Line. Fence. Wall.
11 September 2025

Line. Fence. Wall.

Throughline

About
The U.S. - Mexico border, according to a video on the official White House website, is very quiet: nothing but tires crunching on gravel and the wind whistling around a high, solid-looking wall. But that's not the whole story. Today on the show, how that border went from a line in the sand, to a fence, to a wall.

Guests:

Rachel St. John, associate professor of history at U.C. Davis, and author of Line in the Sand: A History of the Western US Mexico Border

Miguel Levario, associate professor of history at Texas Tech University and author of Militarizing the Border: When Mexicans Became the Enemy

Silvestre Reyes, former Congressman (D-TX), and former Border Patrol Sector Chief 

Eduardo Contreras, realtor in Brownsville, Texas

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