Know Your Rights | 100 Mile Border Zone | ACLU

In the desert, immigration didn’t feel like a topic, something to be argued about. The border felt like an equator, a battle site, a place where politics had failed. Borders were war.

For me and for anyone with an American passport, borders sometimes seem entirely arbitrary: imaginary lines etched on a globe, painted stripes to be stepped over as lightly as crossing the street. It is easy to forget that for others they are all but impregnable.

Recognize, also, that you undoubtedly break laws continually. It’s almost impossible to drive a car without breaking traffic laws. And most other kinds of laws are filled with contradictions that make nearly everyone a lawbreaker just by going about his own business.