Observations at the Border

Observations at the Border
By Kyle Holub
Nogales, AZ
October 16, 2018


A child’s shoe on this side. 
An elementary school on that side, they have a tall fence.
A man drinking coffee. I wave because I’m 30ft away. There’s a fence between us.
A house on this side has razor wire on the top of its tall fence. 
A border patrol truck at the top of the hill.
The locks have a flag motif and are made by American Lock.
The border faces outwards. The fence is meant to be more difficult to climb from that side. The border patrol truck faces that direction, the floodlights point that way. 
One of the floodlight generators had a hatch that was unlocked.


Paco pointed out later that some of my actions at the border could have been interpreted as suspicious. I was rummaging through my backpack that I had leaned on the border fence. I knelt down to take pictures of ants crossing the border. I rolled a cigarette.


I hadn’t considered that anything I did would attract the attention of border patrol.
I knew that if I did arouse suspicions, I was a short conversation away from clearing up the situation. This is a position of privilege.