By Raul Ramos
Associate Profess of History at the University of Houston
In what became a staple of every Trump campaign rally in 2016, continuing through his presidency, audiences would begin a collective chant of, "Build the Wall!" Couched in a policy prescription, crowds filled the chant with emotion, turning fear into anger and making migrants into enemies. Build the Wall became more than a command, it transformed from a rhetorical cudgel to a literal weapon aimed at immigrant communities, especially ethnically Mexican and Latino/a migrants.
The transformation into a weapon appeared almost immediately. Reports surfaced of high school students in gymnasiums and football fields across the nation changing "Build the Wall" at visiting athletes and fans from schools in the barrio. While some defended talk of the border wall as a policy enforcement measure, use of the chant at political rallies and beyond exposed its power as a racist slur.
Most tragic of all, the chant has dehumanized migrants. It made militarizing the border and floating buoys with razor blades possible. Immediately after his reelection in 2022, Texas Governor Greg Abbott declared an invasion at the border and expanded war-like powers to project force across the river. Operation Lone Star has increased misery and death in what was already an inhumane environment. The recent state border policies have their roots in the “Build the Wall” chants and the hate towards people across the Southern border. The chant also sprung from generations of xenophobia and the transformation of the Southern border into a national concern.
Such xenophobia is common throughout American History. Equating foreign groups of people as dangerous might be called a core feature of American political cultural. Whether it be Know-Nothings attacking Irish immigrants, nativists passing the Chinese Exclusion Acts, or the internment of Japanese Americans, the current panic of an invasion at the Southern border is an American tradition. Neither is this the first time Americans have applied extreme militarization at the Southern border. The federal government claimed the twin threats of the Mexican Revolution and smallpox to station troops in border towns between 1916 and 1917.
Perhaps the first examples of turning the border from a local to a national concern appeared in 2010 when former Texas Governor Rick Perry set up webcams on the border. The website contained a live feed along with a phone number to alert the border patrol. While the $4 million project resulted in 23 known detentions, Perry succeeded in making the border relevant to residents of Peoria and beyond.
A decade later, border rhetoric and policies dwarf Perry’s modest webcams. The recent turn to militarization, with predictable violence and death, has turned the border from a political dispute and fortification, into an actual weapon itself. The term “weaponization” gets thrown around to figuratively describe a policy. Today the border is the weapon.
Militarized border policies carry an implicit consequence of physical injury and mortal danger. Documented deaths across the inhospitable desert region surrounding the border are compounded by laws that prosecute providing life-saving water and shelter. In recent months, razor-wire fencing and floating buoys with saw blades ensure that the injury is caused by the border rather than the environment. Such policies and treatment are only possible when immigrants are dehumanized by the consequences of “Build the Wall” chants.
The dehumanized landscape stands in stark contrast to the rich lives of generations of families with their roots on both sides of the border. Communities on both banks of the river have inhabited this region for centuries before Americans made the border in 1848. Entire cultures and economies sprung in this borderland, drawing from Mexican, indigenous and American roots. That borderlands culture would appear almost unrecognizable to outsiders from states to the north and south.
“Build the Wall” chants have generated and popularized hate across the country, threatening to upend life at the border and rip apart families and communities. Countering that threat requires promoting and popularizing the borderland or "fronterizo" culture and identity that has its roots along and across the border. It's richness and creativity not only reflect generations of families with their foundations in this place, it gives the nation the gift of a road out of division and hate.
[1] Peter Holley, “White Texas teens chant 'build that wall' at Hispanics during high school volleyball match,” Washington Post, November 17, 2016. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/early-lead/wp/2016/11/17/white-texas-teens-chant-build-that-wall-at-hispanics-during-high-school-volleyball-match/
[2] “'Ashy Knees,' ‘Build the Wall' Chants at New Jersey High School Basketball Game Spark Uproar,” NBC New York, January 31, 2017. https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/racist-chant-build-wall-knees-black-latino-school-jefferson-township-dover-high-school-basketball-game/287441/
[3] "Students in Indiana, Iowa taunt Latinos with Trump-themed insults during basketball games — including ‘Build a wall!’ chant," NY Daily News, April 9, 2018. https://www.nydailynews.com/2016/02/29/students-in-indiana-iowa-taunt-latinos-with-trump-themed-insults-during-basketball-games-including-build-a-wall-chant/
[4] Brandi Grissom, "$153,800 Per Arrest," The Texas tribune, April 20, 2010. https://www.texastribune.org/2010/04/20/border-cameras-produce-little-in-two-years/
Biography
Raúl A. Ramos received his A.B. in History and Latin American Studies from Princeton University in 1989 and his Ph.D. in History from Yale University in 1999. Dr. Ramos’s involves the intersection of a wide variety of historical sub-fields. At the University of Houston he teaches Chicano/a History to 1910, History of the American West, Texas to 1865 and Borderlands History. His courses concentrate on historical processes such as conquest, colonization, social formations, migrations and cultural change.