The Ex-Worker

Welcome to Episode 6 of No Wall They Can Build, the Ex-Worker Podcast’s serialized audiobook exploring borders and migration across North America. This installment investigates the three-tiered border and the process of crossing it, focusing on the places where the most deaths occur—southern Arizona and South Texas. The story of Arivaca, a small community of ranchers and hippies, shows how state arrogance and vigilante brutality turned the population towards solidarity with migrants. The complex politics of the Tohono O’odham reservation at Komkch’ed e Wah ‘osithk (Sells) reflect the fraught relationship between migration, colonialism, and the challenges facing indigenous communities today. The barren deserts and army base lands around Ajo mark some of the most grim and hazardous terrain of the entire border, while the recent surge in deaths around Falfurrias indicates the urgent need for further solidarity. Explanation of the actual mechanics of crossing the border, and the terrible perils faced by vulnerabl