JE #3B: Who Is Declaring War on the Border?

Looking at the question of the prompt for this week, “Who is Declaring War on the Border?” I first wondered, well who are the people that would benefit from a declaration war on the border?  I also question the “border” as being the object of this war as it is only an artificial, arbitrary divide.  It is not a person, therefore the border itself cannot be the objective of this domestic war.  This question then prompted another question, Who, rather than what, is the opponent in this war?  And again, why?  

New York Times went straight to the “why” of my question: “As our country’s foreign wars have begun to wind down, defense contractors look here, on the southern border, to make money” as well as the “who”: “immigrants who cross the border in the hopes of finding jobs as maids, janitors or day laborers”.  It is a frustrating reality because obviously, these aren’t really the type of people who pose a serious threat to our national security, yet the billions of dollars being spent to patrol and apprehend folks such as these has lead to the “the most militarized border since the fall of the Berlin Wall”.  It also quickly becomes a terrifying reality when you consider the seemingly unconstitutional power of border patrol to intrude into people’s lives with government’s permission.  So essentially, we are fighting potentially undocumented maids and migrant workers with billions of dollars, ex-military service men, and federal power to carry out their patrol.  Beyond frustration, this article leaves me with a slew of questions: Are there additional reasons for the intense militarization of the beyond money?  How much can American anxiety and paranoia be explained by 9/11?  And if it could, that still leads to another obvious question, why aren’t ALL of our borders as militarized as the one in Arizona?  Technically, the militarization of Canadian Bacon border could also be a part of this multi-billion dollar industry, so why is this money being solely concentrated in the southern parts of the U.S? I see that the U.S. is unyielding in continuing its historical racist anxieties of brown skin and loooooong legacy of institutional marginalization of the folks who used to live on this land.