ABSTRACT
This chapter unfolds with: (1) an introduction and brief history of the border wall issue; (2) identification and classification of political actors in Nogales, Arizona and Nogales, Sonora; (3) elite responses to the border wall issue; and (4) analysis of bi-national and political dimensions of this issue and its impact on the two communities. Stoddard, Martinez and Martinez Lasso (1979) in their study of El Paso-Cd. Juárez examined public opinion of community leaders vis-à-vis the “tortilla curtain” [the building of a fence between the cities] as well as to determine the bi-national border linkages created around the issue. The authors concluded that although the leaders of El Paso and Cd. Juárez did not agree in their assessment of the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) fence project, community leaders did agree that border cooperation is a requisite for the survival of both border communities (Stoddard, Martinez, and Martinez Lasso 1979: 40).
