The Border Wall by Krista Schlyer
On November 9, the world celebrated the twentieth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Meanwhile the United States has constructed a controversial wall of its own. The U.S.-Mexico border wall--designed to prevent illegal movement from Mexico to the United States--has drawn criticism from conservation organizations, civil rights groups, private landowners, and communities situated along the border, for reasons as varied as habitat destruction, infringement on property rights and damage to historic and cultural sites. The borderlands are home to dozens of federally endangered and threatened wild species, including jaguars, ocelots and Mexican gray wolves. But federal laws that would normally protect these species hold no authority in this case. Why? In 2005, Congress passed the REAL ID Act, giving the Department of Homeland Security the authority to waive more than 36 laws during construction of the wall, including measures protecting the environment and religious freedoms. Krista Schlyer made the photographs shown here.
