JE#3B: Who's Declaring War on the Border

"In 2012, a majority of the more than 364,000 people arrested by Border Patrol agents nationwide were migrant workers crossing the border. Agents did not capture or arrest a single international terrorist." This quote stuck out to me because it reveals the fact that the Department of Homeland Security is the one waging the war on the border rather than working for "security" of the U.S. And the need for security of this country is based on fears of the other, of people not from this country that are based on the repetitive histories of racism and colonization. So what is the purpose of the border control if not the safety of the U.S's inhabitants, since we know fears of terrorism are created through nationalism and xenophobia? "In the 10-year period following 9/11, the United States spent a staggering $90 billion on border enforcement." The terrorism of the U.S. Border Patrol is indeed a “treasure trove” for those in power. Borders have never made sense to me. The fact that lands can be named and politically and nationalistically separated from other land so close by but remain controlled by different invisible powers seems to be something so trivial and impossible and wrong to me. But militarization and nationalism remains strong and the belief that we are all intrinsically different from other people in the world is also alive and well. "In the last three years, Border Patrol agents have killed at least 15 people along the Southwest border." Fear, control, militarization, murder, racism, classism, nationalism are all words that remind me of the U.S.-Mexico border and all borders and the country that I am a citizen of that continues the policing and subjugation of people.