at land ports of entry. </p>
<h2>Arbitrary identity tests</h2>
<p>Only the <a href="https://help.cbp.gov/app/answers/list/search/1/kw/Form%20I-872%20American%20Indian%20Card/suggested/1">American Indian Card</a>, which is issued exclusively to members of the Kickapoo tribes, recognizes indigenous people’s right to cross the border regardless of citizenship. </p>
<p>According to the <a href="https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/97/hr4496/text">Texas Band of Kickapoo Act of 1983</a>, “all members of the Band” – including those who live in Mexico – are “entitled to freely pass and repass the borders of the United States and to live and work in the United States.” </p>
<p>The majority of indigenous Mexicans wishing to live or work in the United States, however, must <a href="https://www.usa.gov/enter-us">apply for immigrant residence and work authorization</a> like any other person born outside of the U.S. The relevant tribal governments in the U.S. may also work with Customs and Border Patrol to waive certain travel document requirements on a case-by-case basis for short-term visits of Native members from Mexico.</p>
<p>Since border patrol agents have expansive <a href="https://www.aila.org/File/DownloadEmbeddedFile/47306">discretionary power</a> to refuse or delay entries in the interest of national security, its officers sometimes make arbitrary requests to verify Native identity in these cases. </p>
<p>Such tests, my research shows, have included asking people to speak their indigenous language or – if the person is crossing to participate in a Native ceremony – to perform a traditional song or dance. Those who refuse these requests <a href="https://nointervention.com/archive/usa/border-wall/kumeyaay1812.html">may be denied entry</a>. </p>
<p>Border agents at both the <a href="https://www.amnestyusa.org/files/ai_inhostileterrain_final031412.pdf">Mexico</a> and <a href="https://missoulian.com/news/local/indians-seek-less-hassle-more-respect-at-u-s-/article_818b6420-5545-11e1-8260-0019bb2963f4.html">Canada borders</a> have also reportedly mishandled or destroyed Native ceremonial or medicinal items they deem suspicious.</p>
<p>“Our relatives are all considered ‘aliens,’” said the Yaqui elder and activist José Matus. “[T]hey’re not aliens. … They’re indigenous to this land.” </p>
<p>“We’ve been here since time immemorial,” he added.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/111043/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Christina Leza does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The U.S-Mexico border runs through Native American territories. A wall would further divide these communities, separating children from schools, farmers from water and families from each other.Christina Leza, Associate Professor of Anthropology, Colorado CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1110492019-02-11T18:37:37Z2019-02-11T18:37:37ZHow to manufacture a crisis: Deconstructing Donald Trump’s immigration rhetoric<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/258109/original/file-20190210-174880-1fgx5p5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C1%2C799%2C519&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Donald Trump prepares to give the 2018 US State of the Union address.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Donald_Trump_State_of_the_Union_2018.jpg">Wikimedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>One of the most Trumpian passages of this year’s <a href="https://www.vox.com/2019/2/5/18212533/president-trump-state-of-the-union-address-live-transcript">State of the Union address</a> is the section on immigration. President Trump is not the first president to talk about border security, illegal crossing, and immigration reform in a State of the Union speech. In fact, every US president <a href="https://eu.caller.com/story/news/2019/02/04/state-union-what-presidents-said-immigration/2747042002/">since Bill Clinton in the mid-1990s</a> has. He is, however, the only president to make it an “urgent national crisis” and spend so much time on “criminal illegal aliens.” Here is a quick deconstruction of President Trump’s rhetorical strategy for getting the wall built.</p>
<h2>Conflate illegal entry and violent crime</h2>
<p>There is nothing more persuasive that seemingly scary numbers to convince an audience that the situation is objectively critical.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“ICE officers made 266,000 arrests of criminal aliens, including those charged or convicted of nearly 100,000 assaults. 30,000 sex crimes and 4,000 killings or murders.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Trump used the exact same numbers in his <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/08/us/politics/trump-speech-transcript.html">January 8 speech on immigration</a> from the Oval Office and in his <a href="https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/1084649448003784704">January 12 tweet</a>. As the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/live-updates/trump-white-house/live-fact-checking-and-analysis-of-trumps-2019-state-of-the-union-address/read-the-fact-check-from-trumps-oval-office-address-on-immigration/"><em>Washington Post</em> noted</a>, the problem is that these are fuzzy and misleading numbers. They include, for instance, “serious and nonviolent offenses” and the totals cover “all types of offenses, including illegal entry or reentry.” Even if you just look at the core of the argument (that illegal aliens commit more crimes), it is contradicted by independent academic studies – for example, <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1745-9125.12175">here</a>, <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/4450776-Light-Et-Al-AJPH-Published.html">here</a> and <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/4450775-CATO-Illegal-Immigration-and-Crime-in-Texas.html">here</a> – that show that illegal immigration does not increase the prevalence of violent crime or drugs and that undocumented immigrants are actually <em>less</em> likely to break the law than legal US residents.</p>
<p>Moreover, Donald Trump’s allegation that the border city of El Paso, Texas, had “one of the highest rates of violent crime” prior to the construction of the wall has been strongly rebutted (<a href="https://eu.elpasotimes.com/story/news/politics/2019/02/05/fact-check-state-union-trump-el-paso-crime-rate-fence/2784362002/">here</a> and <a href="https://www.vox.com/2019/2/5/18213141/state-of-the-union-2019-fact-check-border-crime">here</a>). Similarly, his claim that “the wall in San Diego almost completely ended illegal crossing” is <a href="https://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/article225589085.html">incomplete at best</a>.</p>
<h2>Frame undocumented immigrants as “illegal aliens”</h2>
<p>“Framing” is a <a href="https://masscommtheory.com/theory-overviews/framing-theory/">communication technique</a> that consists of using specific language to portray a topic negatively or positively by relying on biased mental representations. For instance, by calling undocumented immigrants “criminal illegal aliens”, the US president explicitly implies that even individuals who have not yet crossed the US-Mexico border (such as those in the “caravan” of immigrants travelling to the US from Central America) have already broken the law. Excluded is the possibility that some are refugees and may request asylum, in which case, they are not technically immigrants, much less illegal, at least until their claims are possibly denied. In fact, it is the Trump administration’s new policy of forcing asylum seekers to remain in Mexico while their cases are pending in the United States that <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/feb/02/trump-immigration-policy-mexico-border-illegal-amnesty-international">may very well be illegal</a>.</p>
<p>The expression “illegal aliens” is a rarety but not a novelty in a State of the Union address – it was used by <a href="https://www.c-span.org/video/?62882-1/president-bill-clintons-1995-state-union-address&start=3772">Bill Clinton in 1995</a>, for example. But yet it is not a neutral term: It presents immigrants through the frame of crime. As explained by the <a href="https://www.cato.org/blog/use-euphemisms-political-debate">Cato Institute</a>, a libertarian think tank, using the term “illegal aliens” rather than “undocumented immigrants” is more likely to sway a more conservative person against immigration because of “their greater support for order and structure, which is offended by illegality.”</p>
<h2>Make the illegal alien a savage enemy</h2>
<p>What is a novelty in this State of the Union address and a trademark of Trump’s rhetoric is the portrayal of immigrants as a central enemy. Contrary to all his modern predecessors, the president uses a threatening Other that is both inside and outside the border. Within the nation, this immediate danger is the “savage gang MS-13 [which] now operates in at least 20 different American states”. The reality is that with fewer than <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/2/26/16955936/ms-13-trump-immigrants-crime">10,000 members</a>, MS-13 makes up <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/06/27/opinion/trump-ms13-immigration.html">less than 1% of the gang members in the United States</a>. Clearly, no matter how cruel they are, they hardly constitute a national threat.</p>
<p>Another threat highlighted by Trump are the “ruthless coyotes, cartels, drug dealers”, the “sadistic human and sex traffickers” and the “smugglers who use migrant children as human pawns to exploit our laws and gain access to our country.” In the speech, such imaginatively portrayed criminals are used to symbolise chaos and stoke fear:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“The lawless state of our southern border is a threat to the safety, security and financial well-being of all America.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>What is at stake is therefore law, order and ultimately civilisation itself. It is the rationale for words of war: ordering “another 3,750 <em>troops</em> to our southern border to prepare for this tremendous <em>onslaught</em>” and calling Americans “to <em>defend</em> our very dangerous southern border out of love and devotion to our fellow citizens and our country”. This war is not just metaphorical. It has casualties: the “countless Americans […] murdered by criminal illegal aliens” and the “tens of thousands of innocent Americans killed by lethal drugs that cross our border and flood into our cities.”</p>
<p>This framing of immigrant as “savage Others” is reminiscent of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/in-trumps-america-immigrants-are-modern-day-savage-indians-99809">frontier rhetoric employed against native Americans</a> in the 19th century.</p>
<h2>Add lewd sexual stories</h2>
<p>This savage is all the more barbaric that he is also a sexual predator:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“One in three [immigrant] women is sexually assaulted […] thousands of young girls and women [are] smuggled into the United States [to be sold] into prostitution and modern-day slavery.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Beyond the <a href="https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2019/jan/25/donald-trump/trump-said-1-3-migrant-women-sexually-assaulted-jo/">unreliability of these statistics</a>, the topic of sex crime has been a recurrent motif in Donald Trump’s remarks and tweets about immigrants. The speech that <a href="http://time.com/3923128/donald-trump-announcement-speech/">launched his campaign on June 16, 2015</a>, made the headlines because he accused Mexico of sending rapists to the United States. He later made a similar comment in reference to the <a href="https://www.thecut.com/2018/04/donald-trump-immigrant-rape-caravan-comment.html">“caravan” of immigrants</a>. Earlier this year, Trump even gave some <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/01/17/trumps-stories-taped-up-women-smuggled-into-us-are-divorced-reality-experts-say/">graphic details</a> of “women tied up, bound, with duct tape put around their faces, around their mouths, in many cases they can’t even breathe.”</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/t2z66A_j7LE?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>Despite a complete <a href="https://www.vox.com/2019/1/27/18198729/women-duct-tape-trump-truck-border">lack of evidence</a>, Trump reportedly has repeated this account 10 times.
This type of narrative does not need to be true to serve its political purpose, it just needs to <em>feel</em> true. Such stories are more likely to trigger a reaction in a more conservative audience, <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01419870.2017.1300293?journalCode=rers20">sexuality and gender</a> being features of the <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/014198798330007">language of nationalism</a>. They reflect a philosophy in which <a href="https://journals.openedition.org/lisa/9861">power is virtue</a> and control is paramount. </p>
<h2>The nation-as-a-body metaphor</h2>
<p>Metaphorical and literal stories of rape have been used by presidents to provide a focal point for the public to direct their anger at America’s enemies. Saddam Hussein had, for instance, <a href="https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/message-allied-nations-the-persian-gulf-crisis">“raped Kuwait”</a> and built <a href="https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/address-the-nation-iraq">“rape rooms”</a>. Such narratives exploit the nation-as-a-person metaphor. In Trump’s narrative, a parallel can be drawn between rape and the invasion of a nation by illegal aliens. In his <a href="https://factba.se/transcript/donald-trump-speech-oval-office-immigration-january-8-2019">immigration speech on January 8</a>, the president clearly talked about “those who have <em>violated</em> our borders.” </p>
<p>This bodily metaphor is likely to activate particular strong feelings in a more conservative or nationalist audience that tends to have a more gendered world view focused on power and strength. As <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/donald-trumps-rape-metaphor-says-more-about-him-than_us_57743fb5e4b0ee1c313d8e7e">Soraya Chemaly writes</a> in the <em>Huffington Post</em>, for them:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Rape is sex and sex is war; rapists are winners, the raped are losers. Shame, according to Trump’s use, is reserved for the raped, not the rapist.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Both actions are forced penetration of the container of a body: the intimate body (self) or the social body (the nation).</p>
<p>The fear of invasion is further illustrated by the story of Trump’s guest Deborah Bissel, whose “parents were burglarised and shot to death in their Reno, Nevada, home by an illegal alien”. It is no coincidence that the president used the dramatic story of a home invasion to parallel the invasion of dangerous aliens into the country.</p>
<p>The immediacy of the threat is reinforced by the idea that the nation is “rapidly getting filled with liquid, which represents immigrants, and with them, illegal substances”. The drugs that are “flood[ing] into our cities” or the MS-13 gang members “streaming right back in,” in Trump’s words, means that the arrival of immigrants is presented in terms of the entrance of excessive amounts of liquid into a container. Hence the peril of “open borders,” “wide-open areas” or “loopholes”, which warrants the construction of a flood wall. Hence his conclusion that “walls work and walls save lives”.</p>
<h2>Villains, victims and heroes</h2>
<p>Like any good narrative, this story has clear types: mostly villains and victims (American citizens as well as the “300 women and girls rescued from the horror of this terrible situation”). Now it just needs heroes. They are “our brave ICE officers” and the"brave men and women of law enforcement,“ But ultimately, Donald Trump portrays himself as the true hero here, both the protector of other heroes and the builder of walls whose goal is to protect the body-nation:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>”<strong>I</strong> pledge to you tonight that <strong>I</strong> will never abolish our heroes from ICE. […] The proper wall never got built. <strong>I</strong>‘ll get it built.</p>
</blockquote><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/111049/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jérôme Viala-Gaudefroy ne travaille pas, ne conseille pas, ne possède pas de parts, ne reçoit pas de fonds d'une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n'a déclaré aucune autre affiliation que son organisme de recherche.</span></em></p>Trump is not the first US president to talk about border security, but he is the only one to make it an “urgent national crisis”. Here is a handy deconstruction of President Trump’s rhetorical strategy.Jérôme Viala-Gaudefroy, Assistant lecturer, Université Paris Nanterre – Université Paris LumièresLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1104142019-01-30T11:52:52Z2019-01-30T11:52:52ZEurope’s refugee crisis explains why border walls don’t stop migration<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/256135/original/file-20190129-127151-isr8h4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Migrants on a ship intercepted offshore near the Libyan town of Gohneima, east of the capital Tripoli, in July 2018.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/United-Nations-Deadly-Crossings/18c211ddbbf44b2ca5183939b556af80/15/0">Libyan Coast Guard via AP, File</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>President Trump has long called migration a <a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2016/08/donald-trump-immigration-address-transcript-227614">security crisis</a>, but in recent weeks he has also referred to the situation along the southern border as a <a href="http://time.com/5497569/donald-trump-oval-office-address-transcript/">humanitarian crisis</a>.</p>
<p>As he ended the government shutdown in a televised speech on Jan. 25, Trump reiterated his <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/19/politics/trump-address-immigration-shutdown/index.html">claim</a> that a border wall between the United States and Mexico would save the lives of Central American migrants, many of whom are women and children. </p>
<p>“Walls work,” he <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/19/politics/trump-address-immigration-shutdown/index.html">said</a>. “They save good people from attempting a very dangerous journey from other countries.”</p>
<p>As my <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=83Lb0dwAAAAJ&hl=en">doctoral research</a> into Europe’s 2015-2016 <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1536504218776959">refugee crisis</a> shows, however, stricter border control doesn’t stop migration. Often, it makes it more dangerous.</p>
<h2>Open arms or closed borders?</h2>
<p>An estimated <a href="http://www.pewglobal.org/2016/08/02/number-of-refugees-to-europe-surges-to-record-1-3-million-in-2015/">1.3 million migrants</a> entered the European Union in 2015 — more than double the year before. They were seeking asylum protection from war, conflict and extreme poverty.</p>
<p>To put that figure in context, just <a href="http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/01/16/border-apprehensions-of-migrant-families-have-risen-substantially-so-far-in-2018/">half-a-million migrants</a> — including asylum-seekers, who typically give themselves up to border agents — were apprehended at the U.S.-Mexico border in 2018.</p>
<p><iframe id="pTk8M" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/pTk8M/2/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>Most of Europe’s migrants came from Syria, Afghanistan or Iraq. Generally, these asylum-seekers entered the European Union via Turkey, crossing Macedonia, Serbia and other <a href="https://reliefweb.int/map/world/western-balkans-route-refugeemigration-crisis-echo-daily-map-03092015">Balkan countries</a> by foot. </p>
<p>Well over 100,000 migrants from <a href="http://www.pewglobal.org/2016/08/02/1-asylum-seeker-origins-a-rapid-rise-for-most-countries/">sub-Saharan African countries</a> reached southern Europe by sea in 2015, crossing the Mediterranean from North Africa.</p>
<p>Overwhelmed with these increased arrivals, national governments in Europe took dramatically different approaches to managing their borders.</p>
<p>Germany <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-34108224">threw its doors open</a>. Almost <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-europe-migrants-germany-idUSKCN1201KY">900,000 migrants</a> arrived there in 2015 after the country <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/germany-suspends-dublin-rules-for-syrians/a-18671698">suspended an EU rule</a> requiring that migrants apply for asylum in the first EU country they set foot in. </p>
<p>Migrants arriving at southern nations like Greece and Italy generally <a href="http://www.migrationpolicycentre.eu/greece/">hoped</a> to <a href="https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/emigration-asylum-destination-italy-navigates-shifting-migration-tides">continue north</a> to Germany. </p>
<p>Greece, however, was unable to process the <a href="https://data2.unhcr.org/en/situations/mediterranean/location/5179">more than 850,000 migrants</a> who arrived to its shores in 2015. It built holding camps on its Aegean islands, where people stayed in <a href="https://www.refworld.org/country,,UNHCR,,GRC,,59b2663c4,0.html">overcrowded, often inhospitable conditions</a> for up to <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/12/refugees-greece-reflect-year-waiting-171226173758364.html">two years</a> as their <a href="https://www.asylumineurope.org/reports/country/greece/asylum-procedure/procedures/regular-procedure">asylum claims</a> were processed.</p>
<p>Other EU governments were openly hostile to refugees. Across Eastern Europe, countries along the Balkan route began to build and extend border barriers. </p>
<p>Europe had five border walls in 2014, built following the 1985 <a href="https://www.schengenvisainfo.com/schengen-agreement/">Schengen agreement</a> amid concerns about immigration at the bloc’s external borders. By 2017, it had <a href="https://www.tni.org/en/publication/building-walls">15 barriers</a>, according to the not-for-profit Transnational Institute, and a heavily <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/home-affairs/sites/homeaffairs/files/what-we-do/policies/securing-eu-borders/fact-sheets/docs/20161006/eu_operations_in_the_mediterranean_sea_en.pdf">patrolled</a> maritime border. </p>
<p>Hungary, perhaps the EU’s least immigrant-friendly country, built a <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/hungary-completes-second-fence-to-keep-out-migrants/a-38632459">high-tech fence</a> that uses thermal detection and cameras to monitor movement, with speakers that blare warnings in five languages.</p>
<h2>Walls make migration more dangerous</h2>
<p>Border walls have not stopped migration into Europe.</p>
<p>Tens of thousands of migrants <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/aug/30/tens-of-thousands-migrate-through-balkans-since-route-declared-shut">still cross the Balkans</a> to reach the EU each year – they just do so in <a href="https://www.msf.org/push-backs-violence-and-inadequate-conditions-balkan-routes-new-frontier">more dangerous</a> conditions.</p>
<p>Before the walls, migrants traveled in groups, with or without the help of smugglers. </p>
<p>Now, paying a smuggler is the only way for migrants to <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/closed-borders-boost-people-smuggling-across-balkans/a-41467977">avoid border guards and pass barriers</a>. For several thousand dollars, smugglers bribe EU border agents, <a href="http://www.infomigrants.net/en/post/7641/new-trafficking-hubs-emerge-in-the-balkans">hide migrants in trucks</a> or walk them across EU borders <a href="https://www.law.ox.ac.uk/research-subject-groups/centre-criminology/centreborder-criminologies/blog/2018/02/europes-waiting">under cover of darkness</a>. </p>
<p>Europe’s <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1369183X.2017.1348224">refugee crisis</a> has now become a <a href="https://brill.com/view/journals/emil/19/4/article-p335_335.xml">housing crisis</a>. </p>
<p>At least 10,000 migrants now live in <a href="https://www.msf.fr/sites/default/files/out_of_sight_130218.pdf">homeless encampments or squats</a> across Italy. And after the French refugee camp known as “<a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/09581596.2017.1335860?needAccess=true">The Calais Jungle</a>” was demolished in 2016, nearly as many people scattered to makeshift camps or <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/mar/17/paris-uk-migrants-attacks-abuse-study">the streets of French cities</a>. </p>
<h2>Stopping migrants before they arrive</h2>
<p>Italy, where most refugees arrive by boat from North Africa, has tried to keep migrants out in a different way: It outsources its border security.</p>
<p>In 2017, Italy <a href="https://www.repubblica.it/esteri/2017/02/02/news/migranti_accordo_italia-libia_ecco_cosa_contiene_in_memorandum-157464439/?refresh_ce">struck</a> a deal to supply the Libyan coast guard with vessels and anti-smuggling training. The agreement promised <a href="https://euobserver.com/migration/140067">US$325 million</a> if Libyan agents would intercept migrants crossing the Mediterranean and return them to Libyan detention centers. </p>
<p>Human rights organizations have <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/european-rights-chief-questions-italys-migrant-deals-with-libya/a-40916702">questioned</a> the deal, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/17/world/europe/italy-libya-migrant-crisis.html">citing</a> Libya’s political unrest and documented history of <a href="https://www.cnn.com/specials/africa/libya-slave-auctions">migrant enslavement and torture</a>. Returning migrants to detention centers in Libya may also <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-europe-migrants-libya/migrants-return-to-libya-by-italian-boat-could-breach-international-law-u-n-idUSKBN1KL1K4">violate international law</a>, since refugees <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/may/08/italy-deal-with-libya-pull-back-migrants-faces-legal-challenge-human-rights-violations">cannot be kept safe there</a>.</p>
<p>In my own interviews with African migrants in Italy who’d crossed the Sahara to Libya, many told me that they eventually boarded a boat there not as a final step toward Europe, but to escape imprisonment or torture in Libya. </p>
<p>Libyan coast guard boats have left many migrants <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/12/26/opinion/europe-migrant-crisis-mediterranean-libya.html">stranded</a> at sea. In September 2018, when a boat carrying 100 migrants capsized, Italy and Libya <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/11/world/africa/mediterranean-migrants-drowned.html">blamed one other</a> for the failed rescue.</p>
<p>Libya’s deterrence mission conflicts with the rescue operations of aid boats that bring migrants to Europe. Italy says rescues invite more migration, despite <a href="https://theconversation.com/debunking-myths-about-why-people-migrate-across-the-mediterranean-77814">research</a> <a href="https://blamingtherescuers.org/report/">disproving this claim</a>. </p>
<p>Last June, <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/06/refugees-migrants-board-aquarius-set-foot-spain-180617054409193.html">629 migrants</a>, including 123 unaccompanied minors and seven pregnant women, were held at sea for over a week, unable to seek asylum or aid. </p>
<p>Malta, Spain and France have since repeatedly <a href="https://www.france24.com/en/20180925-france-aquarius-migrant-ship-cannot-dock-port-marseille-french-minister-le-maire-says">closed their ports</a> to rescue vessels, refusing to bear responsibility for the migrants on board. </p>
<h2>Lessons for the US</h2>
<p>Irregular migration to Europe did decrease last year, primarily because <a href="https://www.migrationpolicy.org/programs/data-hub/charts/asylum-applications-euefta-country-2008-2017?width=1000&height=850&iframe=true">fewer Syrians are fleeing</a> their war-torn country. More migrants – <a href="http://www.globaldtm.info/Libya/">nearly 700,000 people</a> – are also being detained in Libya. </p>
<p>Migrant routes into the EU also continue to shift in response to closing borders. Spain, for example, has seen <a href="https://data2.unhcr.org/en/situations/mediterranean/location/5226">sea arrivals increase tenfold since 2015</a>.</p>
<p>In my assessment, Trump’s crackdown along the U.S.-Mexico border will have similar results. There are signs of this already.</p>
<p>A decades-old U.S. policy of <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/684775/summary">paying Mexico</a> to secure its southern border with Guatemala to keep Central American migrants out has merely made <a href="https://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/GLOSOM_2018_web_small.pdf">the journey riskier</a>, according to a 2018 United Nations report.</p>
<p>To avoid apprehension by Mexican border patrol, some migrants get from Guatemala to Mexico by water, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2016/sep/15/migrants-mexico-human-trafficking-us-immigration-crackdown">on boats</a> that are often operated by traffickers.</p>
<p>As in Europe, migrants now increasingly rely on smugglers to get across the U.S.-Mexico border, who may charge <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/06/30/world/smuggling-illegal-immigration-costs.html">more than $10,000</a> per family. </p>
<p>That does not guarantee safe passage. Between August and October last year, smugglers <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/oct/11/migrants-abandoned-desert-smugglers-arizona-desert">abandoned more than 1,400 migrants</a>, including children, in the sweltering Arizona desert. Hoping to find safety in <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-does-the-migrant-caravan-exist-and-how-did-it-come-to-be-105781">large groups</a>, more migrants are now <a href="https://theconversation.com/dozens-of-migrants-disappear-in-mexico-as-central-american-caravan-pushes-northward-106287">traveling in caravans</a>.</p>
<p>As the U.S. and the EU struggle to resolve their border crises, migrants <a href="https://doi.org/10.1353/sais.2017.0029">will continue to flee</a> their home countries seeking protection. Heightened border control certainly won’t make them safer.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/110414/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Eleanor Paynter does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>After 1.3 million migrants from the Middle East and Africa came to Europe in 2015, many countries built fences or closed their ports. That has pushed migrants to take riskier routes into the EU.Eleanor Paynter, PhD Candidate, Comparative Studies, The Ohio State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1100012019-01-16T23:23:11Z2019-01-16T23:23:11ZEl Chapo trial shows why a wall won’t stop drugs from crossing the US-Mexico border<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/254192/original/file-20190116-163265-14xwn8c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">An artist's sketch of Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzmán at a 2018 pretrial hearing in a Brooklyn Federal courthouse.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/El-Chapo-Prosecution/9583047735b142299c6a7bfdab33d3a4/48/0">Elizabeth Williams via AP, File</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://theconversation.com/el-juicio-al-chapo-evidencia-por-que-un-muro-no-detendra-el-trafico-de-drogas-entre-mexico-y-estados-unidos-110087"><em>Leer en español</em></a>.</p>
<p>The trial of Mexican drug kingpin Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán Loera has exposed just how <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/28/nyregion/el-chapo-trial-mexico-corruption.html?module=inline">powerful Mexico’s cartels really are</a>.</p>
<p>The trial has now run for two months. On Jan. 15, a Colombian drug trafficker who worked for Guzmán’s Sinaloa Cartel from 2007 to 2013 testified that Guzmán paid former Mexican president Enrique Peña Nieto a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/15/nyregion/el-chapo-trial.html">US$100 million bribe</a> while he was in power, a charge Peña Nieto’ office denies. </p>
<p>It was just the latest allegation of the cartels paying off high-ranking politicians in Mexico, presumably to <a href="https://www.forbes.com.mx/cartel-de-sinaloa-soborno-a-calderon-y-epn-abogado-de-el-chapo-falso-responden/">exert influence over the government</a>.</p>
<p>Guzmán is charged with <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/press-release/file/929896/download">drug trafficking, murder, kidnapping and money laundering</a> – crimes he allegedly committed over the past quarter-century as head of the Sinaloa cartel, the Western Hemisphere’s most powerful organized crime syndicate. </p>
<p>With its witness accounts of extreme violence, political corruption, international intrigue and entrepreneurial innovation, Guzmán’s trial is a telenovela-style explainer on why a wall is unlikely to stop the <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-decade-of-murder-and-grief-mexicos-drug-war-turns-ten-70036">lucrative U.S.-Mexico drug trade</a>.</p>
<h2>The Sinaloa cartel</h2>
<p>Founded in Mexico’s Sinaloa state in the 1990s, the Sinaloa cartel now <a href="http://www.insightcrime.org/mexico-organized-crime-news/sinaloa-cartel-profile">distributes drugs</a> to some 50 countries, including Argentina, the Philippines and Russia. </p>
<p>Determining the scale of Guzmán’s global empire is difficult, since gangsters usually don’t keep books and charts of accounts. But his 2016 indictment in the U.S. sought forfeiture of more than <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/joaquin-el-chapo-guzman-loera-faces-charges-new-york-leading-continuing-criminal-enterprise">$14 billion</a> in proceeds and illicit profits from decades of narcotics sales in the U.S. and Canada.</p>
<p>The Sinaloa cartel controls perhaps half of Mexico’s drug market, with <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2016/08/18/americas/mexican-drug-cartels/">annual earnings of around $3 billion</a>. Mexican estimates suggest that each month it <a href="http://www.nexos.com.mx/?p=19103">moves</a> two tons of cocaine and 10,000 tons of marijuana – plus heroin, methamphetamine and other substances.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/254193/original/file-20190116-163283-1r3n157.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/254193/original/file-20190116-163283-1r3n157.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/254193/original/file-20190116-163283-1r3n157.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/254193/original/file-20190116-163283-1r3n157.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/254193/original/file-20190116-163283-1r3n157.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/254193/original/file-20190116-163283-1r3n157.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=525&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/254193/original/file-20190116-163283-1r3n157.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=525&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/254193/original/file-20190116-163283-1r3n157.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=525&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Mexican druglord Joaquin Guzmán after his capture by Mexican marines in January 2016.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/YE-2016-Latin-America-Top-10-News-Stories/0632fbc853eb4a9793e7f3424bbd2cc5/20/0">AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo, File</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The drug business</h2>
<p>Illegal drugs are a highly lucrative business. </p>
<p>In 2016, the year El Chapo was <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2017/01/19/us/el-chapo-guzman-turned-over-to-us/index.html">captured in Mexico</a>, the <a href="https://www.unodc.org/wdr2016/field/10.3_Price_and_Purity_-_Cocaine.xls">wholesale price</a> for a gram of cocaine was approximately $2.30 in Colombia and $12.50 in Mexico. The same gram had a wholesale cost of $28 by the time it got to the United States. In Australia, that same gram of cocaine fetched $176.50 wholesale.</p>
<p>Drug prices rise significantly during transit as intermediaries demand compensation for the <a href="http://faculty.publicpolicy.umd.edu/sites/default/files/reuter/files/Risks_and_prices.pdf">risk</a> they assume in getting the product to consumers. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.unodc.org/wdr2016/field/10.3_Price_and_Purity_-_Cocaine.xls">Retail prices</a> per gram of cocaine are even higher, reflecting the addition of even more middlemen: $82 in the U.S. in 2016 and $400 in Australia. </p>
<p>This liability markup is one reason why some prominent policy experts and even <a href="https://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/economic-moral-case-legalizing-cocaine-heroin">conservative economists</a> call for <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/british-columbia/article-commission-calls-for-responsible-control-of-illicit-drugs-through/">legalizing and regulating illicit narcotics</a>. Keeping drugs illegal is what makes them so profitable for the people who traffick them. </p>
<h2>Bribes, violence and threats</h2>
<p>Illegality is also what makes the drug business so <a href="http://lanic.utexas.edu/project/etext/llilas/portal/portal109/drugs.pdf">violent</a>.</p>
<p>Running an <a href="http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.503.9024&rep=rep1&type=pdf">illicit operation</a>, cartel leaders must both enforce their own business agreements and protect themselves from authorities and competitors. </p>
<p>They do so using a combination of violence, threats and bribes.</p>
<p>At least eight <a href="http://www.excelsior.com.mx/nacional/2016/04/10/1085638#imagen-1">armed groups</a> worked under Guzmán’s command in Mexico, according to Mexican government reports, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jan/21/how-el-chapo-built-sinaloa-cartel">attacking</a> competitors and killing defectors.</p>
<p>Guzmán also <a href="http://time.com/3968992/joaquin-el-chapo-guzman-escape-seven-arrested/">bribed</a> as many <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/28/nyregion/el-chapo-trial-mexico-corruption.html?module=inline">politicians, police officers</a> and prison guards to stay in business. </p>
<p>His elaborate disappearances from Mexican high-security prisons are the stuff of legend. In 2015, <a href="https://theconversation.com/el-chapo-jailbreak-is-both-a-mexican-and-an-american-story-44679">Guzmán escaped jail</a> by riding a motorcycle through a lit, ventilated mile-long tunnel constructed underneath his cell.</p>
<h2>American demand</h2>
<p>The Sinaloa cartel didn’t become the world’s biggest supplier of illicit drugs by coincidence. It has flourished because the United States is the world’s <a href="https://www.unodc.org/wdr2016/interactive-map.html">biggest consumer</a> of illicit drugs. </p>
<p>Mexican cartels serve Americans’ “insatiable demand for illegal drugs,” as <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/26/world/americas/26mexico.html">Hillary Clinton once said</a>. </p>
<p>Despite President Donald Trump’s focus on Mexican drug traffickers, his former chief of staff, <a href="http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/susan-jones/kelly-us-must-get-business-drug-demand-reduction">John Kelly, has admitted</a> that the U.S. is part of the problem.</p>
<p>“We’re not even trying,” he told Congress in 2017, calling for more drug-demand reduction programs. </p>
<p>Kelly added that Latin American countries chide American authorities for “lecturing [them] about not doing enough to stop the drug flow” while the U.S. does nothing to “stop the demand.”</p>
<h2>Trump’s wall</h2>
<p>Trump’s continued <a href="https://theconversation.com/trump-calls-border-a-crisis-of-the-soul-3-scholars-react-to-his-oval-office-address-109597">insistence on securing the southern border with a wall</a> seems to disregard the economic forces driving the drug trade and diminish Mexican cartels’ <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-wall-and-the-beast-trumps-triumph-from-the-mexican-side-of-the-border-68559">innovative distribution strategies</a>.</p>
<p>A high-tech border fence constructed in Arizona long before Trump’s inauguration has proven virtually useless in stopping drugs from crossing into the U.S.: Mexican smugglers just use a <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2017/02/15/us/marijuana-catapult-trnd/index.html">catapult</a> to fling <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/17/magazine/how-a-mexican-drug-cartel-makes-its-billions.html">hundred-pound bales of marijuana</a> over to the American side. </p>
<p>“We’ve got the best fence money can buy,” former DEA chief Michael Brown <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/17/magazine/how-a-mexican-drug-cartel-makes-its-billions.html">said</a> to The New York Times in 2012, “and they counter us with a 2,500-year-old technology.”</p>
<p>Then there’s the other ancient technology perfected by Guzmán: <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/08/03/underworld-monte-reel">the tunnel</a>. </p>
<p>Officials have discovered about 180 cleverly disguised illicit passages under the U.S.-Mexico border. Many, like the one Guzmán used to escape prison, are equipped with electricity, ventilation and elevators.</p>
<p>Trump has admitted that anyone could use “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htR87FTRj2U">a rope</a>” to climb over his wall, but believes that more border guards and drone technology would prevent infiltration. </p>
<h2>Corruption in the US</h2>
<p>Corruption is <a href="https://www.jornada.com.mx/ultimas/2019/01/16/naranjo-en-la-nomina-de-narcos-de-colombia-antes-de-ser-asesor-de-epn-5221.html">not an exclusively Mexican trait</a>. </p>
<p>Over the past decade some 200 employees and contractors from the Department of Homeland Security have accepted nearly $15 million in bribes to look the other way as drugs were smuggled across the border into the United States, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/28/us/homeland-security-border-bribes.html?_r=0">The New York Times</a> has reported. </p>
<p>Some U.S. officials have also given sensitive law enforcement information to cartels members, according to the Times.</p>
<p>“Almost no evidence about corrupt American officials has been allowed at [El Chapo’s] trial,” New York Times reporter Alan Feuer <a href="https://twitter.com/alanfeuer/status/1082820817438822400">said recently on Twitter</a>.</p>
<p><em>This article is an updated version of a <a href="https://theconversation.com/el-chapo-story-of-a-kingpin-or-why-trumps-plan-to-defeat-mexican-cartels-is-doomed-to-fail-71781">story</a> originally published on Feb. 19, 2017.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/110001/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Luis Gómez Romero does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>With its tales of bloody violence, corruption, international trade and entrepreneurial innovation, Guzmán’s trial offers a telenovela-style explainer on Mexican cartels and their American clients.Luis Gómez Romero, Senior Lecturer in Human Rights, Constitutional Law and Legal Theory, University of WollongongLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1097102019-01-11T11:46:19Z2019-01-11T11:46:19ZFederal workers begin to feel pain of shutdown as 800,000 lose their paychecks<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/253351/original/file-20190111-43541-1pztmfz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Families are feeling the pinch of the government shutdown.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Government-Shutdown-Payday/82e8b165a6e544b798eef2870f3ebad2/12/0">AP Photo/Rick Bowmer</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>President Donald Trump wants US$5.7 billion to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/10/us/politics/trump-wall-texas-border.html">fund a border wall</a> to keep out undocumented immigrants and “criminals.” Democrats in Congress say the <a href="https://www.mercurynews.com/2019/01/08/analysis-economists-say-border-wall-is-a-waste-of-money/">wall is a waste of money</a> that wouldn’t solve any of <a href="https://www.wired.com/2017/01/wall-alone-cant-secure-border-no-matter-pays/">America’s actual immigration programs</a>.</p>
<p>Caught between the two sides are about <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2018/politics/shutdown-who-gets-sent-home/?amp;utm_term=.db75457d08e1&noredirect=on&utm_term=.27e7c33902aa">800,000 federal workers</a> whose agencies are affected by the partial government shutdown. And although it started about three weeks ago, <a href="https://www.vox.com/2019/1/9/18172329/partial-government-shutdown-paycheck">Jan. 11 marks a significant milestone</a>: It’s the first time affected workers didn’t get their paychecks. </p>
<p>As a researcher who studies <a href="https://u.osu.edu/zagorsky.1/tag/wealth/">people’s wealth</a>, <a href="http://businessmacroeconomics.com/">I</a> understand that while the loss of a single paycheck may not seem like much, for many American families it can be devastating financially.</p>
<h2>The federal workforce</h2>
<p>Overall, the federal government directly employs over 2 million people. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2018/politics/shutdown-who-gets-sent-home/?amp;utm_term=.db75457d08e1&noredirect=on&utm_term=.fcb6047beeff">Most of them work</a> for departments such as Defense, Education and Labor that remain open because Congress passed spending bills fully funding what they do. About a quarter of the federal government – including the Departments of Homeland Security, Justice and Agriculture – has no new funding, leaving 800,000 workers in the lurch. </p>
<p>About <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2018/politics/government-shutdown-faq/?utm_term=.aace824bfb8f">380,000 have been furloughed without pay</a>, while 420,000 are <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/who-are-government-nonessential-employees-786671">deemed essential</a> and have to report for work. However, these essential workers are not being paid either.</p>
<p>And on Jan. 11, they’ll feel the impact of that lost pay. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/253349/original/file-20190111-43529-12ps6q4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/253349/original/file-20190111-43529-12ps6q4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/253349/original/file-20190111-43529-12ps6q4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/253349/original/file-20190111-43529-12ps6q4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/253349/original/file-20190111-43529-12ps6q4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/253349/original/file-20190111-43529-12ps6q4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/253349/original/file-20190111-43529-12ps6q4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Government workers protest the shutdown in Ogden, Utah.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Government-Shutdown-Missed-Payday/f2a51e441f184949af1fb19727e43238/10/0">AP Photo/Rick Bowmer</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Hand to mouth</h2>
<p>So what’s the big deal if these workers don’t get a single paycheck? </p>
<p>The problem is many Americans both in and out of government live paycheck to paycheck. Estimates range anywhere from <a href="https://www.cpapracticeadvisor.com/news/12427770/34-of-americans-live-paycheck-to-paycheck">one-third</a> to more than <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/24/most-americans-live-paycheck-to-paycheck.html">three-quarters</a> make ends meet every two weeks. </p>
<p>No matter which figure is right, it means that many American families cannot financially survive for long without earning money. And a significant share <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/01/18/few-americans-have-enough-savings-to-cover-a-1000-emergency.html">don’t have enough money</a> to absorb even a $1,000 emergency expense – let alone a prolonged period of time without a paycheck. </p>
<p>There’s some good news for government workers who have been furloughed. They are eligible for <a href="https://www.dol.gov/general/topic/unemployment-insurance">unemployment insurance</a>, a federally mandated, state-run program that protects workers’ incomes when they lose their job through no fault of their own. </p>
<p>Workers who sign up for unemployment insurance can receive a portion of their wages for up to half a year. For example, Virginia <a href="https://www.vec.virginia.gov/sites/default/files/documents/FAQ%20Unemployment%20Compensation%20for%20Federal%20Employees-2019.docx">tells federal workers</a> they will get anywhere from a minimum of $60 to a maximum of $378 a week if they ask for benefits, depending on their past salary. Washington, D.C., <a href="http://www.savingtoinvest.com/maximum-weekly-unemployment-benefits-by-state/">offers</a> up to $425, <a href="https://www.irs.gov/individuals/employees/unemployment-compensation">all taxable</a>. But even the maximum is barely a quarter of the weekly equivalent of the average federal salary of <a href="https://www.fedscope.opm.gov/employment.asp">$84,000 per year</a>. </p>
<p>Essential government employees inspecting bags at airports or guarding the president, however, have a much tougher problem. They are not eligible for unemployment insurance, which means their only recourse is drawing on their savings – if they have enough – or <a href="https://www.td.com/us/en/personal-banking/govalert/?cm_sp=b000-00-4447">taking out</a> a loan. </p>
<p>Going without a paycheck for a few weeks is hard enough. If the shutdown lasts months or years – as Trump <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/04/politics/shutdown-donald-trump-nancy-pelosi/index.html">has threatened</a> – the situation could get very dire for the average government worker. </p>
<p>And while Congress is required to eventually pay those who worked during the shutdown, there’s no guarantee that it will pay workers that it forcibly furloughed. </p>
<h2>Congress and consequences</h2>
<p>While it’s hard to know when this shutdown might end, the good news is that Congress tends to give all affected workers back pay, regardless of whether they worked during the impasse. That’s what happened in 2013, when <a href="https://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-mo-shutdown-back-pay-furlough-workers-white-house-20131107-story.html">lawmakers unanimously approved</a> paying everyone back. </p>
<p>The bad news is that 800,000 workers are caught in the middle of a political dispute over a wall. And in simple terms, the government is taking a no-interest loan from these workers as they seek (or not) to resolve it.</p>
<p>Resolved or not, I predict two other unfortunate consequences: More talented workers will quit the federal bureaucracy and more will avoid taking federal government jobs in the future.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/109710/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jay L. Zagorsky does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Because many Americans live paycheck to paycheck, the loss of even one can be a big financial blow for a family.Jay L. Zagorsky, Senior lecturer, Boston UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1095972019-01-09T18:57:43Z2019-01-09T18:57:43ZTrump calls border a ‘crisis of the soul’: 3 scholars react to his Oval Office address<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/253084/original/file-20190109-32142-1c4l47q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Presidents have traditionally given Oval Office addresses during only the gravest of crises.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/APTOPIX-Government-Shutdown-Trump/b2997d18f7c84eb88adab190f3c1e8e5/1/0">AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Editor’s note: President Donald Trump’s <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/08/us/politics/trump-speech-transcript.html">address to the nation</a> on Wednesday night from the Oval Office announced no new initiatives either to end the government shutdown or to build the wall that’s caused the shutdown.</em></p>
<p><em>Instead, Trump stressed the themes – <a href="https://theconversation.com/is-there-a-crisis-at-the-us-mexico-border-6-essential-reads-109547">most of them discredited</a> – that he’s long depended on to support his demand for the wall to bar entry to a sea of immigrants who will bring crime, drugs and mayhem into the country.</em></p>
<p><em>We asked a panel of scholars to respond to the speech.</em></p>
<h2>Trump backs himself against the wall</h2>
<p><strong>Enrique Armijo, Associate Professor of Law and Associate Dean of Academic Affairs, Elon University</strong></p>
<p>Going into Trump’s speech, there was much speculation that the president might declare an emergency under the 1976 <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/10/2808">National Emergencies Act</a> to pay for the $5.7 billion border wall that is behind the current government shutdown – funds that House Democrats have refused to provide. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2019/01/08/trump-pitches-american-public-wall-demands-1088707">That didn’t happen</a>, though reports are the administration is still considering the option.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/07/us/politics/trump-national-emergency.html?action=click&module=inline&pgtype=Homepage">constitutional issues</a> associated with such a declaration are <a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/01/no-trump-cant-build-a-wall-through-military-eminent-domain/">far from clear</a>. First off, the facts underlying whether an emergency exists are <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/08/us/politics/trump-speech.html?action=click&module=Spotlight&pgtype=Homepage">disputed</a>, to say the least. </p>
<p>A National Emergencies Act declaration for wall funding would immediately <a href="https://www.lawfareblog.com/can-president-trump-fund-wall-declaring-national-emergency">be challenged in court</a>. Congressional Democrats would argue that this is a usurpation of their legislative appropriation power. </p>
<p>States and private landowners would also protest their land being taken by eminent domain for the project, since the federal government <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3235689">owns less than a third of the land needed to build the wall</a>. </p>
<p>Despite the lack of legal clarity — and the inevitable delays that such a lack of clarity would bring — there is another more straightforward reason why the administration didn’t declare an emergency, one that was likely obvious even to a president who has shown himself to be not quite <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-01-07/trump-s-shutdown-proves-he-was-never-a-great-dealmaker?srnd=opinion">as good a dealmaker as was advertised</a>. </p>
<p>The reason is this: The formal declaration of an emergency would limit Trump’s ability to strike a compromise. </p>
<p>Without one, Trump will be able to declare victory and sign a bill reopening the government after finding a middle ground with Democrats, and then try to sell that compromise <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/1/8/18174776/trump-speech-border-wall-immigration-democrats-reaction">to his angry base</a>. </p>
<p>But once he declares it’s a wall or nothing, the issue will be resolved by the courts – which may well tell Trump he can have nothing at all. </p>
<p>It appears the self-declared “<a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/01/06/politics/donald-trump-white-house-fitness-very-stable-genius/index.html">very stable genius</a>” does understand a little game theory.</p>
<h2>Making a crisis when there is none</h2>
<p><strong>Michael Blake, Professor of Philosophy, Public Policy, and Governance, University of Washington</strong></p>
<p>Trump used the word “crisis” six times to vouch for his proposed wall. </p>
<p>He described a border under siege by an unprecedented number of undocumented migrants, unusually prone to violence and mayhem, whose progress could only be stopped by a physical barrier.</p>
<p>That description is, to put it mildly, poorly supported by the facts.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/253098/original/file-20190109-32139-10ntoh6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/253098/original/file-20190109-32139-10ntoh6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/253098/original/file-20190109-32139-10ntoh6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/253098/original/file-20190109-32139-10ntoh6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/253098/original/file-20190109-32139-10ntoh6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/253098/original/file-20190109-32139-10ntoh6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/253098/original/file-20190109-32139-10ntoh6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/253098/original/file-20190109-32139-10ntoh6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Migrants watch Trump’s Jan. 8 speech on border security in a shelter in Tijuana, Mexico.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/APTOPIX-Government-Shutdown-Trump/9cc092bb05084377987f6407c0d1e051/2/0">AP Photo/Gregory Bull</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The number of undocumented migrants seeking to cross into the United States is now <a href="https://www.vox.com/2019/1/8/18173721/trump-border-facts-truth-speech-lying">considerably lower than it was only a decade ago</a>; the undocumented tend to be <a href="https://www.cato.org/publications/immigration-research-policy-brief/criminal-immigrants-texas-illegal-immigrant#endnote-003">more law-abiding than the native born</a>, not less; and few experts think that a barrier itself is <a href="https://www.wired.com/2017/01/wall-alone-cant-secure-border-no-matter-pays/">an effective means of preventing illegal immigration</a>.</p>
<p>Trump’s distortion of facts isn’t new. What is new – and, from the standpoint of political ethics, deeply troubling – is the heightened emphasis on a crisis through a formal address. </p>
<p>Both political philosophy and common-sense morality would say that <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=EuTQCQAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q=%22supreme%20emergency%22&f=false">normal procedure doesn’t apply during an emergency</a>. Citizens are more willing, in the face of an emergency, to surrender allegiance to particular rules and to the moral principles that undergird them. Even deeply held moral beliefs, such as the wrongness of separating young children from their parents, might need to be suspended in a genuine crisis. </p>
<p>When President Franklin D. Roosevelt ordered the internment of Japanese-Americans during the Second World War, he justified the decision by saying that the United States was facing an “<a href="https://www.ibiblio.org/pha/timeline/410527awp.html">unlimited national emergency</a>.”</p>
<p>So when President Trump asserts that the border is in crisis, he gives himself permission in effect to take whatever radical or unprecedented action he deems necessary to end that crisis. If he violates legal or moral rules in the process – well, that’s simply a tough-minded response to an emergency.</p>
<p>The extraordinary nature of a crisis, however, requires an extraordinary level of evidence. Elected officials must show the public evidence that the crisis exists, and that the proposed solution will genuinely fix the problem. </p>
<p>Otherwise, a temporary permission to suspend normal rules tends to become a permanent permission to ignore them.</p>
<h2>Not an authoritarian speech</h2>
<p><strong>Sylvia Taschka, Senior Lecturer of History, Wayne State University</strong></p>
<p>American presidents have traditionally made Oval Office speeches only under the gravest circumstances, such as during the 1962 Cuban missile crisis or after the <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/president-bush-addresses-the-nation">Sept. 11 terrorist attacks</a>. </p>
<p>So when Trump said he would address border security in a nationally televised speech, critics who see authoritarian tendencies in this president understandably got worried. They feared he would declare a national emergency, <a href="http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/01/national-emergency-trump-authoritarian-powers.html">abusing his executive powers</a> to <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/trump-wall-shutdown-national-emergency-pelosi-1283158">build a wall along the Southern border</a>. </p>
<p>Instead, viewers got a rather measured – if somewhat hastily and awkwardly delivered – speech by a softer version of a president better known for provocative, vicious rhetoric and obsessive daily tweets. Trump sat behind the Oval Office’s iconic, heavy wooden desk, framed by his beloved golden curtains, American flags and photos of his parents. </p>
<p>On the surface, this restrained address didn’t look or sound authoritarian. Trump showed neither the grand posturing of a <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/benito-mussolini">Benito Mussolini</a> nor the maniacal intensity of a <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Joseph-Goebbels">Joseph Goebbels</a>.</p>
<p>What he did do, prominently, is what he’s done since his <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2015/06/16/donald-trump-to-announce-his-presidential-plans-today/">2016 presidential campaign</a>: hype up a manageable situation to create a “crisis.” </p>
<p>He portrayed the drug trade and undocumented immigration – decades-old social issues tackled by numerous government agencies – as existential threats that allegedly pose a mortal danger to the American people. </p>
<p>By evoking horrific crimes committed by a small number of immigrants, he turned an entire group of people into composite figures of limitless cruelty – perpetrators of rape, brutal murder and other particularly heinous crimes.</p>
<p>He demanded a border barrier – be it a concrete wall, metal slats, or, why not, a giant “no trespassing” sign – to “protect our country.”</p>
<p>This <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2018/06/19/two-charts-demolish-the-notion-that-immigrants-here-illegally-commit-more-crime/?utm_term=.45bd922719b2">completely unjustified vilification</a> – immigrants <a href="http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/11/28/5-facts-about-illegal-immigration-in-the-u-s/">commit less crime than native-born Americans</a> – culminated in a rhetorical question: </p>
<p>“How much more American blood must we shed?” </p>
<p>His language implies that some people’s lives are worth more than others. This stance recalls racist, nationalist policies of the past in <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/07/21/europe/world-returns-to-1930s-intl/index.html">both Europe and the United States</a> – a past many had foolishly hoped had been put behind us.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/109597/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael Blake receives funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Enrique Armijo and Sylvia Taschka do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>We asked experts on ethics, constitutional law and European political history to analyze Trump’s Oval Office address. Here’s what they heard in his speech about ‘crisis’ at the US-Mexico border.Enrique Armijo, Associate Professor of Law and Associate Dean of Academic Affairs, Elon UniversityMichael Blake, Professor of Philosophy, Public Policy, and Governance, University of WashingtonSylvia Taschka, Senior Lecturer of History, Wayne State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/827272017-09-09T12:51:53Z2017-09-09T12:51:53ZCould Trump be holding Dreamers hostage to make Mexico pay for his border wall?<p>Fulfilling one of United States president Donald Trump’s <a href="http://time.com/4927100/donald-trump-daca-past-statements/">campaign promises</a>, US Attorney General Jeff Sessions recently <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/speech/attorney-general-sessions-delivers-remarks-daca">announced</a> the end of the <a href="https://www.uscis.gov/archive/consideration-deferred-action-childhood-arrivals-daca">Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA)</a> programme. The initiative, launched by former president Barack Obama in 2012, allows people brought to the US illegally as children the temporary right to live, study and work in the country.</p>
<p>DACA protections will begin <a href="https://www.uscis.gov/daca2017">to expire</a> in six months, giving the US Congress a short window to legislate the now precarious futures of the 787,580 so-called “Dreamers” who currently <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/107th-congress/senate-bill/1291">benefit from the programme</a>. </p>
<p>In Mexico, as in <a href="http://time.com/4928812/donald-trump-dreamers-daca/">the US</a>, Sessions’ announcement was met with distress. Nearly 80% of the programme’s recipients were born in Mexico, and ending DACA exposes 618,342 undocumented young Mexicans (as well as 28,371 Salvadorans, 19,792 Guatemalans and 18,262 Hondurans) to deportation. Many in this group, who range in age from 15 to 36, were brought to the US as babies.</p>
<p>There’s been some <a href="https://soundcloud.com/user-477291552/leon-krauze-con-alejandro-aguirre-en-oliva-noticias">speculation</a> that the US president is using DACA as a bargaining chip. North of the border, commentators think this is about <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/08/opinion/swap-daca-wall-funding.html?_r=0">making a deal with Democrats</a> in Congress. </p>
<p>But as a Mexican scholar of US-Mexico political history, I would argue that the DACA decision is more like a power play in Trump’s ongoing battle with the government of Mexico. So far President Enrique Peña Nieto has refused the White House’s <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/901804388649500672">demands</a> that his country pay for the proposed <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-wall-and-the-beast-trumps-triumph-from-the-mexican-side-of-the-border-68559">southern border wall.</a> And he only agreed to <a href="https://ustr.gov/about-us/policy-offices/press-office/press-releases/2017/september/trilateral-statement-conclusion-0">renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement</a> after Trump threatened to withdraw the US from it.</p>
<p>White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders all but confirmed that Trump sees DACA as a political weapon when she acceded to a reporter’s assertion that the administration “seemed to be saying…if we’re going to allow Dreamers to stay in this country, we want a wall”.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/XSaVNbtcsFk?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders on how DACA relates the proposed US-Mexico border wall.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Either way, I’d contend that Donald Trump is not only holding nearly a million innocent people hostage, trying to exchange dreams for bricks, he’s also neglecting the complex history of Mexican migration to the US – a centuries-long tale that, like all national borders, has (at least) two sides. </p>
<h2>Where DREAMS come true</h2>
<p>Long before Trump ran for president, American politicians <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books?id=GUUwDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT169&lpg=PT169&dq=presidentes+estados+unidos+culpan+mexico+migracion&source=bl&ots=Y_qO8-4uqy&sig=B0q5EQhws4Xywl6aYzsArfF7OFw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjSp7fEvZPWAhVHi5QKHRh8Bvs4ChDoAQhkMAc#v=onepage&q=presidentes%20estados%20unidos%20culpan%20mexico%20migracion&f=false">blamed</a> Mexico for not doing enough to keep poor citizens from migrating northward. Mexicans, in turn, tend to blame the US for creating the demand for cheap labour.</p>
<p>The two cross-border problems are <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books/about/Labor_Organizations_in_the_United_States.html?id=rYQFAQAAIAAJ&redir_esc=y">deeply intertwined</a>. And because the US and Mexico have both benefited from undocumented migration, each country’s efforts to control it have been ambiguous at best.</p>
<p>It is true that Mexico’s economy has long been unable to provide enough decent work for its people. Though unemployment has ranged from 3% to 4% for the last <a href="https://datos.bancomundial.org/indicador/SL.UEM.TOTL.ZS">two decades</a>, underemployment is deep. In 2016, <a href="http://www.elfinanciero.com.mx/opinion/la-realidad-del-empleo-y-desempleo-en-mexico.html">14.52%</a> of the Mexican labour force was either working fewer than 35 hours per week or being paid under the meagre daily minimum wage (<a href="http://www.sat.gob.mx/informacion_fiscal/tablas_indicadores/paginas/salarios_minimos.aspx">US$4.50</a> a day). </p>
<p>For Mexico, then, migration is a safety valve, releasing social tensions that would arise if impoverished migrants stayed home. Mexicans abroad also send large amounts of money to their families in the form of remittances, injecting some <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/remittances-to-mexico-hit-record-27-billion-in-2016-1485978810">US$27 billion</a> into the Mexican economy last year.</p>
<p>Simple economics, however, teach us that demand begets supply. For generations, the modern US economy has thrived on low-wage Mexican labour. Even when nativism surged under president Woodrow Wilson (1913-1921), who signed the <a href="http://library.uwb.edu/Static/USimmigration/39%20stat%20874.pdf">Immigration Act of 1917</a> barring Asian immigration, Congress allowed continued recruitment of Mexicans to til American fields and lay American railroad tracks.</p>
<p>This trend continued throughout the 20th century. In 1942, the US and Mexico jointly instituted the <a href="http://braceroarchive.org/about">Bracero programme</a>, under which millions of Mexican labourers were hired to work agricultural jobs in the US while many able-bodied American men were off fighting World War II. </p>
<p>While under contract, <em>braceros</em> were given housing and paid a minimum wage of thirty cents an hour. By the time the programme ended, in 1964 (nearly two decades after the war’s end), the US had sponsored some <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books/about/Inside_the_State.html?id=2WMPAAAAYAAJ&redir_esc=y">5 million border crossings</a> in 24 states. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/185314/original/file-20170908-32313-351xae.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/185314/original/file-20170908-32313-351xae.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=474&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185314/original/file-20170908-32313-351xae.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=474&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185314/original/file-20170908-32313-351xae.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=474&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185314/original/file-20170908-32313-351xae.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=595&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185314/original/file-20170908-32313-351xae.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=595&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185314/original/file-20170908-32313-351xae.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=595&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Braceros workers came legally to work in the US during World War II. Here, a group of Braceros crossing the border at Mexicali in 1954.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/53/MexicaliBraceros%2C1954.jpg">Los Angeles Times photographic archive, UCLA Library via Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Workers who came into the US illegally were swiftly incorporated into the Bracero system, too. One of the more bizarre practices in the history of US immigration policy was the so-called “<a href="https://books.google.com.au/books/about/Los_Mojados.html?id=JMJQAAAAMAAJ&redir_esc=y">drying out</a>” of “wetbacks”, a derogatory official term for undocumented workers.</p>
<p>When the Border Patrol arrested a “wet” worker on a farm, officials would transport him to the border to set foot on Mexican soil – i.e., ritualistically “deport” him – and then allow him to step back into the US, where he would be hired to work legally as a <em>bracero</em>.</p>
<p>Mexicans have been crossing the border ever since, hoping to find the steady work and eventual acceptance that the Bracero programme once offered. In the <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/2061740">1965-1986 period</a>, for example, undocumented Mexicans made approximately 27.9 million entries into the US (offset by 23.3 million departures). In that same period approximately 4.6 million established residence in the country. </p>
<p>Without Bracero-style government support, American citizens and firms have simply employed those migrants under the table. Undocumented Mexicans dominate the <a href="https://www.voanews.com/a/us-farmers-depend-on-illegal-immigrants-100541644/162082.html">US agricultural sector</a>, but they are also construction workers, line cooks, landscapers – even <a href="http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/article16519040.html">Wall Street brokers and journalists</a>.</p>
<p>In 1986, Ronald Reagan signed the <a href="https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/STATUTE-100/pdf/STATUTE-100-Pg3445.pdf">Immigration Reform and Control Act</a>, a crackdown that promised tighter security at the Mexican border and strict penalties for employers who hired undocumented workers. However, the bill also offered amnesty to immigrants who had entered the country before 1982.</p>
<p>The term “Dreamers” itself refers to another American attempt at immigration reform, the bipartisan <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/107th-congress/senate-bill/1291">Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act</a> of 2001, which would have offered permanent legal residency to young people brought to the US as infants. </p>
<p>That bill was never passed. The Obama administration devised the DACA programme as a compromise to protect those young people, many of whom <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/sep/05/dreamers-daca-trump-ends-program-fears-for-future">have never known any country but the US</a>. </p>
<h2>Bricks for dreams</h2>
<p>Chicana scholar Gloria Anzaldúa once <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books/about/Borderlands.html?id=yV1yAAAAMAAJ">described</a> the border as “<em>una herida abierta</em>” – an open wound – where “the Third World grates against the first and bleeds”. The Dreamers are children born of this wound.</p>
<p>Their uncertain fate has moved Mexicans, offering president Peña Nieto a rare chance to occupy the moral high ground. His administration has been ridden by successive scandals for months, including very public <a href="https://theconversation.com/governors-gone-wild-mexico-faces-a-lost-generation-of-corrupt-leaders-76858">corruption</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/for-many-mexicans-this-government-spying-scandal-feels-eerily-familiar-79981">illegal espionage</a> on Mexican citizens. </p>
<p>Peña Nieto <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KbFpt0MKYA">conveyed his support for</a> DACA recipients in his September 2 State of the Union address, saying: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>I send affectionate greetings to the young beneficiaries of the administrative measure that protects those who arrived as infants to the United States. To all of you, young dreamers, our great recognition, admiration and solidarity without reservations.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>He later <a href="https://twitter.com/EPN/status/905169923478917120">tweeted</a> that any Dreamers deported to Mexico would be welcomed back “with open arms”, <a href="https://www.gob.mx/sre/prensa/el-gobierno-de-mexico-lamenta-profundamente-la-cancelacion-del-programa-de-accion-diferida-para-los-llegados-en-la-infancia-daca">offering</a> them access to credit, education, scholarships and health services.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"905169923478917120"}"></div></p>
<p>In a <a href="https://www.gob.mx/sre/prensa/el-gobierno-de-mexico-lamenta-profundamente-la-cancelacion-del-programa-de-accion-diferida-para-los-llegados-en-la-infancia-daca">statement</a>, the Mexican Foreign Ministry acknowledged its northern neighbour’s sovereign right to determine its immigration policy but expressed “profound regret” that “thousands of young people” have been thrust into a state of turmoil and fear.</p>
<p>Trump seems willing to use any tactic necessary to get his wall built. If the US Congress does finally agree on a way to protect the Dreamers, it will give these young immigrants the American future they deserve, but no wall – be it Mexican-funded or otherwise – will stop other young Mexicans from trying to build their own.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/82727/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Luis Gómez Romero does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>From south of the border, Trump seems to be using DACA as a diplomatic weapon in his ongoing power struggle with the Mexican government. That just hurts 800,000 people and helps President Peña Nieto.Luis Gómez Romero, Senior Lecturer in Human Rights, Constitutional Law and Legal Theory, University of WollongongLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/731112017-08-23T02:00:08Z2017-08-23T02:00:08ZHere’s a better vision for the US-Mexico border: Make the Rio Grande grand again<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/181604/original/file-20170809-13327-13oy39u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">In Big Bend National Park's Santa Elena Canyon, the Rio Grande separates the United States (left) from Mexico (right).</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/kenlund/66959354">Ken Lund</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Leer <a href="https://theconversation.com/una-mejor-idea-para-la-frontera-entre-eua-y-mexico-invertimos-en-el-rio-no-en-un-muro-83077">en español</a>.</em> </p>
<p>The United States and Mexico have shared their current international border for nearly 170 years. Today they cooperate at multiple levels on issues that affect the border region, although you would not know it from the divisive rhetoric that we hear in both countries. President Trump’s focus on building a border wall threatens to undermine many binational initiatives, as well as <a href="http://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2017/02/17/514356130/the-environmental-consequences-of-a-wall-on-the-u-s-mexico-border">our shared natural environment</a>. </p>
<p>As a scholar focusing on urban planning and design in the border region, I have worked with communities in both countries to restore deteriorated urban and natural environments. I see great potential for <a href="https://theconversation.com/one-way-to-promote-green-infrastructure-in-your-city-78975">green infrastructure</a> – projects that use live natural systems to deliver benefits to people and the local environment. This approach can help mitigate air and water pollution, restore soils and habitats and regenerate plant, animal and human communities.</p>
<p>I also see an opportunity for Mexico and the United States to work together on a much larger scale. Rather than spending billions of dollars on a border wall, here is an alternative vision: regenerating the <a href="https://www.americanrivers.org/river/rio-grande-river/">Rio Grande</a>, which forms more than half of the border, to form the core of a binational park that showcases our spectacular shared landscape.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/181599/original/file-20170809-10793-1nqgax0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/181599/original/file-20170809-10793-1nqgax0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/181599/original/file-20170809-10793-1nqgax0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=709&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181599/original/file-20170809-10793-1nqgax0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=709&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181599/original/file-20170809-10793-1nqgax0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=709&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181599/original/file-20170809-10793-1nqgax0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=890&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181599/original/file-20170809-10793-1nqgax0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=890&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181599/original/file-20170809-10793-1nqgax0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=890&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Rio Grande rises in south-central Colorado and flows 1,885 miles to the Gulf of Mexico.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rio_Grande#/media/File:Riogranderivermap.png">Kmusser</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Today the river’s <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/13/us/mighty-rio-grande-now-a-trickle-under-siege.html">volume is decreasing</a>, thanks to climate change and water diversions for agriculture and municipal uses. It is polluted with fertilizers and sewage, and has <a href="https://www.nps.gov/bibe/learn/nature/rio-trouble.htm">lost at least seven native fish species</a>. Restoring it would produce immense benefits for wildlife, agriculture, recreation and communities on both sides. </p>
<h2>Environmental challenges along the border</h2>
<p>Mexico and the United States have signed numerous agreements regulating the border, starting with the <a href="https://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/ourdocs/Guadalupe.html">Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo</a> in 1848. In 1944 they created the <a href="https://www.ibwc.gov/home.html">International Boundary and Water Commission</a> to manage water supplies, water quality and flood control in the border region. </p>
<p>Environmental issues that affect communities on the border include <a href="https://pubs.usgs.gov/circ/1380/downloads/Chapter5.pdf">raw sewage dumping, agro-chemical pollution and flooding</a>. Loss of riparian habitat – the lush green zones along river banks – has reduced shade and natural cooling in the river’s urban stretches. </p>
<p>Recognizing these issues, the United States and Mexico established the <a href="http://www.becc.org/">Border Environment Cooperation Commission</a> in a side pact to the North American Free Trade Agreement. This organization funds environmental programs proposed by local communities and governments within a 400-kilometer-wide strip along the border. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s <a href="https://www.epa.gov/border2020">Border 2020 program</a> also provides grants focused on environmental issues in the United States and Mexico. </p>
<h2>Greening infrastructure along the border</h2>
<p>I have coordinated applied collaborative design studios, in which students work with local and state planning authorities to address problems such as flooding and lack of accessible, high-quality public space. These projects seek to improve urban infrastructure systems in ways that increase ecosystem services, such as improving water quality.</p>
<p>For example, as part of the Border 2012 (precedent to Border 2020) program, the EPA provided funding for a pilot program to build flood-prevention detention ponds in Nogales, Mexico, a sister city with Nogales, Arizona. City leaders wanted to assess whether the ponds could also serve as public space amenities. Working with students from Arizona State University, my colleague <a href="https://isearch.asu.edu/profile/756610">Francisco Lara Valencia</a> and I produced a <a href="http://server.cocef.org/Final_Reports_B2012/20044/20044_Final_Report_EN.pdf">report</a> for local planning authorities. In it we proposed creating a network of connected green spaces to absorb stormwater and provide park lands, bringing nature into the city. By doing so, EPA and Mexican authorities could have a positive environmental impact on both cities.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/169883/original/file-20170518-2399-1jnobbn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/169883/original/file-20170518-2399-1jnobbn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/169883/original/file-20170518-2399-1jnobbn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=702&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169883/original/file-20170518-2399-1jnobbn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=702&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169883/original/file-20170518-2399-1jnobbn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=702&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169883/original/file-20170518-2399-1jnobbn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=882&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169883/original/file-20170518-2399-1jnobbn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=882&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169883/original/file-20170518-2399-1jnobbn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=882&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Top: The Rio Grande in eastern Ciudad Juarez today, with tourists photographing the border barriers on the American side. Bottom: The same site envisioned 10 years from now, with tourists photographing wildlife and a living river.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Gabriel Diaz Montemayor</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>I also worked with students at the University of Texas at Austin to create a <a href="http://soa.utexas.edu/work/landscape-architecture-comprehensive-design-studio-hermosillo-green-corridors-plan">green corridor master plan</a> for the city of Hermosillo, Sonora in 2015. Green corridors typically run along natural or artificial waterways to soak up stormwater and provide places to play. The city is now launching a strategic plan that incorporates these concepts. </p>
<p>In 2015-16 at UT Austin, we developed an urban planning and design strategy for border towns in the state of Tamaulipas that are expected to be impacted by oil and gas production resulting from recent energy reforms in Mexico. Our case study city is <a href="http://soa.utexas.edu/work/advanced-studio-spring-2016-integral-cities-tamaulipas-border-region-infrastructure-rapid">Ciudad Miguel Aleman</a>, a border sister city with Roma, Texas, separated only by the width of the Rio Grande. </p>
<p>The plan and designs propose to leverage construction of infrastructure for oil and gas production fields to include detention and filtration ponds and green corridors, which will serve as high-quality public spaces and mitigate flood risks. It also calls for creating natural preserves and recreation areas on the Mexican side of the river, mirroring existing areas on the American side. </p>
<h2>An international border park</h2>
<p>A green vision for the border region would expand this sister-city-specific approach into a large-scale urban ecology and planning effort. This initiative could integrate streets, parks, industries, towns, cities, creeks and other tributaries, agriculture and fracking fields throughout the Rio Grande’s entire 182,000-square-mile watershed. </p>
<p>One possible starting point would be to restore riparian zones along the river through the binational metropolis of Ciudad Juarez, Mexico and El Paso, Texas, redesigning the existing channel. Recreating natural habitat on both sides of the river would cool and clean the air and provide attractive public spaces. </p>
<p>But why stop there? As the Rio Grande advances to the Gulf of Mexico, it cuts through incredibly valuable, beautiful and remote landscapes, including <a href="https://www.nps.gov/bibe/index.htm">Big Bend National Park</a> in Texas and the <a href="http://www.chihuahua.gob.mx/areas/santa_elena">Cañon de Santa Elena</a>, Ocampo, and <a href="http://www.gob.mx/semarnat/articulos/maderas-del-carmen-area-de-proteccion-de-flora-y-fauna">Maderas del Carmen</a> reserves in Mexico. Traveling its length could become a trip comparable to hiking the Appalachian Trail, with opportunities to see recovering natural areas and wildlife and learn from two of the world’s richest cultures. </p>
<p>Together these areas form a vast, potentially binational natural park which could be managed cooperatively, much like <a href="http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/354">Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park</a> on the U.S.-Canadian border. In fact, advocates on both sides of the border have been pursuing this vision <a href="https://greaterbigbend.wordpress.com/international-park-timeline-2/">for more than 80 years</a>. When Texas officials proposed creating Big Bend National Park in the 1930s, they envisioned an international park. In 1944, President Franklin Roosevelt wrote to Mexican President Manuel Avila Camacho that</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“I do not believe that this undertaking in the Big Bend [establishment of Big Bend National Park] will be complete until the entire park area in this region on both sides of the Rio Grande forms one great international park.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Discussions lapsed in the 1950s, then resumed in the 1980s at the grassroots level, but were drowned out by debates over border security and immigration after the September 11, 2001 attacks.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/181686/original/file-20170810-20679-deh5k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/181686/original/file-20170810-20679-deh5k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/181686/original/file-20170810-20679-deh5k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=476&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181686/original/file-20170810-20679-deh5k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=476&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181686/original/file-20170810-20679-deh5k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=476&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181686/original/file-20170810-20679-deh5k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=599&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181686/original/file-20170810-20679-deh5k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=599&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181686/original/file-20170810-20679-deh5k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=599&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Mexican President Manuel Avila Camacho during a state visit by Roosevelt to Monterrey, Mexico, April 20, 1943.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d2/Franklin_D_Roosevelt_Manuel_Avila_Camacho_Monterrey.jpg">National Archives</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Uniting, not dividing</h2>
<p>So far, Congress has <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/23/us/politics/trump-veto-spending-bill.html">refused to fund</a> President Trump’s requests for billions of dollars to build a border wall. In any case, building a wall on a wide, inhabited river corridor with flood risks is a dubious goal. As experts have <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/20/us/politics/on-the-mexican-border-a-case-for-technology-over-concrete.html?_r=0">pointed out</a>, it is more effective to police the border with technology and human power than to build a barrier.</p>
<p>In fact, restoring river habitat could improve border security by fostering higher and more constant water flow. Making the Rio Grande healthier would also benefit farmers and energy producers on both sides of the border. </p>
<p>In his 1951 essay “<a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=cRddYSJCEBEC&pg=PA43&source=gbs_toc_r&cad=4#v=onepage&q&f=false">Chihuahua as We Might Have Been</a>,” American cultural landscape scholar J.B. Jackson wrote that “rivers are meant to bring men together, not to keep them apart,” and that the border imposes an artificial division on a region that humans accepted as one unified entity for hundreds of years – the Spanish Southwest. This vast shared watershed should remind us that we are fragile in isolation, but powerful when we come together.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/73111/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gabriel Diaz Montemayor does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Instead of building a wall on the US-Mexico border, a landscape architect calls for restoring the Rio Grande and turning its course into an international park – an idea first proposed in the 1930s.Gabriel Diaz Montemayor, Assistant Professor of Landscape Architecture, The University of Texas at AustinLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/793002017-07-24T10:34:22Z2017-07-24T10:34:22ZHow activist artists on the US-Mexico border contest Donald Trump’s wall<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/177839/original/file-20170712-15626-7213fy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/diversey/15999598736/in/photolist-qnQ8hC-6XBaka-Sf8jgM-rvvoND-9115k-A8YBz-SFv2BY-zaMPxn-smRSkj-dFuWcC-4jBM1r-KUB4C-UbLULY-qZ2XEu-x3wns-gGm532-6iJWCW-voAWL-ps3npo-pGswgr-GGZ67-q5YhqX-faDX44-tWDkW-cWKkYu-gGkqHW-7ag5eW-tWDbu-35rCyQ-fDycrJ-2JQzLf-qoNTs9-qoNQaN-79WrQP-brJ62m-78ohfv-58gNQ-fzRNew-6SLiQm-7biuYV-aft764-qr5XLV-5bi8JQ-gGm3gr-7bntEw-6ZrG1Y-5MY3iq-9AbVek-4MxL5f-8vvE48">diversey/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In recent years we have seen a rise of what has been termed “artivism”: the bringing together of art and activism. Artivists see art as a social practice. They address particular societal concerns or inequalities and involve communities and activists, as well as other artists. For many of these artivists, new media technologies have provided particularly fruitful ways to engage in this. Different groups and collectives are variously promoting “<a href="http://geertlovink.org/texts/tactical-media-the-second-decade/">tactical media</a>”, “<a href="http://critical-art.net/siteapps/WordPress-49402/htdocs/books/ecd/">electronic civil disobedience</a>”, and “<a href="http://www.thing.net/%7Erdom/ucsd/3somesPlus/hacktivismcyberwars.pdf">hactivism</a>” as ways of employing digital technologies in order to make creative, artistic protests.</p>
<p>Some particularly interesting examples of these types of conjunctions of art, activism, and new media, have focused on the US-Mexico border region, a space which has come under increased scrutiny in recent months, particularly in the light of Trump’s infamous plans to build a wall between Mexico and the US. </p>
<p>As part of my ongoing research on digital art and activism in Latin America, I’ve looked at artists whose work has focused on the US-Mexico border. Some of the features that they highlight in their work make clear that the situation is a lot more complex than the “them/us” rhetoric that Trump uses – a rhetoric that it is extremely important to overcome. These artists make work that attempts to express a non-nation state identity and provide a critique of the late capitalist conditions of the border economy.</p>
<h2>Activist art</h2>
<p>There have been many festivals and interventions on the border, including the <a href="http://borderhack.org/">Borderhack</a> festivals that began in 2000, which aim to protest “the inequalities and dangerous conditions” that Mexican immigrants face. There is also the <a href="https://www.marktribe.net/tijuana-calling/">Tijuana Calling</a> online exhibition, which makes use of new media technologies to explore the concerns of the border, and to investigate the ways in which technologies – often put to use to police these very borders – may be re-encoded in a resistant fashion.</p>
<p>One such work is “<em>Turista Fronterizo</em>”, made in collaboration between Cuban-American performance and multimedia artist Coco Fusco and media hactivist Ricardo Domínguez. Turista Fronterizo takes the format of an electronic board game, loosely similar to the Monopoly format, but with the properties spaced along the San Diego-Tijuana border.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/176036/original/file-20170628-5101-1h8gn09.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/176036/original/file-20170628-5101-1h8gn09.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/176036/original/file-20170628-5101-1h8gn09.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/176036/original/file-20170628-5101-1h8gn09.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/176036/original/file-20170628-5101-1h8gn09.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/176036/original/file-20170628-5101-1h8gn09.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/176036/original/file-20170628-5101-1h8gn09.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/176036/original/file-20170628-5101-1h8gn09.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Turista Fronterizo (2005), Coco Fusco and Ricardo Domínguez.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Image reproduced courtesy of Coco Fusco.</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>When we play the game – which can be done <a href="https://www.thing.net/%7Ecocofusco/StartPage.html">online</a> – by moving our avatar to a new square, a short animation appears in the centre of the board commenting on the socio-political realities associated with each particular location. These avatars frequently make reference to real-life controversies, disputes and human rights abuses that have taken place within the border region. This is a work that encourages us to critique the structural inequalities of the border economy, and to take an active, critical position.</p>
<p>Another example is the work of Latino artist Ricardo Miranda Zúñiga. His recent project, A Geography of Being (2012), is an interactive installation consisting of a video game along with sculptures that contain electronic circuits that react to the game. Far from drawing the user into a purely ludic, pleasurable world, this game encourages them to reflect on social issues. It narrates the experiences of undocumented young immigrants in the US – young people who enter the US in search of better life opportunities. The game positions the player in the role of an undocumented youth who needs to negotiate the virtual world and learn about the hardships that such young people face.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/176037/original/file-20170628-7303-dnua2f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/176037/original/file-20170628-7303-dnua2f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/176037/original/file-20170628-7303-dnua2f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/176037/original/file-20170628-7303-dnua2f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/176037/original/file-20170628-7303-dnua2f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/176037/original/file-20170628-7303-dnua2f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/176037/original/file-20170628-7303-dnua2f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/176037/original/file-20170628-7303-dnua2f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A Geography of Being (2012), Ricardo Miranda Zúñiga.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Image reproduced courtesy of Ricardo Miranda Zúñiga</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Perhaps one of the most high-profile examples of the creative use of digital technologies to contest dominant neoliberal logic and enable cross-border identities is the <a href="https://post.thing.net/node/1642">Transborder Immigrant Tool</a> (2010). This is a mobile phone app that uses GPS to aid undocumented migrants to find sources of water when crossing the US-Mexico border, as well as showing the location of the nearest US Border Patrol stations and other landmarks on both sides of the border. Installed onto recycled mobile phones, and distributed free to migrants, the tool <a href="https://doi.org/10.1068/d10110">has been dubbed</a> a “virtual divining rod”. As well as providing practical support, the tool raises important issues about inequalities and access in the border region.</p>
<p>These artists often present the US-Mexico border as a continuous space. They emphasise that the US-Mexico border has a complex – if fraught – shared history, that doesn’t fit neatly into national borders.</p>
<h2>Protest politics</h2>
<p>Perhaps the most important role of these artists and activists is the way they often protest against the sorts of neoliberal policies imposed on the border region by the US. </p>
<p>It’s widely accepted that <a href="http://www.naftanow.org/">NAFTA</a>, the North American Free Trade Agreement has ensured the US access to an abundant supply of cheap labour south of the border. NAFTA has long been the subject of criticism by Mexican activists for its <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/215532529_Fifteen_Years_of_NAFTA_The_Impact_on_Rural_Mexico">devastation of the traditional Mexican rural economy</a>. </p>
<p>Indeed, the reality of the border is that the US economy relies on a disavowed underclass of cheap Mexican labour. This labour comes from the same US policies, enacted through NAFTA, which drove Mexican peasants from their land, and created a disposed class who were forced to look for work in the <em>maquiladoras</em> – factories run by a foreign company exporting its products – so common on the border. The rhetoric of President Donald Trump, in which Mexicans (them) are coming to steal our jobs (us) is therefore much more complex than it appears.</p>
<p>In these ways, artists – both those living in the border regions and elsewhere – have been engaging creatively with border experiences for years. Their works provide a nuanced and complex take on what it is like to live in the border region, and encourage viewers to take a critical stance as regards the inequalities faced by many living there. </p>
<p>Perhaps the greatest indicator of the importance of their work is the reactions that they have generated. In 2010 for instance, three Republican congressmen called for an investigation of the Transborder Immigrant Tool, and Ricardo Domínguez was <a href="http://www.furtherfield.org/features/global-positioning-interview-ricardo-dominguez">threatened with loss of tenure</a> from University of California San Diego. Fortunately, Dóminguez remained in post, and his work, and that of other artivists, continues.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/79300/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Claire Taylor has received grants from the AHRC and the ESRC.</span></em></p>Activist art makes clear that the border dynamic is a lot more complex than Trumps’s ‘them/us’ rhetoric.Claire Taylor, Professor in Hispanic Studies, University of LiverpoolLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/744742017-04-27T13:06:17Z2017-04-27T13:06:17ZDonald Trump’s 100 days of u-turns, bombs and cake<p>The hundredth day of an American president’s term traditionally marks the end of the honeymoon period – a time to take stock of early achievements, launch new legislation, and set a new direction. But the score card for Donald Trump’s first 100 days doesn’t read well, and the direction for the next four years is looking so new as to radically contradict the premise of his campaign.</p>
<p>Trump hasn’t commenced the wall along the US-Mexican border, his signature campaign pledge. He has failed (and <a href="http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/03/obamacare-vote-paul-ryan-health-care-ahca-replacement-failure-trump-214947">spectacularly</a>) to repeal and replace the healthcare reforms collectively known as <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-did-we-get-here-four-essential-reads-on-the-status-of-health-care-in-america-74594">Obamacare</a>, and the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/mar/15/trump-travel-ban-blocked-restraining-order-hawaii">courts</a> have thwarted his <a href="https://theconversation.com/trumps-order-barring-refugees-flies-in-the-face-of-logic-and-humanity-72061">orders to ban foreign nationals</a> from several mainly Muslim countries from the US. And on a moral front, his <a href="http://www.vox.com/world/2017/4/6/15214942/trump-syria-bombing-attack">compassion</a> for Syrian children killed in a horrific chemical attack was offset by his decision to turn away <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2017/01/27/president-trump-refugee-ban-terrorist-countries/97145776/">10,000 Syrian refugees</a>.</p>
<p>The administration is under intense pressure from investigations into the Trump team’s <a href="https://youtu.be/HHwVuQ3VDjY">Russian connections</a> and purported Russian meddling in the 2016 election. The resignation of <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-38965557">General Mike Flynn</a> and the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/04/19/another-republican-tasked-with-investigating-trump-steps-aside/?utm_term=.30d269544160">hapless antics</a> of the investigating committees in Congress have only made the saga more damaging.</p>
<p>All the while, American opinion remains divided as ever: Trump currently enjoys the approval of <a href="http://www.gallup.com/poll/201617/gallup-daily-trump-job-approval.aspx">roughly 40%</a> of his people. </p>
<p>Trump’s image problem extends well beyond the US’s borders. In the past month, I spent a week in China while President Xi Jinping was visiting Trump’s Florida resort, Mar-a-Lago. I then visited the US, travelling from North Carolina through Virginia and on to Washington, DC. The Chinese are mostly bemused by the new president, who comes in for <a href="https://www.rawstory.com/2017/04/slaps-himself-in-the-face-chinese-press-mocks-trump-for-caving-on-china-currency-manipulation/">plenty of criticism</a> in the Chinese media. </p>
<p>In the US, meanwhile, the president is at the centre of a perpetual media frenzy, lurching from one decision to the next while providing byplay via his own tweets. And undoubtedly his most dramatic lurch has been away from isolationism and towards outright military adventurism.</p>
<h2>Volte-face</h2>
<p>Throughout the 2016 campaign, Trump criticised “crooked Hillary” and Barack Obama for allowing the situation in Syria to deteriorate, but he also declared that he would not get involved. The “America First” philosophy he articulated in his <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-trump-era-has-begun-how-can-we-make-sense-of-it-71311">inaugural address</a> combined economic nationalism with international isolationism, and <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/donald-trump-america-first-not-us-president-world-nato-ntabu-trade-unions-workers-infrastructure-a7668576.html">more recently</a>, he reminded an audience of union members that he is “not the president of the world”. </p>
<p>But as the makeup of his National Security Council <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/05/us/politics/national-security-council-stephen-bannon.html?_r=0">changed</a>, Trump broke out of his isolationist box. He now appears to favour regime change in Syria, and possibly even a direct confrontation with North Korea.</p>
<p>Between my visits to China and the US, Trump retaliated to the deadly <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-latest-suspected-chemical-attack-in-syria-brings-destruction-and-deception-75718">April 4 chemical attack</a> on the Syrian rebel-held city of Khan Sheikhoun by authorising a direct missile strike on Syrian government airfields – this apparently while <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/04/13/donald-trumps-beautiful-chocolate-cake-really-does-look-rather/">enjoying</a> a “beautiful chocolate cake” with President Xi. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"852154762904653825"}"></div></p>
<p>The attack sharpened the main lines of contention in global politics between Russia and <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2017/03/12/bashar-al-assad-says-relations-between-syria-and-china-are-on-the-rise/?utm_term=.777d1e3d178e">China</a>, who continue to back Bashar al-Assad, and the G7 nations, who oppose him, but who have yet to come up with a coherent suggestion for <a href="https://theconversation.com/by-insisting-assad-must-go-the-west-has-prolonged-the-syrian-conflict-76110">removing him from power</a>. </p>
<p>Trump also said he’d ordered a US Navy carrier strike group on routine exercises to head from Australia to the waters off North Korea, while Pyongyang held a national day of celebration at which it showed off <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/video/2017/apr/15/north-korea-military-parade-shows-off-new-weapons-video">significant military hardware</a>, some of it not seen before. </p>
<p>In the days between the announced rerouting of the aircraft carrier group (the truth of which is now <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/04/19/trump-warned-north-korea-armada-headed-toward-australia/">unclear</a>) and North Korea’s celebrations, the US <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/apr/15/us-mother-of-all-bombs-moab-afghanistan-donald-trump-death-toll">dropped</a> the largest non-nuclear bomb ever used on a network of tunnels in Afghanistan used by the so-called Islamic State (IS). The blast itself is estimated to have killed more than 90 IS militants, while at the same time sending a clear signal to IS, North Korea and others that Trump is ready to use devastating force.</p>
<p>China’s Xi has since tried to calm tensions between the US and North Korea, but to little effect; the sabre-rattling continues, and a <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2017/04/25/asia/north-korea-nuclear-test-timing/">sixth North Korean nuclear test</a> may not be far away.</p>
<h2>Empty at the core</h2>
<p>Throughout these last 100 days, I have been searching for some sort of signal in all the noise – some core commitment to a programme of change, with a clear set of organising principles and an underlying philosophy. I have struggled to argue that there must be something at the heart of all of this that makes coherent sense and that will genuinely benefit even Trump’s core supporters. </p>
<p>Some of those supporters presumably see their president as a decisive leader using the full power of the presidency to tackle enormous domestic and foreign issues. To them, he’s doing precisely what he promised, and given time and space to act, he will deliver real change to America. Business leaders are waiting for his tax cuts to invigorate markets, while the core voters wait for their promised new jobs and cheaper healthcare.</p>
<p>But if Trump is right that running America really is like <a href="http://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/the-administration/321025-can-trump-run-the-government-like-a-business">running a business</a>, he should be able to produce an income-expenditure model that indicates more is being achieved with less, with a surplus to show as a result. No such model is forthcoming. Yes, the proposed investments in infrastructure and the border wall are meant to be balanced by cuts to public programmes in science, health, welfare, and even the coast guard. But combined with promised tax cuts and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/feb/27/trumps-budget-54-billion-increase-defense-spending">increased defence spending</a>, the books simply will not be balanced – especially with expensive new overseas military adventures now on the cards.</p>
<p>In search of a metaphor with which to capture these first 100 days of the Trump presidency, I’ve landed on the Tasmanian devil. The real animal is <a href="http://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/t/tasmanian-devil/">described</a> as having a “cantankerous disposition”; it will “fly into a maniacal rage when threatened by a predator, fighting for a mate, or defending a meal”. As rendered in cartoon form for Looney Tunes, it’s a swirling vortex of frenzied activity with an empty core.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/c54SvkgQ04A?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>The thrust and parry of politics is inevitable, as interests and power intersect in complex and contested ways – but actual change is achieved through consensus and compromise. Obamacare was only <a href="http://content.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1973989,00.html">passed in 2010</a> after a year of face-to-face encounters, discussions, and compromises forged in committee rooms and caucus meetings. The bill that emerged wasn’t what everyone wanted, but it contained enough of what most of them wanted. </p>
<p>If Trump’s first 100 days prove anything, it’s that politics is not business. CEOs and presidents need very different skills, and commanders-in-chief need to think about more than the bottom line. The self-proclaimed master of the <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Trump-Art-Deal-Donald-J/dp/0399594493">Art of the Deal</a> has much to learn if he is to thrive in his first term.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/74474/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Todd Landman receives funding from the Economic and Social Research Council and the European Union. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. </span></em></p>Running the US, it turns out, is nothing like running a business.Todd Landman, Professor of Political Science, Pro Vice Chancellor of the Social Sciences, University of NottinghamLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/763402017-04-25T19:41:42Z2017-04-25T19:41:42ZFamine creeps in on Africa while the world’s media looks elsewhere<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/166088/original/file-20170420-20068-1xymnsp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A UN helicopter flies over people waiting for food aid in South Sudan. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Reuters/Siegfried Modola</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Major political events in the US and Europe have preoccupied western media over the past year. Chief among these has been Donald Trump’s rise to US president and his continuing efforts to establish a credible domestic and foreign policy agenda. </p>
<p>Before that, the inability of the European Union to agree on a plan to host an <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-34131911">influx of refugees</a> gained the media’s attention along with the United Kingdom’s <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/jun/24/britain-votes-for-brexit-eu-referendum-david-cameron">referendum</a> on Europe. Now a succession of national elections across Europe – in France, Germany and the UK among others – looks set to dominate front page news.</p>
<p>The western media’s focus on momentous events at home has come at the expense of reporting on events unfolding in the global South. Among the events which have been eclipsed by the media’s preoccupation is the famine that’s unfolding in Africa. </p>
<p>Today the causes of famine are largely man made even though <a href="https://public.wmo.int/en/media/news/drought-set-worsen-parts-of-greater-horn-of-africa">below average rain fall has exacerbated local food production</a> in the Horn of Africa over the past 18 to 24 months. However, in Sudan, Niger, the Central African Republic and Nigeria military conflict over the past three to four years has disrupted food production, displaced millions and created conditions which prevent the delivery of humanitarian assistance (assuming it was available). </p>
<p>The situation today is not unlike events that unfolded in Ethiopia in the early 1980s. Western governments then failed to monitor and intervene in time to prevent or mitigate the famine. It took a global media event – in the form of Band Aid and a pop song [<a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/music/features/making-of-band-aid-20141125">Do they know it’s Christmas</a>] – to focus attention on the failure of western governments to respond to the tragedy that was unfolding. Alas humanitarian assistance, when it arrived, was too little too late.</p>
<p>The factors responsible for famine are complex. But, following the work of Amartya Sen, a Nobel Prize winning economist, they are well known and should be the focus of western development policy and humanitarian assistance. They include poor governance, inadequate planning, limited investment in development, ongoing violence and large scale population displacement. Unfortunately, such factors don’t appear on the agendas of western governments. </p>
<p>At the same time <a href="https://www.oecd.org/dac/stats/documentupload/2%20Africa%20-%20Development%20Aid%20at%20a%20Glance%202016.pdf">development assistance to Africa</a> has declined since 1990. The continent receives approximately 33% of total Overseas Development Assistance, down from 45% in 1990. And while humanitarian aid has stabilised at 7% to 8 %, funding for economic projects has increased from 17% to 21%. </p>
<p>Even though over the long-term the assistance should, in theory, be declining as the pace of development picks up, the need for humanitarian assistance needs to be constantly assessed so that it can be delivered in time to save lives.</p>
<h2>Interests are far more insular</h2>
<p>Why has western development policy failed to recognise the signs that a famine has been unfolding in Africa? Why has it failed to provide humanitarian aid in a timely manner? </p>
<p>The answer to these questions is twofold. Firstly western governments have failed to engage in sustained dialogue with African states to discuss the consequences of<a href="https://www.icrc.org/en/document/icrc-submission-international-development-committee-inquiry-forced-displacement-and"> policies that rely on force, which displace populations and which disrupt markets and set back development</a>. </p>
<p>Secondly it appears that western governments and tax payers are no longer interested in Africa. Their interests are far more insular, a situation reflected in the domestic issues that dominated the US election and the UK Brexit referendum. </p>
<p>The extent of western interest in Africa, indeed with the global South, is focused on securing the <a href="https://iscs.elliott.gwu.edu/sites/iscs.elliott.gwu.edu/files/downloads/Glaser-Oil-IS-2013%20(1).pdf">flow of oil</a> and other commodities which underpins their consumption. Coupled with this are determined efforts at stopping illegal migrants and refugees from entering the west. This fact is reflected in the $21 billion cost of Trump’s proposed <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/donald-trump-s-wall-on-us-mexico-border-could-cost-american-households-170-in-new-216bn-estimate-a7573151.html">wall</a> between the US and Mexico and the European Union’s €2.5 billion project to <a href="http://ec.europa.eu/europeaid/regions/africa/eu-emergency-trust-fund-africa_en">bottle up migrants in Africa</a> to prevent them from reaching Europe. </p>
<p>The current cost of humanitarian assistance for Africa pales into insignificance against such sums.</p>
<h2>Too little too late</h2>
<p>The famine in Africa is occurring on a much larger scale than in 1980 across the Horn of Africa, in the Central African Republic and in Nigeria where an estimated 40 million people are at risk. </p>
<p>Yet humanitarian assistance has come very late. What’s on offer is too little and it will be delivered too late to prevent large scale death. For instance the <a href="http://www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cms_data/docs/pressdata/EN/foraff/126052.pdf">European Union’s pledge</a> of €760 million to the Horn of Africa was only announced in November 2016 while European states made belated and quite small pledges in February this year. The US, for its part, remains the largest provider of <a href="https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R41072.pdf">food aid</a> but has yet to state what it will pledge to alleviate famine in Africa. </p>
<p>In 1984 public support for Band Aid provided a much needed kick up the backside to western governments for their failure to respond to the needs of 1 million Ethiopians. It remains to be seen who or what’s going to push the world into action today, for the 40 million Africans who face famine.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/76340/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>John R Campbell receives funding from the UK's Economic and Social Research Council. </span></em></p>The western media’s focus on events at home like the US elections and the UK Brexit referendum has come at the expense of reporting on the famine that’s unfolding in Africa.John R Campbell, Reader in the Anthropology of Africa and Law, SOAS, University of LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/766712017-04-25T17:47:05Z2017-04-25T17:47:05ZWill Congress fund Trump’s border wall with Mexico? 5 essential reads<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/184276/original/file-20170831-32045-xq1js1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Hundreds of people march along a levee in South Texas to oppose a border wall.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Eric Gay</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Editor’s note: The following is a roundup of archival stories.</em></p>
<p>On the campaign trail, Donald Trump promised Mexico would pay for a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.</p>
<p>Mexico has stated unequivocally <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2017/08/28/trump-border-wall-mexico-responds-242084">it will not</a> “under any circumstances.” Now, President Trump is demanding that Congress include funding for the wall in the budget lawmakers hope to pass by the end of September. Trump has threatened to <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-08-30/u-s-government-shutdown-could-cost-more-than-trump-border-wall">shut down the government</a> if lawmakers fail to do so.</p>
<p>What will it cost to build a wall?</p>
<p>Here are some insights from our experts. </p>
<h2>Building walls, 101</h2>
<p><strong>1.</strong> Why do we build walls in the first place and what do they accomplish? </p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/david-cook-martin-144025">David Cook Martín</a>, a sociologist at New York University, <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-trumps-wall-with-mexico-is-so-popular-and-why-it-wont-work-70047">explains that humans have been building walls for centuries</a>. But, he writes, they have rarely worked at solving the issues created by globalization.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Most importantly, walling the world distracts citizens and policymakers from complex problems.”</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Human and environmental impact</h2>
<p><strong>2.</strong> Of course, the primary purpose of this particular wall is to reduce the number of undocumented immigrants crossing the border.</p>
<p>However, Mexicans – the alleged culprits of Trump’s first speech on the topic – are no longer crossing in massive numbers for primarily economic reasons. <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/jonathan-hiskey-347601">Jonathan Hiskey</a>, a political scientist at Vanderbilt University, <a href="https://theconversation.com/americans-and-mexicans-living-at-the-border-are-more-connected-than-divided-72348">describes how immigration from Latin America is rapidly changing</a>. A wall would instead impact a new demographic of people who are fleeing violence and insecurity in their home countries.</p>
<p><strong>3.</strong> A massive physical barrier would also impact years of cooperation on shared urban and environmental issues along the border, writes landscape architect Gabriel Diaz Montemayor at UT Austin. Instead of a wall, he offers a vision for <a href="https://theconversation.com/heres-a-better-vision-for-the-us-mexico-border-make-the-rio-grande-grand-again-73111">a binational park along the Rio Grande</a> that would benefit the environment.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Traveling its length could become a trip comparable to hiking the Appalachian Trail, with opportunities to see recovering natural areas and wildlife and learn from two of the world’s richest cultures.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Montemayor’s article is also available <a href="https://theconversation.com/una-mejor-idea-para-la-frontera-entre-eua-y-mexico-invertimos-en-el-rio-no-en-un-muro-83077?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=twitterbutton">en español</a>.</p>
<p><strong>4.</strong> In fact, cross-border communities in the U.S. and Mexico – so-called “twin cities” – have shared so much in common for so long, writes UC Berkeley’s city and regional planning expert Michael Dear, <a href="https://theconversation.com/americans-and-mexicans-living-at-the-border-are-more-connected-than-divided-72348">that they could be described as a “third nation.”</a></p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Unlike many people in the U.S., border residents do not equate wall-building with national security.”</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Funding the wall</h2>
<p><strong>5.</strong> If Congress decides to fund a wall anyway, how would they do it if Mexico won’t foot the bill?</p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/who-will-pay-for-trumps-big-beautiful-wall-72321">Good luck</a>, writes Wayne Cornelius, a professor of political science and U.S.-Mexican relations at University of California, San Diego. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“One way or another, it is U.S. taxpayers who will pay for Trump’s border wall – not Mexicans. And we are unlikely to get our money’s worth.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p><em>This is an updated version of an article originally published on April 25, 2017.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/76671/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
Trump has threatened a showdown over funding his proposed barrier between the U.S. and Mexico. Our experts offer a primer – from a history of walls to costs.Bryan Keogh, Managing EditorDanielle Douez, Associate Editor, Politics + SocietyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/763382017-04-19T09:07:47Z2017-04-19T09:07:47ZThe real issue with the barmy design ideas for Trump’s border wall<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/165658/original/image-20170418-32713-1nwmuhx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Otra Nation</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Trump promised his supporters a “big and beautiful” wall. Accordingly, the recent <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2017/apr/10/donald-trump-border-wall-proposals-architecture-criticism">design competition</a> required it, among other things, to look good – from the US side. Yet it seems unlikely that the wall will ever be completed. The areas where US border security deemed a physical barrier necessary and viable have already been built. The remaining sections of the border feature formidable natural barriers where countless innocent people have lost their lives.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/165634/original/image-20170418-32693-1zgbic.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/165634/original/image-20170418-32693-1zgbic.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/165634/original/image-20170418-32693-1zgbic.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=902&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/165634/original/image-20170418-32693-1zgbic.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=902&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/165634/original/image-20170418-32693-1zgbic.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=902&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/165634/original/image-20170418-32693-1zgbic.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1134&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/165634/original/image-20170418-32693-1zgbic.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1134&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/165634/original/image-20170418-32693-1zgbic.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1134&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The wall brings to mind another seemingly impossible engineering feat from the realm of science fiction. In the concluding novel of <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/chinas-arthur-c-clarke">Cixun Liu’s</a> <a href="http://www.npr.org/2016/09/27/494927821/deaths-end-brings-an-epic-trilogy-to-a-satisfying-close">Remembrance of Earth’s Past</a> trilogy, humanity is forced to devise an extreme plan to save itself from higher intelligence beings. One option is to create a “cosmic safety notice” by transforming the Solar System into a reduced light speed black hole. The idea being that if you cannot reach the speed of light, you cannot attack others and are therefore not a risk. The Black Domain is essentially a prison that humanity would enter into voluntarily in order to keep itself safe.</p>
<p>The story offers ways of thinking about the current spate of border wall building: the US version is only the best-known example. India, too, is <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2017/03/28/asia/india-pakistan-bangladesh-borders/">proudly declaring</a> the impending fulfilment of its ambition to completely seal its borders with two of its neighbours. <a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/03/pakistan-starts-building-fence-afghanistan-border-170326081848483.html">Pakistan</a>, <a href="https://tribune.com.pk/story/150669/iran-constructing-fence-on-pakistan-border/">Iran</a> and <a href="http://www.latimes.com/world/la-fg-hungary-fence-20170227-story.html">Hungary</a> are also busy building barriers.</p>
<h2>The competition</h2>
<p>Just as the Black Domain was constructed to keep humanity in, so it seems that such walls are not just about keeping others out but also about keeping ourselves enclosed. This fits with the narrative of protection and security that Trump espouses. The design competition for the wall asks for two prototypes: a <a href="https://www.fbo.gov/index?s=opportunity&mode=form&id=6d883f07a72d10347a0304089f00f1eb&tab=core&_cview=1">solid concrete wall</a> and “<a href="https://www.fbo.gov/index?s=opportunity&mode=form&id=5eb4c7553ad9aeb62ad3ecf7f216ef3c&tab=core&_cview=1">other border wall</a>”, a category more open to alternative ideas. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"843536820503826434"}"></div></p>
<p>Of the 450 companies that submitted initial ideas <a href="http://www.verdict.co.uk/proposed-designs-trumps-border-wall-mexico/">around 20 will be chosen</a> to build their prototypes. Entries included a proposal for a wall that incorporates a sensor system, an aqueduct, a south-facing solar panel wall and a wall that is unashamedly militaristic in its origins. These are all barriers that could and do work both ways.</p>
<p>When looking out towards the heavens from inside the black hole of Cixin Liu’s novel, everything becomes distorted and doubled by the slowing down of light. Similarly, one of the more disturbing wall proposals, proposed by Latino-owned practice PennaGroup, imagines parts of the wall <a href="http://pennagc.com/projects_border_wall_video.html">becoming a one-way mirror</a>. The US side can see out but the Mexican side cannot see in – a black hole from the outside that distorts the vision and thinking of those on the inside.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/165630/original/image-20170418-32705-3wcylj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/165630/original/image-20170418-32705-3wcylj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/165630/original/image-20170418-32705-3wcylj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=380&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/165630/original/image-20170418-32705-3wcylj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=380&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/165630/original/image-20170418-32705-3wcylj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=380&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/165630/original/image-20170418-32705-3wcylj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=477&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/165630/original/image-20170418-32705-3wcylj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=477&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/165630/original/image-20170418-32705-3wcylj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=477&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The mirror wall.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">PennaGroup</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A few proposals have used the competition to critique the wall itself, yet none have quite succeeded. MADE Collective’s design, which they call <a href="http://www.otranation.com/proposal">Otra Nation</a>, is considered the most “radical”. It envisages a third nation along the border complete with a gargantuan <a href="https://theconversation.com/hyperloop-and-the-future-of-ground-transport-17020">Hyperloop</a> transit system that aids movement across the border. </p>
<p>Presented in a slick visual language, the proposal displays all the political shortcomings of mainstream architectural production. The proposal rebuts Trump’s divisive vision with a grand rhetorical device of its own, what they call “the world’s first continental bi-national socio-ecotone”. It brings to mind the overblown manmade landscapes of Dubai: an overwhelming fantasy architecture where small-scale intervention would suffice. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/165654/original/image-20170418-32689-vodqo0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/165654/original/image-20170418-32689-vodqo0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/165654/original/image-20170418-32689-vodqo0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/165654/original/image-20170418-32689-vodqo0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/165654/original/image-20170418-32689-vodqo0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/165654/original/image-20170418-32689-vodqo0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/165654/original/image-20170418-32689-vodqo0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/165654/original/image-20170418-32689-vodqo0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Ground view near the Hyperloop system.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Otra Nation</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Otra Nation’s open border system reveals the darker side of this utopia – open borders at the cost of hyper surveillance. While the proposal for a smart surveillance wall by <a href="http://www.darkpulse.com/bordersecurity/">Dark Pulse Technologies</a> has rightly been labelled dystopic, the same logic in Otra Nation has been overlooked. The border in their proposal has been diffused so that it is present everywhere for those lacking the correct smart chips and IDs. </p>
<h2>Thinking about borders</h2>
<p>Perhaps it is the vehicle of the architectural competition itself that leads to such responses. This can be seen in the results of architectural competitions around another famous wall – Berlin’s. In this case, the design focus was on the demolition of a wall rather than its construction. Imagining the collapse of the Berlin Wall generated dozens of architectural proposals, all in expectation of the chance to build in the gaps and fissures of a divided city. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/165635/original/image-20170418-32696-linv6c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/165635/original/image-20170418-32696-linv6c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/165635/original/image-20170418-32696-linv6c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/165635/original/image-20170418-32696-linv6c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/165635/original/image-20170418-32696-linv6c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/165635/original/image-20170418-32696-linv6c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/165635/original/image-20170418-32696-linv6c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Berlin Wall today.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Josef Hanus/Shutterstock.com</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://www.open-iba.de/en/geschichte/1979-1987-iba-berlin/">These competitions</a> were initially set up and run in West Germany in anticipation of the wall coming down and had no input from the other side. Many of their winning designs were later built – realising the capitalist architectural imaginary of only one side.</p>
<p>Otra Nation is of course a little cannier. Architecture has moved on since the 1980s and early 1990s. The anonymous group includes members from both sides of the border and I suspect Teddy Cruz, a Guatemalan born US architect and urbanist whose design work has addressed the US-Mexico border, is hiding behind one of the spirit animal masks that the group <a href="http://www.otranation.com/team">professes to love</a>. </p>
<p>Yet their outlandish proposal does not live up to the <a href="http://www.spatialagency.net/database/estudio.teddy.cruz">other more nuanced work</a> that Cruz’s studio has produced in response to the border. Those projects sought to understand the border as a condition, one that provides both opportunities and obstacles. But the restrictive terms of Trump’s competition have, once again, curtailed how architects think about and imagine the border.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/165817/original/image-20170419-6349-cdgdym.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/165817/original/image-20170419-6349-cdgdym.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=363&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/165817/original/image-20170419-6349-cdgdym.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=363&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/165817/original/image-20170419-6349-cdgdym.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=363&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/165817/original/image-20170419-6349-cdgdym.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=456&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/165817/original/image-20170419-6349-cdgdym.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=456&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/165817/original/image-20170419-6349-cdgdym.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=456&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The MADE Collective.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Otra Nation</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>When architects and artists are not held back by such reductive framing, truly critical, innovative conceptions of borders emerge. Such work contests the dominant narrative of security and isolation while also working actively towards producing other possibilities – something sorely needed in this new age of fervent fence building.</p>
<p>In 2004, activist architecture group <a href="http://x.hackitectura.net/">Hackitectura</a> established a <a href="https://mbharris.co.uk/articles/fadaiat/">network link</a> across the Straits of Gibraltar that became a free public communication interface between two continents. The project was a critique of and action against the increasing surveillance and security regimes of the militarised border. </p>
<p>Another project, the <a href="http://www.tacticalmediafiles.net/articles/3472/Transborder-Immigrant-Tool-Project-Description">Transborder Immigrant Tool</a> by the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_Disturbance_Theater">Electronic Disturbance Theatre</a>, uses the GPS capability of a low-cost mobile phone to guide those crossing the US-Mexican border to water points. These small-scale, modest interventions are fleeting yet powerful. They offer critical design alternatives to the grand gestures described above. </p>
<p>In Liu’s novel, the Black Domain is dubbed “God’s Engineering Project”, yet it is eventually rejected not only because of technical challenges but because it was deemed a fate worse than death to cut humanity off from the rest of the universe. Apparently, Barack Obama was a fan of the novels. Perhaps Donald Trump should also read them.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/76338/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nishat Awan receives funding from the Independent Social Research Foundation - <a href="http://www.isrf.org/">http://www.isrf.org/</a>.</span></em></p>We need to imagine new types of borders in this era of fervent fence building.Nishat Awan, Lecturer in Architecture, University of SheffieldLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/750352017-03-29T01:44:14Z2017-03-29T01:44:14ZWhat motivates moral outrage?<p>When <a href="http://nypost.com/2017/01/30/all-travelers-detained-under-trump-ban-have-been-released/">109 travelers entering the United States were detained</a> by an executive order blocking citizens from seven Muslim majority countries, tens of thousands of Americans <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/30/politics/travel-ban-protests-immigration/">gathered all over the country</a> to voice their anger. The policy had little to no direct effect on the protesters themselves.</p>
<p>Similarly, more than four decades after <a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/1971/70-18">Roe v. Wade</a>, the Supreme Court decision that effectively legalized certain forms of abortion, people regularly gather to <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/hundreds-protests-planned-parenthood-set-today/story?id=45424516">voice their anger</a> at those providing abortion services. </p>
<p>Social psychologists refer to such displays of anger against a third party (such as a government) for perceived harm against someone as <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1088868309343290">moral outrage</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/162955/original/image-20170328-3812-1kgdr5w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/162955/original/image-20170328-3812-1kgdr5w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/162955/original/image-20170328-3812-1kgdr5w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/162955/original/image-20170328-3812-1kgdr5w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/162955/original/image-20170328-3812-1kgdr5w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/162955/original/image-20170328-3812-1kgdr5w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/162955/original/image-20170328-3812-1kgdr5w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">March for Life 2015.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/americanlifeleague/16187373038/in/photolist-qEqw3A-q118Qw-qWRvZX-qEqei3-qExALv-qU1Qai-qEqnVd-qErJM3-djtqR1-qUH9Qf-pXF5Gg-qErGkQ-qWRddV-wpKTT-FiCRCh-3j2p9R-9mXsLg-qTHdmq-qExL8r-qWVmdW-6ELEQc-T8DaMr-qWZWSv-qWRpGr-pZZN2o-qErMgG-nak1sW-qErxCQ-pofu3Q-qUHcZw-qExHzF-q1127G-QbbX6m-Rp77Sr-dQSjTK-rApoQF-qo1Jg7-q1dwje-pZZNBw-qEzjpg-qX1iUk-qErUiN-QSmVNN-qUHcrs-d7Ha8s-qUH3sq-RNcFQ6-pZZLrj-pZZKdh-qEqfxs">American Life League</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Such moral outrage has taken on a new visibility thanks in part to social media platforms that allow people to effortlessly share their anger with the world. In an age of 24-hour news cycles, the issues can range from <a href="http://www.usmagazine.com/celebrity-news/news/starbucks-new-green-cups-are-causing-outrage-w448553">coffee cups</a> to <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2012/01/25/justice/california-iraq-trial/">war atrocities</a>. </p>
<p>As psychologists, we are particularly interested in understanding what research can tell us about the motives behind moral outrage.</p>
<h2>Does outrage indicate concern for justice?</h2>
<p>On the face of it, the willingness to express outrage could reflect an underlying concern with justice. Research has found that the more people are concerned with justice in general, <a href="http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11211-014-0202-x">the more moral outrage they express</a>. </p>
<p>Furthermore, research shows bystanders’ level of moral outrage can predict their willingness to pursue justice for a victimized group such as <a href="http://search.informit.com.au/documentSummary;dn=032812069598855;res=IELHSS">supporting political action</a>, <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/casp.916/abstract;jsessionid=58D6976653E5EE50C18B0272F703289B.f04t02">engaging in protest</a> or <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-9221.2007.00563.x/abstract">punishing a perpetrator</a>. </p>
<p>From this perspective, outrage is driven by differing conceptions of what is just. For example, a recent <a href="http://variety.com/2017/biz/news/budweiser-super-bowl-commercial-trump-1201976846/">Super Bowl ad</a> featuring a Latino mother and young daughter making the long journey from Mexico to the United States – only to be confronted by a border wall – elicited very <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/us/2017/02/06/mixed-message-84-lumbers-super-bowl-ad-spurs-outrage-confusion.html">different responses of outrage</a>. That’s because those who see the exclusion of immigrants as unjust and those who see maintaining a strict border as justified share a common desire to promote what they see as moral.</p>
<p>However, this does not explain why people sometimes engage in displays of outrage that, while highly visible, are unlikely to restore justice. For instance, it is unclear how injustice is rectified by tweeting one’s intention to <a href="https://www.buzzfeed.com/stephaniemcneal/boycott-hawaii?utm_term=.wj1agxA9x#.qbqmWZOKZMc">boycott Hawaii</a> after a federal judge from the state blocked the president’s revised travel ban.</p>
<h2>Is outrage a signal to others?</h2>
<p>From our perspective, such public displays of outrage make more sense if they are viewed as a means of communicating information about oneself. While announcing one’s desire to punish Hawaii by withholding business has no appreciable effect on the judicial process, it does communicate one’s political and social allegiances.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v530/n7591/abs/nature16981.html">Researchers at Yale</a> tested the idea that punishing a third party may signal one’s virtue to observers. They found that bystanders were often willing to sacrifice their own resources to punish another for unfair behavior. Such bystanders, who were viewed as more honest and trustworthy, profited in subsequent interactions. </p>
<p>Researchers also found that bystanders were <a href="https://theconversation.com/evolution-of-moral-outrage-ill-punish-your-bad-behavior-to-make-me-look-good-55103">less likely to punish</a> people for their bad behavior if the bystanders could signal their virtuousness more easily, such as by helping someone.</p>
<p>However, a “virtue signaling perspective” of outrage does not explain outrage regularly seen on platforms such as Twitter, <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/TheBluePill/">TheBluePill on Reddit</a> or <a href="https://medium.com/@nuckable/on-the-manufacturing-of-outrage-17b9e810c358#.oqt8vjr82">4chan</a> where people commonly use anonymous handles to express outrage without being personally identified. </p>
<p>Furthermore, this research does not consider the fact that bystanders often contribute to, or at least benefit from, “illegitimate” harm-doing: Consumers may be <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2016/12/19/the-outrage-of-child-labour-in-bangladeshs-sweatshops/#48c1c8746fe1">outraged</a> over the fact that garments are produced by sweatshop or child labor, yet still continue to support offending companies. In such cases, outrage is partially an attack on one’s own hypocrisy. </p>
<h2>Is it a reflection of guilt?</h2>
<p>So why do people express outrage even when a standard of justice is self-implicating or when they have no audience? </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/162956/original/image-20170328-3798-1nq0990.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/162956/original/image-20170328-3798-1nq0990.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/162956/original/image-20170328-3798-1nq0990.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/162956/original/image-20170328-3798-1nq0990.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/162956/original/image-20170328-3798-1nq0990.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/162956/original/image-20170328-3798-1nq0990.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/162956/original/image-20170328-3798-1nq0990.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Is moral outrage about projecting an upright image?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/nez/1181091743/in/photolist-2NnpqK-p3X3u2-pkmqGu-aCM5RL-2NvTmU-2NtR4L-p3TfS7-2NtQp7-2NscML-2NnHLT-2Nw4z3-2NvYvG-2NtdeS-5GD1i9-2NvoiE-2NvCsC-qz7E8z-2NnE2n-2NvGPU-qadTH4-caGW1u-2NnDkt-2Nnro8-2Nsqmd-2NnAyr-2NnJRv-79WZpf-2NpqmK-2NqwDa-2NswkN-2Nobst-5GyRZc-2Nri6t-2Nw2FN-2NojEV-2Ns5u3-2Nop9H-2NpugK-caGS8o-2Np144-regJdU-pkf1tR-oSzWTc-2FR3XM-7kFQLW-7rfK8U-7kS8t1-p4A85v-dJQn8w-p3JAfc">Andrew</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Our work highlights a third motive that is based on people’s desire to <a href="https://philpapers.org/rec/MONTDM-2">view themselves as morally upright people</a>. Threats to one’s moral self-image have been shown to elicit unpleasant feelings of guilt that can motivate efforts to restore a positive view of oneself. This is commonly expressed by issuing an <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1348/014466604X18974/full">apology</a> or <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0146167202238377">making amends</a>.</p>
<p>We wondered whether expressing moral outrage may be driven by these concerns. We tested this by manipulating and measuring people’s feelings of culpability for harm. We then assessed their outrage and desire to punish a third party for similar behavior.</p>
<p>Here’s how we did that.</p>
<p>In an <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022103113001017">initial study</a> conducted in 2013, 133 college students came into the lab and read a fabricated news article that reminded them of how their choices harmed working-class Americans or not. Participants then read a second fabricated article implying that the financial gains of illegal immigrants were coming at a cost to working-class Americans.</p>
<p>We chose illegal immigrants as a target based on <a href="http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/business/general_business/august_2015/americans_think_illegals_are_taking_their_jobs">a fairly widespread belief</a> that immigrants steal jobs from working-class Americans. After reading the second article, participants reported their anger and desire to punish illegal immigrants for harming the interests of working-class Americans. </p>
<p>We found that those who thought about their own actions and how they caused harm expressed increased outrage and a greater desire to punish illegal immigrants. </p>
<p>More recently, we conducted a <a href="http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs11031-017-9601-2">series of five studies</a> with over 1,000 American adults. We explored the relationship between guilt and outrage over labor exploitation and destructive environmental practices in corporations.</p>
<p>In one study, participants read a fabricated news article that either blamed the harmful effects of climate change on their own consumer behavior or on Chinese consumers. Participants then rated their guilt over their environmental impact either before or after completing a separate questionnaire allowing them to express outrage at multinational oil companies’ environmentally destructive practices. </p>
<p>We found that those exposed to information attributing climate change to their own behavior felt more guilt unless they had the opportunity to first express outrage at oil companies. Furthermore, we found that those who felt greater guilt subsequently expressed more outrage.</p>
<p>But how do we know that outrage is motivated by a desire to feel morally worthy? </p>
<p>In another study, participants rated their feelings of guilt about contributing to sweatshop labor conditions and their outrage at a corporation’s harmful sweatshop labor practices. However, between ratings of guilt and outrage we manipulated whether or not participants had the opportunity to affirm their own moral character. </p>
<p>Specifically, half of the participants were asked to write something about themselves that made them feel like a “good and decent person.” We found that guiltier participants were more outraged about sweatshop labor unless they had the opportunity to write about their own personal moral goodness beforehand. </p>
<p>In other words, bolstering their moral self-image diminished the amount of outrage expressed by those who initially reported high levels of guilt.</p>
<h2>More complicated than it seems</h2>
<p>The point is that outrage is much more than an obvious response to injustice. Our view is that outrage is not “merely” a concern with justice, a way to appear virtuous to others, nor even a way to cope with personal guilt. Rather, it is a culmination of many factors that may all play a role.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/162963/original/image-20170328-3772-1mr4i1u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/162963/original/image-20170328-3772-1mr4i1u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/162963/original/image-20170328-3772-1mr4i1u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/162963/original/image-20170328-3772-1mr4i1u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/162963/original/image-20170328-3772-1mr4i1u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/162963/original/image-20170328-3772-1mr4i1u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/162963/original/image-20170328-3772-1mr4i1u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">What is moral outrage all about?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wisconsinjobsnow/7116629743/in/photolist-bQSA5P-9pLpG2-9pLq5i-auq3yw-auzUZ8-5W2VsV-PK386-eK4tVm-4W5YZ4-62AK8z-aFYbMT-aFgAr7-aunpM6-ocDJvR-8Khvpk-gDXxxc-6y2rNz-gDY7tR-8KkWC9-6y6A9s-8JnJGy-8Kkzkf-nVazMy-62ARzZ-7CK4A1-8Rpqpp-p897Ah-aw73fR-aFZ4Tc-aJpoY8-aw9yYL-fUPP9L-54qFGF-62ANck-6PZ3P3-aCgrC7-62ALQn-gjUQpr-aJphrz-aNdwhv-54m9Gu-54maLf-awf4sS-54m7k7-62AMaz-62EXQm-aw9vP5-PK38a-62AJXz-aNgNpp">Wisconsin Jobs Now</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Our research confirms that not all outrage is “virtue signaling.” Participants completed an anonymous online survey where answers could not be traced back to them. Even if participants wanted to “look good” despite that anonymity, mere “virtue signaling” would not explain why we found that outrage increased as a function of guilt, nor why we found that allowing people to feel personally moral dampened expressions of outrage. </p>
<p>Secondly, research suggests that not all outrage is merely self-serving. While our work supports this idea, <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1348/014466608X313774/abstract">other research</a> shows that outrage does fuel activism and motivates groups to promote social change. In other words, there is evidence to suggest that outrage can have genuinely moral motives and goals or that it can be driven by personal insecurities or, more likely, some combination thereof. </p>
<p>Third, our research shows that outrage works essentially the same way across the political spectrum. We found that reminding people of their own harmful behavior evoked outrage for both token conservative (e.g., illegal immigration) and liberal issues (e.g., climate change and sweatshop labor). Moreover, guilt predicted outrage regardless of whether participants identified as being politically liberal or conservative. </p>
<h2>Is outrage merely for show? Not so</h2>
<p>In trying to understand what motivates outrage, we would argue that concerns about injustice, social appearance and personal guilt all play a modest role.</p>
<p>To the extent that we value respectful politics, we should acknowledge that an individual’s outrage may in part be about their own needs rather than about the issue per se.</p>
<p>Does that mean that outrage is illegitimate or merely for show? Absolutely not. </p>
<p>Instead, we see the evolving science on outrage as highlighting motives and functions that competing groups share. Recognizing this psychological common ground may help to defuse some of today’s more intractable social and political conflicts.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/75035/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A lot of moral outrage has been expressed lately – over Trump’s travel ban and other issues. The expression of such outrage is more than a response to perceived injustice.Zachary K. Rothschild, Assistant Professor of Psychology, Bowdoin CollegeLucas A. Keefer, Assistant Professor in Psychology, The University of Southern MississippiLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/742122017-03-23T01:06:47Z2017-03-23T01:06:47ZImmigrants deported under Obama share stories of terror and rights violations<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/162082/original/image-20170322-31187-igk0lk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Marlene Mosqueda's father was arrested by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement in February.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Nick Ut, File</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Although it is difficult to get exact <a href="http://trac.syr.edu/immigration/reports/459">numbers</a>, some estimates show Immigration and Customs Enforcement home raids have never resulted in more than <a href="http://www.migrationpolicy.org/research/ice-fugitive-operations-program">30,000</a> apprehensions in any given year. At that rate, it could take 366 years for immigration agents to remove all <a href="https://theconversation.com/counting-11-million-undocumented-immigrants-is-easier-than-you-think-67921">11 million undocumented</a> migrants using home raids. </p>
<p>I contend immigration raids are not intended to deport large numbers of people. Instead, my research has shown that they are primarily effective in spreading fear among immigrants.</p>
<p>On Jan. 25, 2017, President Donald Trump issued an <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/01/25/presidential-executive-order-enhancing-public-safety-interior-united">executive order</a> promising to increase the number of ICE agents from 5,000 to 15,000. If enacted, this expansion could increase the number of these apprehensions to 90,000 a year. </p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.migrationpolicy.org/research/ice-fugitive-operations-program">ICE agents who conduct home raids</a> are charged with detaining and deporting criminal aliens and fugitive aliens. A fugitive alien is a noncitizen who failed to appear in immigration court. A criminal alien is any noncitizen convicted of a crime. In many cases, these raids result in the detention and sometimes deportation of immigrants who are neither criminal nor fugitive aliens – these are what ICE calls “collateral arrests.”</p>
<p>When President Barack Obama took office in 2009, immigration home raids were commonplace. Over the course of the Obama administration, ICE agents gradually began to exercise more discretion. Importantly, they stopped making <a href="http://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/2/14/14596640/immigration-ice-raids">collateral arrests</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/162083/original/image-20170322-31169-1t1kpe0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/162083/original/image-20170322-31169-1t1kpe0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/162083/original/image-20170322-31169-1t1kpe0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/162083/original/image-20170322-31169-1t1kpe0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/162083/original/image-20170322-31169-1t1kpe0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=474&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/162083/original/image-20170322-31169-1t1kpe0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=474&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/162083/original/image-20170322-31169-1t1kpe0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=474&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Nora Sandigo Otero is legal guardian to around 1,000 youth who have had at least one of their parents deported.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Alan Diaz</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>During the first two years of the Obama administration, I interviewed 147 people who had been <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Deported-Immigrant-Disposable-Capitalism-Sociology/dp/1479843970/ref=as_sl_pc_qf_sp_asin_til?tag=arewetheworld-20&linkCode=w00&linkId=A5L72FY34DGBNTLK&creativeASIN=1479843970">deported</a>. The current wave of raids under the Trump administration hearken back to that time. Meeting some of the people affected by home raids then can help us understand how people are being targeted today. </p>
<h2>Melvin: Criminal alien</h2>
<p>Melvin moved to the United States in 1986, when he was 18 years old. He came to join his father, who had left him in Guatemala when he was a small child. </p>
<p>(Melvin, like the other names used in this piece, is a pseudonym. The University of California ethical guidelines require me to protect the identity of deportees I interviewed.) </p>
<p>Melvin apprenticed in the flooring business and eventually opened up his own shop. After a decade, he was bringing in US$15,000 a month and he, his wife and their two children lived comfortably in northern Virginia.</p>
<p>Melvin had run into trouble with the law in 1995, when he was charged with involuntary manslaughter and hit-and-run after he hit a dead body on the highway. He said he drove away because he was scared – a decision he acknowledges was poor. The manslaughter charge was dropped when forensics revealed the body was already dead when Melvin ran over it, but Melvin still served a year for the hit and run.</p>
<p>In 2005, immigration agents arrived at Melvin’s door. Melvin was reading a book to his son when his wife answered the door. Melvin explained what happened next:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“They actually had to pull a gun on her because she was getting aggressive and, said ‘So, you’re gonna leave me with my kids here? He’s the head of the house. You’re gonna take him?… They said, 'I’m sorry. We’re just doing our job.’”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>A legal permanent resident of the United States, Melvin spent $15,000 on legal representation, but to no avail: He served several months in immigration detention, and then ICE sent him back to Guatemala. His wife and children sold everything and joined him. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, the upheaval involved in moving to a new country put stress on their marriage. After about a year and a half, they divorced, and Melvin’s wife came back to the U.S. with the kids. She works in a gas station and lives with her mother now, a far cry from the five-bedroom home she and Melvin once shared.</p>
<h2>Vern: Fugitive alien</h2>
<p>In 1991, when he was 20 years old, Vern left Guatemala for the United States, where he applied for political asylum. Back home, he had received death threats for attempting to organize a union. The Immigration and Naturalization Service issued him a work permit while his case was being processed, and he began to work in a frozen food plant in Ohio. </p>
<p>He married a Honduran woman, Maria, who was also applying for political asylum. They received work permits every year for seven years, which allowed them to continue working legally. Their first child was born in 1996. </p>
<p>In 1998, Vern received a notice from the Immigration and Naturalization Service stating that he should leave the United States – his asylum application had been denied. Vern was devastated. He had established a life in the United States, and he had few ties to Guatemala. He decided to stay, in the hope that his wife’s application would be approved and she could apply to legalize his status. They had another child. </p>
<p>Vern did everything he could to avoid problems with the police – he never drank and followed the law at all times. He learned English and tried to blend in as much as possible.</p>
<p>One Sunday morning, as the family was preparing for church, Vern heard a loud knock at the door. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“They called from outside: ‘Maria Lopez, this is immigration. We need to talk to you.’ Maria didn’t have nothing to fear, so she went down. They asked, ‘Does your husband live here?’</p>
</blockquote>
<p>When Vern appeared, ICE agents handcuffed him and put him in their car. His wife and two children were devastated as they watched Vern being taken away. Because Vern had already been ordered deported, he was not given the opportunity to explain to a judge why he had not followed his deportation order. Eight days later, Vern was deported to Guatemala. </p>
<p>Maria had to figure out how to get by with her minimum-wage job. Vern had to learn to readjust to Guatemala City – which he had left 18 years earlier. </p>
<h2>Maximo: Collateral arrest</h2>
<p>A Dominican citizen who lived in Puerto Rico, Maximo shared an apartment in San Juan with two other men – a Venezuelan and a Puerto Rican. One morning in 2010, they heard banging on the door. Maximo tried to sleep through it, but the banging got louder. Finally, he got up to answer the door. </p>
<p>Just before he reached the door, the people knocking decided to break it down. Maximo found himself surrounded by several armed officers, some wearing "ICE” jackets. The agents didn’t indicate that they had a warrant for the arrest of a specific person. Instead, they demanded to see all occupants of the house, pointed guns at them and ordered them to sit on the floor. When they asked Maximo for identification, he gave them his Dominican passport. They asked if he was in the country illegally, and he said he was.</p>
<p>Maximo was arrested and taken to an immigration detention center. He signed a voluntary departure form and was deported to Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic two days later. A voluntary departure allowed Maximo to be deported quickly. He could have asked for an immigration hearing, but he would have had to spend months in detention awaiting his hearing, and his chances of gaining legalization were slim.</p>
<p>Although Maximo was undocumented, he had constitutional rights against unreasonable search and seizure, and those rights were violated. Law enforcement agents have the authority to break down your door if they have a search warrant and you do not open the door. However, immigration agents almost never have search warrants. The warrants they secure are <a href="https://www.aclu.org/files/kyr/kyr_no-abra-la-puerta.pdf">administrative warrants</a> that do not permit them to enter houses without the consent of the occupants.</p>
<p>Home raids tend to happen early in the morning to ensure the targets are home. In many cases, this means that these raids happen when the whole family is home and children have to watch their parent forcibly removed from the home. In some cases, these children will never see their parent again.</p>
<p>I believe these raids are an ineffective means of immigration law enforcement, yet are effective at spreading fear and tearing families apart.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/74212/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tanya Golash-Boza received funding from a Fulbright-Hays Faculty Research Abroad Award to conduct this research. </span></em></p>Three stories show how today’s deportations are reminiscent of what immigrants experienced during immigration raids under President Obama.Tanya Golash-Boza, Professor, University of California, MercedLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.