Banksy Chrismas Card

Joseph and Mary can't make it to Bethlehem. More here.

Border Wall Alternatives

Ronald Rael, assistant professor of architecture, discusses his designs for alternatives uses for the wall between the United States and Mexico.
4:10 min. video produced by Roxanne Makasdjian, UC Berkeley Media Relations
Full Story: http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/2011/03/29/border-wall/

HBO: The Fence

The Fence is an HBO documentary that examines the controversial fence along the U.S./Mexico Border. See more here.

The Iron(ic) Footbridge

On each side of a towering West Texas stretch of the $2.4 billion border fence designed to block people from illegally entering the country, there are two metal footbridges, clear paths into the United States from Mexico. The footpaths that could easily guide illegal immigrants and smugglers across the Rio Grande without getting wet seem to be there because of what amounts to federal linguistics. While just about anyone would call them bridges, the U.S.-Mexico group that owns them calls them something else.

"Technically speaking it's not a bridge, it's a grade control structure," said Sally Spener, spokeswoman for the International Boundary and Water Commission, which maintains the integrity of the 1,200-mile river border between the U.S. and Mexico. The structures under the spans help prevent the river — and therefore the international border — from shifting.

The 800 Mile Wall

The 800 Mile Wall highlights the construction of the new border walls along the U.S.-Mexico border as well as the effect on migrants trying to cross into the U.S. This powerful 90-minute film is an unflinching look at a failed U.S. border strategy that many believe has caused the death of thousands of migrants and violates fundamental human rights.

Since border walls have been built, well over 5,000 migrant bodies have been recovered in U.S. deserts, mountains and canals. Some unofficial reports put the death toll as high as 10,000 men, women and children. As a direct result of U.S. border policy, migrants are forced to cross treacherous deserts and mountains in search of low skill and low paying jobs in the United States. The New York Times writes, "Current border strategy is serving as a funnel through deadly terrain." The 800 Mile Wall documents, in great detail, the ineffective and deadly results of a failed border policy and offers some thoughts and on how the current human rights crisis may be resolved. Directed by John Carlos Frey and Produced by Jack Lorenz. Running Time: 90 min.

Ferry To The Other Side / Corner Of Latin America

Margaret Randall reads Ferry To The Other Side / Corner Of Latin America from her book Stones Witness accompanied by Glenn Weyant on Nogales Border Wall, played with cello bow and implements of mass percussion.

The collaboration was improvised live on 3/14/10 at the bifurcation scar of Nogales Arizona and Nogales Sonora.

Video by Barbara Byers.

For more about Margaret's work visit:
http://www.margaretrandall.org

For more about Glenn's work visit:
http://www.sonicanta.com/

Virtual U.S.-Mexico Border Fence At A Virtual End

The Department of Homeland Security's plan to build a virtual fence across the U.S.-Mexico Border has come to a crashing halt just days before the release of a report expected to slam the system. Read more or listen at NPR.

Illegal Border Crossing Park

The Mexican town of El Alberto lies 800 miles south of the US border in the state of Hidalgo. It’s pretty much like any other town of 3,000 people, except in El Alberto they offer tourists the chance to participate in a simulated illegal border crossing. It all happens at a standard recreational park with swimming pools, river trips, zip lines, and the other typical fare. We took a few cameras and headed for the EcoAlberto Park to spend some late-nights running through underground tunnels on the heels of our personal “Coyote” while being chased by border patrol. While we were there, we crashed a quinceñera party and saw El Alberto from the perspective of the locals. We find that when Mexicans cross the border to pursue the “American Dream,” their real aim is to bring a slice of the pie back home to Mexico. And so they do, provided they can run fast enough.

Border Fence = Drug Deaths

On January 9, 2009, American Border Patrol issued a press release entitled "Does the Border Fence Work?" In it, ABP announced a press conference to be held at the National Press Club on January 15 to, among other things, "show a strong correlation between the construction of the border fence and drug-related deaths in Mexico between 2005 and 2009."

WPA 2.0 Border Wall as Infrastructure Presentations

Presentation delivered at the National Building Museum in Washington D.C. as a finalist in the WPA 2.0 competition sponsored by UCLA Citylab, wpa2.aud.ucla.edu



"There exists far more potential in a construction project that is estimated to cost up to $1,325.75 per linear foot." Recognizing the high cost, limited effectiveness and unintended natural consequences of the new, multi-layered US/Mexico border wall (disruption of animal habitats, diversion of water runoff that has caused new flooding in nearby towns), this proposal names alternatives that might better combat the energy crisis, risk of death from dehydration, disruption of animal habitat, loss of vegetation, negative labor relations, missing creative vision and lack of cross-cultural appreciation likely in the government sponsored version.



Project Credits:



Rael San Fratello Architects: Ronald Rael,Virginia San Fratello, Emily Licht, Plamena Milusheva, Brian Grieb, Colleen Paz, Molly Reichert



www.rael-sanfratello.com

Video presentation for exhibit at the National Building Museum in Washington D.C. Finalist in the WPA 2.0 competition sponsored by UCLA Citylab, wpa2.aud.ucla.edu

"There exists far more potential in a construction project that is estimated to cost up to $1,325.75 per linear foot." Recognizing the high cost, limited effectiveness and unintended natural consequences of the new, multi-layered US/Mexico border wall (disruption of animal habitats, diversion of water runoff that has caused new flooding in nearby towns), this proposal names alternatives that might better combat the energy crisis, risk of death from dehydration, disruption of animal habitat, loss of vegetation, negative labor relations, missing creative vision and lack of cross-cultural appreciation likely in the government sponsored version.

Project Credits:

Rael San Fratello Architects: Ronald Rael,Virginia San Fratello, Emily Licht, Plamena Milusheva, Brian Grieb, Colleen Paz, Molly Reichert

Soundtrack: Glenn Weyant/The Anta Project: www.sonicanta.com

Compiled from covert performances utilizing implements of mass percussion and a cello bow to play the steel wall, barbed wire fences and assorted ephemera that separates the United States from Mexico.

www.rael-sanfratello.com

60 Minutes on the Virtual Fence

Steve Kroft of 60 Minutes reports on the virtual fence between the U.S. and Mexico. Watch here

Border Wall = Immigrant Museum?

Pier-Museum by Mario Cottone and Gregorio Indelicato

Italian architects Mario Cottone and Gregorio Indelicato propose an immigrant "Pier-Museum" which, pointing out to sea, will stand as a "horizontal monument" to all the immigrants who have arrived on these shores in search of a better future. The 100 meter long structure will point out to sea off Miami Beach and will house a museum in which the personal effects, souvenirs and photos belonging to the new generation of immigrants will be exhibited - those who came to the city of Miami from the 1950's to the 1980's in search of their own personal American Dream. To this end, this "Pier-Museum" is to function as an architectural landmark and serve as a space commemorating the new urban dynamic of the city,the global multiculturalism which defines the beginning of the 21st century. The design was the winning entry in a competition hosted by the University of Miami School of Architecture and Arquitectum.

Border Wall looking towards Tijuana, Mexico at Border Fields State Park

It is not clear if the Italian architects are aware of the western terminus of the border wall as it dives into the Pacific Ocean, a manifestation of, and symbolizing, the tensions that are directed at immigrants seeking a better future in the U.S. Is their proposal a political statement, irony or serendipity?

Border Wall as Infrastructure

Border Wall as Infrastructure, a design proposal for re-imagining the border wall between the United States and Mexico, was designed by Rael San Fratello Architects and selected as a finalist in the WPA 2.0 Competition. Two examples can be seen below and more information on the project can be found here.

The most untapped potential for solar development in the United States lies along the U.S./Mexico border. Solar farms, in turn, are highly secure installations. What if we were to reallocate some of the funds used simply to construct and maintain the border wall for the construction of energy infrastructure along the border? We would actually create scenarios in many instances that are more secure than the existing wall, and that simultaneously provide solar energy to the energy hungry cities of the southwest.

The border wall can and should be envisioned as a linear urban park through certain urban geographies. When supplemented with green spaces, connected to schools, libraries and other parks, there is no reason not to think of the wall as the organizing condition for an urban park, offering pedestrian and bicycle routes through the city. The linear park, in turn, has the potential to increase adjacent property values and the quality of life on both sides of the border while providing an important green corridor through the city.

Is This A Fence?

Borderless Border: Removing the US-Mexico boundary fence by reclaiming the Rio Grande

Evidence of informal crossing along the border zone.

This is the border in the desert, west of El Paso running for 600 miles in the desert. In 1994, the U.S. Government planned a meter high steel fence along a 1.5 mile section of the US–Mexico border line, near Anapra. To tighten border security and stem the tide of new illegal immigrants. Since then, the number of crossings has ironically increased while the get-tough policy of the U.S. government has created more risk for immigrants: Mexican workers now have to walk further to the edge of the fence to cross, placing them at risk of deadly sun exposure, snake bites and shoot-outs with U.S. ranchers on remote borderlands. This project re-examines the 500-year paradoxical relationship of North America by drawing from the Ciudad Juàrez - El Paso “twin city” model along the border region. The strategy examines the effects of removing border infrastructure while forwarding a reclamation strategy for the Rio Grande and the Rio Bravo, a multi-stage watershed shared by the Province of Chihuahua and the State. Borderless Border: Removing the US-Mexico boundary fence by reclaiming the Rio Grande is a project by landscape architect Pierre Bélanger.

Border infrastructure along the Rio Grande and the industrial zones that serve North America.

Border Fence Requirement Is Removed

Congress has stripped a provision from a Department of Homeland Security appropriation bill that would have required 300 more miles of tall fencing along the Mexican border, saying the money needed to build the barrier would be better spent on alternative security measures.

Walley Ball

On the San Diego-Tijuana border, Brent Hoff and Josh Bearman initiate an impromptu volleyball game with two formidable opponents: Jerry and Eric. Playing over the dividing pylons between the two nations, the Americans ponder the implications of their game on U.S. Customs law.

The Border Fence - Where it is and How It Works

Border Fence Co. Serving El Paso for 30 Years