Leslie Marmon Silko wrote an essay titled “The Border Patrol State” in 1994 about her perspective on perceived aggression of border patrol officers toward people of color along the Mexican border, particularly what she called the ongoing “Indian Wars.” She describes a steel wall that was being built along the Mexican border, one that she believed belied the ideals of free trade that the U.S. government endorsed.

A decade and three years later, the topic of the U.S.-Mexico border and immigration across it is more discussed than ever, especially in light of the recent presidential election. The issues regarding deportation of immigrants’ children and illegal immigration itself have only exacerbated since Silko’s time, and increasing numbers of people are debating what should be done about the issues.

In light of the growing attention directed toward the illegal immigration over the border between the two countries, it can be argued that the rhetorical situation has grown substantially since the publishing of Silko’s essay. Articles such as like this one written by The Guardian and this one written by Fox News show that American citizens are becoming more and more concerned about what’s going on at the border and what it means for them. Further sparking debate, President Trump’s administration recently announced the rescission of DACA, a program that “deferred deportations for those who came to the United States as young immigrants,” according to the CBS article.

President Trump publicly declared during his campaign for president that he would enact the building of a wall separating Mexico and the United States, similar to the one Silko described in her essay. In accordance with Silko’s idea that metaphorical and/or physical borders are destined to fall, she most likely would have believed that this wall and what it symbolizes are fated to failure, and I would agree.

The walls, both physical and figurative, that Silko wrote of are our own creations. That is why they can never last forever. Humans by nature are impermanent and mutable in terms of our lifespans and attitudes. The beliefs or ideas engrained in one generation will eventually fade away despite our ability to pass on experiences. This is because people have a hard time taking these experiences to heart without having gone through them on a firsthand basis. Ideas and concepts that spurred one group of people to create a wall will not be able to be transferred directly to their descendants, which is why over time instituted walls will crumble.

That’s not to say they won’t be reinstated, as history tends to repeat itself for the same reason as why the walls will fall, but the same wall will never be built twice. And in the very end, after civilization and the world as we know it has passed, the walls we made will cease to ever exist again.