The Rise of the Fortress Continent
by Naomi Klein

On the other US border, dozens of industries, from agriculture to construction, are reliant on "illegal" Mexican workers--a fact not lost on George W. Bush, who knows that, after oil, immigrant labor is the fuel driving the Southwest economy. If he suddenly cut off the flow, the business sector would rebel. So what's a wildly pro-business, security-obsessed government to do?

Easy: Move the border. Turn the Mexican and Canadian borders into glorified checkpoints and seal off the entire continent, from Guatemala to the Arctic Circle. Bush officials don't talk much about the continental fortress, preferring terms like "North American area of mutual confidence." But a US-run security perimeter is precisely what is being built. In the past year, Washington has pressured Canada and Mexico to harmonize their refugee, immigration and visa laws with US policies. And in July 2001, Mexican President Vicente Fox introduced Plan Sur, a massive security operation on Mexico's southern frontier that immigration experts refer to as "the southern migration" of the US border.
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