Professor Makes Case for US-Mexico Border Without Walls in New Book Kathleen Maclay - UC Berkeley
go to original March 20, 2013

In this YouTube video, Dear talks about the rich history and future for border life. (UCBerkeleyEvents)

Why Walls Won’t Work: Repairing the US-Mexico Divide by Michael Dear Check it out on Amazon.com

As the United States reconsiders immigration policy reform – particularly between the United States and Mexico – the focus should be on immigration and integration instead of tougher border security,  says University of California, Berkeley, professor of city and regional planning Michael Dear, the author of the new book, “Why Walls Won’t Work: Repairing the US-Mexico Divide.”

Dear logged nearly 10,000 miles visiting both sides of the border, from Tijuana/San Diego at the Pacific Ocean to Matamoros/Brownsville on the Gulf of Mexico.

During his journeys, he witnessed the construction of the border fortifications and the rapid expansion of “the U.S. border industrial complex.” He also recorded the wall’s detrimental effects on lives and communities, as well as how the affected communities adjusted to the changes brought by the barrier.

In “Why Walls Won’t Work,” Dear shares his accounts of present borderland realities and everyday life, illuminated by sharp insights into U.S. geopolitics, immigration issues, Mexico’s current challenges and a deep knowledge of centuries of the intercultural history of the U.S.-Mexico borderlands.

He explores the activities of self-styled immigration vigilantes as well as the work of the “No More Deaths” group that tries to prevent border-crossing deaths from dehydration and the like, the art of national boundary markers, fabric artists from both sides of the border, and the costly national security installations by private corporations such as Boeing and Blackwater.

Read the rest at UC Berkeley

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