Part 2 Life in the Shadow of the Wall


Part 2

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construction of a wall along the US-Mexico border but how would a

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wall stop drugs and people illegally entering the United States?

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It was one of his main campaign pledges -

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to build a wall all along the US-Mexico border.

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A third of it already has some sort of barrier,

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but what are the challenges of trying to seal it off completely?

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I have completed the first part of this trip and so far I have

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travelled along a border where the river is

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But from now on I am going to be visiting places where fences have

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So we are going to be seeing much more of this.

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After El Paso, Ciudad Juarez and Nogales I will finish

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in the quintessential border town of Tijuana a place where some

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Back home you just can't go anywhere here, you start selling drugs just

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to get by or make money or hustle or whatever.

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But I am starting my trip in a place where it is not always

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to spot the divide - the twin towns of El Paso

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Every morning Luiz drives from the Mexican side

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We cannot show his face because his American company

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I leave at 2.30am in the morning, it takes an hour to cross the border.

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I don't like to be waiting in the line.

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This is the kind of journey that many people make every day to go

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I work for a company that does concrete and right now they sent

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somebody to drive a bus, he is doing a job, you know.

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For my job is just to make the wall this time.

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What have your relatives or friends told you about building this fence?

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They joke with me, they tell me to leave a little

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This is the construction site where is currently working.

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This is the construction site where he is currently working.

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The first barriers went up in 1994 at the western end of the border.

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Successive governments led by Clinton, Bush

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and Obama extended them all along the frontier.

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The fence here was erected ten years ago and Luiz is repairing a

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He believes the American President is fooling himself if he thinks

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the frontier can be completely sealed off.

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Standing so close to it, it's obviously a very imposing structure.

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There used to be a smaller fence here but it's now been replaced

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with this five-metre high metal posts and the closer

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you get to the fence, the more you wonder how the wall

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President Trump wants to build will serve its purposes and how

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will it affect the lives and businesses of people

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Since the fence was built, Ciudad Juarez became one of the most

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In contrast, El Paso is now among the safest cities in the US.

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This is Mannys Rodriguez, the barrier runs through her backyard.

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Days ago she saw migrants jumping it with a ladder.

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We were fixing our truck back here and we heard the voices

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and we looked outside but we couldn't see no one

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and we said, where are the voices coming from?

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When we saw they had a ladder, they built a big, like that swimming

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pool ladder and they just, you know, hooked it up to the fence

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and they crossed over, then the other one pulled it

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I said oh, they just, you know, they said bye!

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On the whole, though, she says things have improved.

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We have less cargo as we say crossing over.

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A granddaughter of Mexicans, Rodriguez supports

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I believe that he is trying to protect the US.

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The way I see it, I would go to Juarez but I won't

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And I am not saying that I am against Mexicans

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or Juarez or anything, I just wouldn't trust my

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All along the border there are reminders,

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like this jacket, that for some the impulse to cross this fence

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or a future wall may be too strong to stop.

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I am leaving El Paso and driving 500 kilometres west

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The first fence went up here in the 90s,

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The cartels who control the drug trade and the people smuggling

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responded by going underground and they have turned this area

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into the tunnel capital of the border.

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We don't know who we might run into so the police go ahead of us. We

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don't know what to expect. Caution is needed. What just happened?

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Smugglers and migrants use the cover of darkness and wait for the right

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moment to head towards the US end of the tunnel.

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So the policeman just told me that after the turn on the flashlight

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they saw someone and this person ran away. Minutes later, we catch a

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glimpse of him in the distance. He is not moving. And they're pointing

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at this person with a flashlight. He believes it's better to back up and

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alert the police so we are heading towards the entrance of the tunnel.

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The traffickers use not only the subter trainian infrastructure, the

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authorities have found more than 110 tunnels built by Mexican cartels.

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They call them narco tunnels. In this cemetery one of them hides in

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plain sight. This is the entrance of a tunnel which was recently filled

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in. They used to carry drugs to the other side of the border and as you

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can see, the fence is just about 100 metres from here. On the American

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side, Tony has been a sheriff for 25 years. They're very creative, if you

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do anything they'll go under it. They'll go over it and they'll go

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around it. So it's a phenomenon that's not going to stop, no wall,

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no matter how beautiful and big and expensive is going to stop people

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that are desperate, people that are needy, and people that are poor.

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Undocumented immigrants in the US have increased by nearly 40% since

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President Trump's crackdown. But he believes this is missing the point.

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Illegal immigration as far as I am concerned peals compared to a drug

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problem. When you are spending resources on illegal immigration and

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you are talking about identifying people leaving the community that

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have families and are contributing, it's useless. It's not putting

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resources to the best. Go after them, let's get the criminal agents

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but don't bother anybody else. This shelter in Nogales opened decades

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ago. Since then it has received hundreds of thousands of migrants.

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We find hope and faith but also sadness and pain. For the last 13

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years this man has worked in tomato fields. She was picked up trying to

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get back into the US after visiting family in Mexico.

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Despite the risky journey she's already planning to go back.

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If anyone is able to judge the success of a wall, it is perhaps the

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people smugglers. This one says it has reduced numbers. He was happy to

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appear on camera but preferred not to be named.

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For him a bigger wall could mean fewer clients but more money.

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Nogales may be another example of the mixed and complex nature of

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border towns. And of the unintended consequences of building barriers. A

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wall will stop some people, but others will find a different way

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around. My final destination on this road trip is Tijuana. No other place

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on the US-Mexico frontier has a more intimate relationship with the wall

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than this city. Here the US Government started building the

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border's first barrier almost three decades ago. It has shaped the

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lives, identities and faiths of millions. This is a graffiti artist

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who has lived here for 25 years. The wall for him became a canvas, an

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opportunity to express his feelings towards life in a place divided.

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Painting on this is a cathartic experience but he wishes it wasn't

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there at all. The most frequently crossed border

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in the world unites two countries and there is no indifference to the

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divisions that engenders. The barriers became a symbol and not a

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solution to complex problems. This is another whose art is defined

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by the wall. He is a hip hop artist living in the US but has family on

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both sides of the border. As artists we have to reflect our reality.

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Having to cross the border so many times growing up, it definitely

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resonated with my understanding of restrictions and placing borders on

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people. So in the same - I took that to my music, I attached that to my

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music. It's like if I don't agree there is a border that needs to be

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crossed in order for people to live in a particular place, I made the

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effort not to put borders and restrictions on my music. There are

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an estimated 11 million million undocumented immigrants living in

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the US. He has relatives among them and Trump's rhetoric against these

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people has left them dreading the prospect of his family breaking up.

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I had a family member that had to go to a Government building, from the

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moment we got the scheduled date to the actual date, there is a lot of

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tension, there is a lot of arguments at home. Because why, because of the

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fear. There is a very real fear that anything could happen to our

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families at any given moment. He wants to continue highlighting what

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he sees as controversial issues. It's abnormal behaviour and

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relationships between Government agencies, federal agencies and local

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enforcement, that's something that's abnormal, it's not normal. I feel

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that's all we can do is challenge. I feel music needs to be an act of

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expression that is thought-provoking and I don't agree that you can make

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music without reflecting your reality. If deported, his relative

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may end up here in Tijuana, the city receives more deportees than any

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along the border. For them it's a painful contradiction, they feel

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like foreigners in the country they were born in. That's my mother...

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Chris's tattoos tell a story of a rough life. As a youngster he got

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involved in gangs, guns and drugs, spending his teenager years in jail

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in the US but he was deported to Mexico because he was born there. He

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was dropped into a place he barely knew, having to speak a language he

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had already forgotten. I think about what I want to say in English and I

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have to translate in my mind to be able to say it. Some words I can't

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even pronounce in Spanish. That's really the reason why call centres

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have worked out for me. This is a call centre, many of the people

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working here have been deported from the US. Hello, this is Chris, the

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purpose for my call is to inform you that your manufacturer warranty has

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expired on your 2012... It might be surprising to people in the States

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to know they're talking to a Tattooed ex-gang members and surely

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rival gangs in the same workplace is a recipe for disaster. You have

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maybe some southerners, those are - they represent like the number 13,

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usually they're from the south. And then you have a group of people like

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us and some of my friends who are northerners and who are with the

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number 14. In the States, we can't stand seeing each other and can't,

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for the most part, there is not even talking, nothing like that, we see

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open other and it's just, we just go at it. No questions asked. Here, you

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know, we keep it respectful and make it work. For the sake of workplace

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and trying to live a peaceful life. This gentleman right here in the row

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where I am sitting, he has a tattoo on his arm and face... Chris is a

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supervisor here and doesn't even think of going back to his old life.

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But the new one hasn't been easy. Sometimes people give you that

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opportunity, they see you and they're like, doesn't know any

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better. Stupid little gangster want to be here, stupid druggy or addict,

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deportee however they want to label you, they look down on you. Tijuana

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may be a few miles from the States but it's a different world. Back

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home, you just can't go anywhere here, you start selling drugs. To

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get by or make money or hustle or whatever. It doesn't work like that.

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You need permission I hear from somebody and who that is, God knows,

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but, you know, if you don't have the permission, you can pretty much

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count on you being found dead somewhere.

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I have travelled across town to an evangelical Church Housing Hatian

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migrants. It's a place to worship, it's also a shelter and a place of

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limbo. Thousands of them are stranded. They fled their country

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after the 2010 earthquawe but are unable to enter the US due to an

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Obama policy aimed at diswading more from arriving.

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Christopher and his countrymen are the latest example of the stories

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that for decades have been part of this town.

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Tijuana is a place of aspirations, broken dreams, of new beginnings,

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it's a city where people have learned to navigate being so close

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to the US, and yet so far. So that's it. The end of my road trip. It has

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been a fascinating journey along a part of the world that belongs to

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Mexico and the US and in a way to neither. This is a land of paradox,

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a land of extremes. It can be cruel, violent and imposing and at the same

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time beautiful, gentle, and gracious. It is a place where people

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have learned to live in a strange intimacy with a wall and probably

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many more will have to do the same. On this strip I have seen the

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challenges of building more barriers, talked to people happy

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with a wall in the backyard and to those that believe that more fences

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won't stop migrants, nor drugs. This border is, after all, home to

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millions of people that no matter what you think of the wall, now face

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a dramatic, momentous and divisive time.

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