Why the wall was built
4/21/202613 min
As the United States expanded into a global superpower, it simultaneously strengthened its national borders and began to limit who could come in and out of the country. In this week’s episode, the story of how one of the very first walls meant to divide people was built on the US Southern border.
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First 90 secondsSpeaker 00:00
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Rund Abdelfatah· Host0:18
[instrumental music] This is America in Pursuit, a limited-run series from Throughline and NPR. I'm Rund Abdelfatah. Each week, we bring you stories about life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness in the US that began 250 years ago. Last week, we talked about the expansion of the United States into a newfound global power. But even as the country was expanding its borders around the world to include places as far away as the Philippines in the late 19th century, it was also limiting what was and wasn't part of the United States by creating boundaries and borders, especially along the border between the US and Mexico.
Rachel St. John· Guest1:02
We need to be really clear about marking this space, and that leads a lot of government officials along the border to say, "We need a fence."
Rund Abdelfatah· Host1:09
Today on the show, Throughline producers Anya Steinberg and Christina Kim take us to the border city of Ambos Nogales to tell us the story of one of the first walls on the US southern border. That story after a quick break.