ABSTRACT
The Border Wall is only the most visible manifestation of America's power play against the southern immigrant. The Wall and it’s environ is patrolled by a police force larger than all of America's other police forces combined. Immigrants, in any case, and despite the sentiments and intended strategies, climb over the wall or go around the wall, and enter the United States. Living in Brownsville, a border city, their lives have been deeply shaped by immigration. This could be because they are Mexican-Americans, and considered by other Americans as immigrants themselves. The Roman Catholic Diocese of Brownsville institutionalized the religious side of this hospitality during the early 1980s when Central Americans were fleeing the civil wars of that time. The American response to the terrorist attacks of September 11th complicated the practice of border hospitality, whether celebrated by an institution or by an individual. Security measures that were put into place effectively created a militarized zone of the southern border communities.
