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I think it's so important to remember and to remind people that

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this vastness, this peace, this beauty—this is the reality of  most of the borderlands.

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Our 2,000 mile long border is full of wilderness areas, wildlife refuges, national park units.

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The majority of our border are scenes like this: of peace, and serenity, and nature.

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And we still hear, day after day, from people like Governor Ducey here in Arizona

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that there is some sort of massive surge, some sort of crisis, with people pouring into our 

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country at every possible gap in the border wall.

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But that's just not true. And this right here—this peace, this serenity—

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this is the reality of most of our beautiful border region.

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Being the presence of the wall stirs feelings of being in front of Stanley Kubrick's obelisk

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in 2001: A Space Odyssey. It is eerie in a similar way that Mark Fisher defined it.

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The contrast between a brand-new megastructure and a desert devoid of human beings

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makes it difficult not to trod out science fiction tropes.

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There's a presence in that wall. A presence that feels supernatural, or otherworldly.

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The reason the wall stands in such terrible, uncanny magnificence is not because there

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exists a landscape devoid of humanity.

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But rather, all around this twisting auburn structure of vertical steel, there exists the

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biodiverse vitality of the desert. 

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The wall is eerie because there is an abundance of life that surges all around it.

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People are there.

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They just exist in smaller numbers. They are less seen.

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But you can find their traces—their memories—if you look hard enough.

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This liveliness is anathema to the anesthetized megastructure

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and it attempts to render these vital landscapes into something

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inert, nondescript, and all-encompassing.

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The wall is an attempt at plastering over—and making homogeneous—

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a place that is so obviously its opposite.

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It is attempting to make generic a landscape that is filled with such undeniable vivacity.

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The wall is a deliberate, concrete manifestation of a reactionary futurist abstraction.

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Through violent, authoritarian intentionality, the wall has erupted as a tangible signifier

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for an otherwise historically transient sociopolitical demarcation.

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It's stunning how much damage has been inflected over these last four years

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on this beloved and irreplaceable region.

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Wounds have been opened that will take centuries—literally—to heal.

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But, that can't stop us from fighting for justice, for doing what is right, 

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and for giving our all to protect the land—this beautiful, spectacular land—

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that nourishes all of us, that feeds our souls, that literally keeps us alive.

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And we are going to do everything, everything in our power to make sure that this wall

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of death—these steel slats—that kill wildlife, cut off migration corridors,

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do not go in the ground.