As southern border policies evolve, wall exhibit seeks to show part of migrants' experience

WASHINGTON — You can now visit Donald Trump’s wall and the border infrastructure that predated it.

"The Wall / El Muro: What is a Border Wall” exhibit opened in November at the National Building Museum, after nearly five years of development and pandemic-related delays. Offered in both English and Spanish, it provides a physical representation of what it is like to enter the U.S. via the southern border.

Jagged barbed wire is juxtaposed with newly painted gallery walls; dirty mismatched shoes with pristine marble columns.

Crossing from Tijuana to San Diego, hearing the sounds of surveillance drones overhead, it’s all there, including a section of the southwestern border wall fence.

“I don’t have a big platform, but I have this gallery. I felt like it was my responsibility to try to have people think a little more about what is happening,” said Sarah Leavitt, who curated the exhibit at the museum, which was created by an act of Congress in 1980.

It explores not only the architecture and design of the border, but also what a wall symbolizes, and its impact on people and policies.

“When President Trump started talking about building a wall many people didn’t understand that we already had a wall. So I think that is a fundamental problem that we don’t understand what’s happening at our border in our name,” said Leavitt, who wants visitors to come away thinking more about past and present issues of all types of border infrastructure.

As the exhibit's description explains, "visitors will understand that a border wall makes real — and internationally consequential — something that is otherwise relatively symbolic."

While museum visitors immerse themselves in a space designed to convey one aspect of the migrant experience, almost 2,000 miles away, undocumented migrants face not only a physical barrier but an evolving political reality.

In the most recent change to southern border policy, earlier this month the Biden administration reached an agreement with the Mexican government to reimplement a controversial Trump-era immigration policy. The change has met with a mix of support, legal challenges and concerns.

MPP resumes: Biden, Mexico reach agreement to restart Trump-era 'Remain in Mexico' program

'Remain in Mexico' resumes

Informally known as “Remain in Mexico,” the Migrant Protection Protocols prevent migrants at the southern border from entering the United States without documentation, instead requiring them to wait in Mexico until they have been processed and approved for a court hearing in the U.S.

The Trump administration launched MPP in 2019; the Biden administration suspended it in February. Despite attempts by the Department of Homeland Security to officially terminate the program, on Dec. 6, enforcement resumed in El Paso, Texas, with plans to soon expand to other locations along the border.

A federal court in Texas had compelled the administration in August to restart the policy, ruling Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas "failed to show a reasoned decision" for ending the program. In October, Mayorkas said DHS was "fully complying" with the court order, while working to "vigorously" contest it in an appeal.

Approximately 68,000 migrants have been impacted by the policy since its inception, according to a June statement by Mayorkas.

Biden’s southern border strategy has largely tried to focus on acceptance over deferral of migrants. That includes ending construction of Trump’s wall and pushing for greater protections for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which supports those who unlawfully enter the country as children.

But, layered with the reinstatement of MPP, the COVID-19 pandemic has further tied Biden’s hands. The administration is continuing the Title 42 public health order, first instituted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention under Trump, that prohibits asylum seekers from entering the U.S. over concern of spreading the coronavirus.

MPP proponents

Meanwhile, immigration numbers at the southern border have skyrocketed. Several factors play a role in that, from conflict in migrants’ home countries to more favorable economic opportunities in the U.S. Many Republicans in Congress argue it is largely Biden’s immigration policies that are to blame.

This has led GOP lawmakers to support the tougher border security measures that MPP provides and question those whom Biden has tapped to lead the country’s immigration enforcement.

For example, in October, while referencing new DHS guidelines for enforcement priorities, Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, addressed his concerns to Biden’s nominee for Customs and Border Patrol commissioner, Chris Magnus, who was confirmed to his role Dec. 7.

“Do you agree with me that the decision by Secretary Mayorkas to no longer detain or deport people who enter the country illegally is a pull factor, which encourages more people to make that long, dangerous trip?” asked the Texas lawmaker, the leading Republican on the Senate’s immigration subcommittee, who backs the policy.

Legal challenges to 'Remain in Mexico'

Some migrants who have crossed the border expressed concern that those who have substantial asylum claims will be left confused and with few resources while in shelters at the Mexican border.

“There was no clear process on what we had to do,” said José, an asylum-seeker who asked to use a pseudonym in order to protect their identity while still in active legal proceedings.

José is connected to the nonprofit AsylumWorks, a group that guides asylum-seekers in the U.S. through the immigration system.

“It was really challenging. At the end of the day, we’re not sure what we’re doing,” he said. “They ran out of money. They had to depend on the shelter for food, which was usually not good.”

“They had to depend on the shelter for basically everything,” added José, who wasn’t personally affected by the policy since arriving from Mexico in 2018.

Nonprofits like the Southern Poverty Law Center have filed multiple lawsuits contesting the policy.

Melissa Crow, senior supervising attorney with the SPLC’s Immigrant Justice Project, is working on two challenges to MPP.

One, Immigrant Defenders Law Center v. Wolf, was filed in October 2020 and is pending in federal district court.

“The Immigrant Defenders case is based on how the program works in practice, and we’ve alleged that it is impossible for anyone to have a meaningful opportunity to apply for asylum, which is guaranteed under the statute, if they are struggling to survive in Mexico,” Crow said.

Visitors to the National Building Museum cannot experience the policies that affect migrants, like MPP or Title 42. But in stepping into the border wall exhibit, they can walk through several rooms that try to mimic the nearly 2,000 miles of border that extends along the southern boundary of the U.S.

“Borders are invented, imaginary places, they change over time, and they are policed differently over time,” said Leavitt.

“What is happening on our border matters, and it was important for me to be able to start telling this story. This is what museums should be for – leading this type of conversation.”