Before the Wall: Life Along the U.S.-Mexico Border
For nearly 700 miles along the American border with Mexico, a wall already exists.
It passes through the silt deserts of Sonora, where cacti grow like organ pipes. Farther east, heavy steel X-frames cut through the flat miles of sun-bleached grass like battlefield markers. In Texas, the red-tinged beams that make up parts of the border fence are cold, hard and rough to the touch. In Tijuana, two fences – one old, the other more recent – plunge all the way into the ocean, where waves corrode the stanchioned metal.