Episode 2 - What is "Borderlands" ? (part 2)

Hi everyone!!! Welcome to "Borderlands", a multi-episode podcast about the US-Mexico migration border policies and their impact on communities, in one of the most militarized, controlled and deadly counties of the border: Pima county, in the State of Arizona. This second episode will continue to investigate how migration policies define Borderland. Over time, the border, its control and its surveillance have become an issue. We’ll focus, in this episode, on border regime: what kind of apparatus is used, how it impacts communities living on Borderlands and who benefits from it. Let’s begin with the rule of the “100-mile border zone”. In 1953, the United States adopted a regulation allowing Border Patrols, in charge of border control, to stop and search without a warrant all types of vehicles at any location within 100 miles of the border… What about today? How did borderlands become so militarized, controlled and surveilled? In 1994, the Clinton administration introduced the Prevention through deterrence strategy, implemented since then by Border Patrol. This strategy transformed this border, where moving was quite fluid even though it was already controlled, to what we have today along the border: a longer and higher physical wall, urban port of entry ultra-secured, more border patrols along the border, more surveillance system… ”Borderlands” is a zone composed of different layers of control mechanisms and surveillance systems. It’s not a simple line separating two countries. It’s definitely more than a wall. The border apparatus has consequences on the field for people living in the region, especially for the Tohono O’odham nation…Borderlands is above all part of the Native Land. The Tohono O’Odham are native Americans who have been living in the region for centuries and struggling for their rights. 62 miles (100 km) of the international border between the US and Mexico separates the tribe members. As they say: "We never crossed the border, the border crossed us". According to the last O’odham VOICE against the wall’s report, a nonprofit organization funded by Tohono O’Odham members: “Human rights violations and increased militarization have been a reality at the U.S./Mexico border for over 150 years and Indigenous peoples and their free movement have been the target of this militarization.”. The border regime has direct consequences on the Tohono O’odham living in borderlands. Does anyone profit from the border apparatus? This second episode with the first one tries to give a definition of what Borderland is in relation to migration policies. Happy listening and don't forget: this second episode has been mixed by Nicolas Puissant.” Speakers of Episode #2: David Garcia, a member of the Tohono O’odham Nation Todd Miller, a Tucson journalist covering the borderlands and migration issue for years, co-founder of Border Chronicle with Melissa del Bosque Glossary episode #2: ACLU = American Civil Liberties Union CBP= custom and Border Patrol DHS = Department of Home service INS = Immigration and naturalization service SBI net = Secure border initiative network Read more episode #2: - A Global call for divestment: Indigenous front-line report regarding adverse impacts of Elbit system’s Integrated Fixed Towers on the U.S./Mexico border, O’odham voices against the wall, August 2021. - More than a wall, corporates profiteering and the militarization of the US border, Todd Miller, No More Deaths and Transnational Institute (TNI), September 2019. - Border Chronicle, Melissa del Bosque and Todd Miller : https://www.theborderchronicle.com - The Constitution in the 100-mile border zone, ACLU, 2018. Credits: Borderlands is a podcast by Eva Ottavy, mixed by Nicolas Puissant. Music: Dusty Sun by Serj Anto. Graphic Identity by Eva Ottavy (Borderlands brewery’s front in Tucson-Arizona and “Chinche al agua”, a mural painting of Victor “Mask” Casas in El Paso-Texas)