About Programs Fellowship News Calendar
Salzburg Global Fellow Fernando Garcia outlines the case for a "New Ellis Island" at the US-Mexico border
This op-ed was written by Fernando Garcia, who attended the Salzburg Global American Studies program "Beyond the Nation-State? Borders, Boundaries, and the Future of Democratic Pluralism" from September 19 to 23, 2023.
If it's true that borders can define the character of a nation, America can be the perfect example. In the American case, it all begins with the fact that the nation is exceptional because of immigration, because it was indeed built by immigrants. Therefore, in its conceptual form, borders have created narratives that have defined what America is or is supposed to be as a nation.
In the late 1800s and the first quarter of the 1900s, more than 15 million Europeans migrated to the US. These included families, children, women, and the elderly. The vast majority came through the northeastern border: Ellis Island. Millions of people, with and without visas, came to that port, which soon became the essence of a new face of America. Those migrants who arrived at Ellis Island were fleeing religious and political persecution, violence, internal conflicts, economic depression, and poverty. They came from all over Europe, from countries such as Ireland, Poland, Germany, and Russia. It was then that that border, Ellis Island, helped to shape the idea of America as the promised land. The conceptualization of that border as such was not only impactful for those arriving migrants but also to the identity of America itself.
In America during the 1920s and 1930s, the National Public Radio (NPR) used to have radio spots (PSA) that were used recurrently throughout the daily programming to describe the American experience as a nation of immigrants and a country that was proud of it. "Being an American" was deeply connected to the idea that our nation was built, created, and imagined by immigrants. It was there and then that politics, academia, and culture embraced Ellis Island, a border, as the physical and subjective space that characterized the American being. This represented a renewed identity of America that called on itself to become one melting pot; this was an idea that we all came from somewhere to become one. This is inscribed in American symbols and mottos, such as "E Pluribus Unum"– Latin for "Out of many, one".
By the middle of the 1900s, regardless of ideology, when Americans would think of the image of Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty, they would embrace their common identity as the defining factor in the nation’s character. These were the strongest symbols of America, symbols that emerged from an American border, and fundamental symbols that shaped the character of a society and nation.
Nowadays, when looking at the US-Mexico border, I assert that it will, again, define our nation's character. Immigrants arriving at the southwest border come with the same aspirations and motives as those who stepped foot on Ellis Island a hundred years ago. Modern migrants also seek the opportunity to partake in the promised land and future, others are fleeing political violence and persecution. However, something is different, as these are immigrants of color, not white Europeans.
It is quite evident today that the US-Mexico border, in policy, practice, and narrative, is the subject of an ongoing battle for the ideals of America and what America ought to be for the next 100 years, and I see at least two evolving paths of this public battle for the American narrative of its borders.
The first path defines migrants as criminals, as a threat to our nation, and as an invasion. Under this lens, erecting border walls, installing barbed wire and buoys on the Rio Grande River, and deploying thousands of armed personnel seem like the solution to the stated problem, the invasion. Therefore, it seems “reasonable” that the US sees this emerging narrative of the border through the criminalization of migrants and militarization of the border lenses.
This narrative, somehow optional and hyper-ideologized, presents the border as a war zone where immigrants are the primary enemy, and where border policies and strategies have been heavily infused with racial hate, vitriol, and prejudice. In this version of America, children can be separated from their families, and the indefinite incarceration of refugees and asylum seekers becomes the norm. In this distorted representation of the border, we can militarize the region and treat US citizens and residents living on the border as second-class citizens with a distinct application of the law and the constitution.
Will this be the character of America for future generations? Will the border wall become a new symbol of American society and our nation's character and replace Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty?
In the second path, there is a value-oriented narrative where immigrants are recognized as essential to the development of America, understanding that without immigrants we would not be able to embrace the core value of a “Nation of Immigrants” and sustain the pace of an economy that has exceptionally relied on immigrants and migration. This narrative recognizes the fact that America is a multi-color and more diverse nation that embraces the historical belief that America is exceptional because of immigrants and that the challenges presented at our southern border deserve a solution that aligns with the values and aspirations proclaimed by the Ellis Island ideals and with a human rights approach.
It is precisely here that the Border Network for Human Rights has worked tirelessly to construct a new modern narrative where the US-Mexico border becomes the "New Ellis Island". A space and destiny where the country recognizes that migrants and refugees have an intrinsic place in our society.
So, which of these two border narratives will define the character of our America?
Fernando Garcia is the founding director of the Border Network for Human Rights (BNHR). He has spent the last 25 years fighting for human rights in the U.S.-Mexico border region through his organization’s unique community approach and has successfully directed U.S.-Mexico border campaigns focused on human rights. Under Fernando's guidance, the BNHR continues to work tirelessly to educate, organize, and civically engage border communities so that they may empower themselves and demand the changes and rights they deserve.
Fernando attended the Salzburg Global American Studies program on “Beyond the Nation-State? Borders, Boundaries, and the Future of Democratic Pluralism” from September 19-23, 2023. The 2023 Salzburg Global American Studies Program focused on the contestations and renegotiations of boundaries beyond the nation-state, and how they are changing the representation of democratic pluralism.