Reflections on the Border

Winter Interterm 2004- Brownsville

Erin O’Brien

I doubt any of us knew exactly what to expect coming into this course. I had never been to the border except to cross into Mexico at Nogales and then out of Mexico at Tijuana-San Diego on the Baja portion of field quarter. We crossed briefly through Nogales and though we stayed in San Diego, we did not analyze the city as a “border town.” On this interterm trip, we not only analyzed the border towns but took a hard look at border issues affecting both United States and Mexican citizens who lived in these areas. We crossed the border many times (I lost count of my personal tally) and talked with people on both sides of the border to gain a better perspective of what the border is and what it means.

First and foremost, I would say my attitudes towards the U.S. border patrol changed. Coming into this course, I had stereotyped them as being gun-loving men who hated Mexicans due to some sort of racial prejudice or intense U.S. patriotism. I was surprised and pleased to learn that this was generally not the case. The men we spoke with in McAllen were exceptionally moderate and straight with their answers to our questions. There are Mexican-Americans working for the border patrol as well who identify with the plight of the would-be immigrants in many ways. “It’s my job to do this,” many of the Border patrol agents we talked to said. They admitted that yes, there were the “psychopaths” that I had been afraid of earlier, but that those people were not ideal Border Patrol agents and they were constantly trying to weed them out of the agency.

Then, there’s the border itself. For the first portion of our trip, it was the Rio Grande. This muddy stream isn’t deep in many places but high-traffic areas are usually patrolled by Border Patrol agents and often have official ports-of-entry between the two countries. After the Rio Grande, the border looks very different depending on the place. In Douglas-Agua Prieta, it most closely resembles a militarized zone. There is a 7+-foot tall fence that leads immediately to a deep trench on the U.S. side. Floodlights illuminate this fence and U.S. Border Patrol cameras monitor it. However, 4.5 miles out of town, the fence stops (the ridiculous fence stops) and there is a barbed wire fence that runs off into the desert in either direction. I’m sure we’ve all crossed a barbed wire fence at some point in our lives and we know it isn’t difficult. Finally, the most stunning form the border took was nothing. That’s right. There were signs posted intermittently along where this imaginary line was supposed to be, but the landscape itself was supposed to serve as the deterrent here: nothing but harsh desert and sharp-looking mountains as far as the eye could see. Obviously, each of these forms the border took had varying degrees of danger to immigrants, either by danger of being caught by the Border Patrol or personal danger of surviving the journey.

This trip did teach me a lot, but if anything, I have become less sure of things I once thought to be absolutes. There is no one thing that can be said about the border in its entirety, except perhaps the loose definition that is divides the U.S. and Mexico. Every town we encountered was different. These towns, culturally, related more to each other than to other cities in the interior of their respective countries. There is also no one answer about how to solve some of these highly complex border issues. Believe me, several of us tried. Though it is clear that the Border Patrol is not 100% effective, they do play an important role. But will there ever be a true solution? I tend to think not; I think the border is by nature a confusing concept and destined to remain as such. People will cross in greater or lesser numbers depending on the policies at the time, but I do not doubt they will continue to cross. All I am truly sure of is that this journey along the border effectively opened my eyes and spun my head around, and I mean only the best by that. I only wish people would spend more time in this region before trying to enact or enforce policies that affect life on the border, for it is not as simple as it might first seem.