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One Landscape Divided:
Border Wall and Human Crisis
United States and Mexico
by Laurie Smith
Published March 2025
Decades of political gridlock have prevented comprehensive immigration reform in the U.S., with bipartisan efforts stalling again in 2024. The border has become a political pawn, impacting countless lives. Starting in 2016, the Trump administration implemented harsh rhetoric and policies, including the centerpieces of both campaigns: building a new 30-foot steel bollard wall along the entire 2,000-mile stretch of the border, and threatening mass deportations, all intended to deter migrants. Yet, these policies haven't stopped the flow, because people continue to arrive in faith, not fear. (Immediately after taking office in January 2025, the Trump Administration began mass deportations across the U.S.)
Driven by the 2016 building of the wall and the revelation of inhumane migrant detentions and separations, this series of photographs documents the human and environmental cost of these ad hoc policies that will continue until humane and sensible bipartisan immigration reform is enacted into law.
These images, from the El Paso/Juarez sector of the borderlands, invite viewers to experience the stark reality of the border wall, humanize those seeking asylum, inform, and challenge complacency about the crisis at the border.
Laurie Smith
Photographer and art activist Laurie Smith tells stories through narrative photography while exploring the complexities of culture. For more than 30 years, she has photographed food, culture, and travel in a reportage style. Laurie approaches her subjects honestly, with only her Leica and a monopod strapped over her shoulder, taking advantage of ever-changing natural light to photograph the story in front of her.
She has shot over 35 cookbooks and photographed for regional and national publications, including Denver’s 5280 magazine, Saveur, and Food & Wine, traveling on assignment to markets, kitchens, and restaurants around the U.S. and the world.
For the past five years, she has turned her eye to something close to her heart.
Laurie’s roots in West Texas pull her to the U.S.–Mexico border to document what is unfolding at the border wall.
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