What is life really like in border country, where Trump wants his wall?

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onald Trump’s “big, beautiful wall” has become the trademark of his presidency. It is the promise that more than any other has energized his base, and riled his opponents, and his dogged attachment to it has now brought a large part of the US government to a historic 25 days of partial shutdown.

The potency of Trump’s wall – for his supporters and his detractors – stems from its simplicity. Build it tall, build it wide – he has pledged 1,000 miles of it – and America will be safe again.

But how does that uncomplicated notion compare to the complexity of the border itself? Taken as a whole, the 1,954 miles of US-Mexican border is a place of astounding diversity – of terrain, of land-use, of city and countryside, of ethnicity. It traverses desert, river, mountain and sea.

There is diversity, too, of political view among the 7.5 million people who live in US border counties. Some are ardent backers of Trump’s wall. Others see their future, and the future of America, as being inextricably linked to that of their neighbor to the south.

Central American migrant families at a protest at Friendship Park in April last year.

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