ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that thinking about architecture as a process and pattern of movement can help us better understand what is going on at the US–Mexico border. Instead of thinking about borders as architectural “flow spaces” that people move through, I propose we think about how nonhuman and human movements create and transform these spaces together. In particular, this chapter identifies and describes four patterns of motion at the US–Mexico border: the funnel, the cage, the current and the pool. Toward the end of the chapter, I compare the function of these patterns of the US–Mexico border to what Karl Marx calls “primitive accumulation.” They are patterns or cycles that directly displace people in order to capture and mobilize them in various ways. Elsewhere, I have called this process expansion by expulsion. I also emphasize how the US response to the coronavirus has intensified all these patterns and how the results of this intensification have been devastating for migrants and asylum seekers. A large part of border architecture now operates in a zone of national and international legal suspension.
