Big Read Presents: How We Made the US-Mexico Border

Whitman College Professor, Aaron Bobrow-Strain presents How We Made the U.S.-Mexico Border What It Is Today. This talk begins in 1916, with the strange story of the country’s first great border “surge.”  Then and it traces the history of border politics, anxiety, immigration, and smuggling into our present.  Along the way it asks: Does more border security actually make anyone safer?  “Why is the border dangerous (and for whom is dangerous)?” Is the U.S.-Mexico border really “broken” as many politicians claim? And what can be done to create a truly secure border?