No Wall They Can Build, Episode 8: Designed to Kill, Part II – The Border Patrol, The Game, and The Desert

Welcome to Episode 8 of No Wall They Can Build, the Ex-Worker Podcast’s serialized audiobook exploring borders and migration across North America. This installment continues to explore the reality of border policy by taking a closer look at the agency that enforces it, describing the atrocities that its agents perpetrate and their mindsets to justify it. The Border Patrol is merely one of the largest and most vicious players in a game that brings lucrative profits to a host of players on both sides of the border, at the expense of the vulnerable migrants who are driven into the desert. The episode concludes with a discussion of the environmental landscape of the desert itself and a poignant reflection on its harsh beauty, envisioning the healing of the land when one day it will no longer be scarred by borders. {May 22, 2019}

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• Table of Contents:
  • Introduction {0:01}
  • Story #1: Fleeing the Dogs {0:46}
  • Assata Shakur: On Morality and Power {4:32}
  • The Border Patrol {4:49}
  • Story #2: The Hills Have Eyes {10:30}
  • The Game {12:25}
  • The Desert {14:27}
  • Story #3: Under the Blue Sky and the Merciless Sun {16:02}
  • Conclusion {18:52}
• Important Action Alert: No More Deaths is asking that supporters around the US take a moment this week through May 24th to call the US Attorney’s office in Arizona to demand that the government drop all charges against volunteer Scott Warren, who faces felony charges for humanitarian aid work in the desert. Please follow this link for contact information and a script to follow when you call. It will only take a moment, but will be an important gesture of solidarity. Please do it!
• For this audiobook, we will not provide full transcripts of the text of each episode as we do for The Ex-Worker or The Hotwire. If you want to read along, you can find the book in PDF. This week’s episode covers pages 140 to 152.
• Episodes 7 and 8 comprise Designed to Kill, which was originally released as a ‘zine in 2011. You can read or print the zine version here.
• You can check out our poster diagramming the North American border regime and immigrant solidarity stickers.
• Stay tuned next week for Episode 9: The North.