UA students build a wall on the mall

By Curtis Prendergast

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Tucson — While some Arizonans are trying to use private money to build a wall on the Arizona – Sonora border, a group of UA students built a symbolic border wall on the University of Arizona campus.

All signs indicate they built it for very different reasons.

The wall was built by the UA chapter of No More Deaths, an organization devoted to stopping the deaths of migrants in the deserts of southern Arizona.

The UA students built the wall in order “to spotlight the lethal effects of U.S. militarization, immigration and border enforcement policies in Arizona, the U.S., and abroad,” according to a press release from No More Deaths.

They have been working on the wall for eight months, according to the press release. Organizers bill it as the “largest mock border wall in the country.”

The wall, made of chain link fencing and barb wire, is about seven feet high and is dotted with posters and photos.

The UA mall is divided for about four hundred feet, from the Old Main building to Cherry Ave.  The division of the campus is not complete, however.  The sidewalks that crisscross the mall are still accessible.

While the symbolic action of the wall was aimed primarily at the U.S. – Mexico border, the students used posters to put the wall into a global context. One poster read “One World Unbordered.”

UA No More Deaths was not the only organization involved in erecting the wall. The press release listed the following groups: “Social Justice League, UA for Border Justice, JUNTOS, UNIDOS, Women’s Resource Center, Vagina Warriors, AZ Jewish Voice for Peace, Students for Justice in Palestine and others.”

Another poster featured a jaguar and read “Can they survive with only half of their habitat?”  The habitats of many species are divided by the U.S. – Mexico wall. Early last year what was believed to be the last remaining wild jaguar in the U.S. died after being captured by wildlife agencies.  The death of the jaguar continues to make headlines in southern Arizona.

Environmental organizations such as the Sierra Club and the Sky Island Alliance have been vocal opponents of the U.S. – Mexico border wall.

The students specifically linked the U.S. – Mexico border wall to the wall that divides Israel / Palestine. They described the “apartheid wall” in Israel as: “An outgrowth of a 44-year military occupation, paid for by $3 billion in annual U.S. military aid, and built on

occupied Palestinian territory, the wall was deemed illegal by the United Nations International Court of Justice in July 2004.”

Other posters referenced historical walls. One of the posters read: “Mr. Netanyahu, tear down this wall,” a paraphrase of President Ronald Reagan’s challenge to Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in an address at the Berlin Wall on June 12, 1987.

The wall was torn down two years later, not by the Soviet leadership, but by the people of Berlin. Benjamin Netanyahu is the prime minister of Israel.

Several people stopped to look at the posters, but for the most part everybody went about their day as usual.

The wall will remain for ten days during Immigration Week at the UA.

Check back in with the Chronicle for more coverage of the mock border wall.

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