Years ago, I stood with a friend on the bridge over the Rio Grande between El Paso, Texas, and Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua.

While watching the river flow beneath us, my friend asked, “What do you think this will look like when the gringos start fleeing to Mexico?” The possibility had not occurred to me.

El Paso has its back to the river: backsides of warehouses and retail businesses. Ciudad Juarez faces the river: houses with garden patios and tarpaper shacks. At the time, women washed clothes in the river, singing ranchera songs in harmony.

Today, we have Trump’s Wall. There are still migrants fleeing dangerous places seeking a better life in our country; fewer and fewer are Mexicans. Mexico is booming: global trade and industry, an international financial system which bypasses the dollar and the arbitrary demands of the U.S. and its irascible president.

If we are devolving into a Christian version of Afghanistan, why should anyone come here, and why should anyone stay? Trump’s wall, then, is not to keep migrants out, but to keep Americans in.

I still have no answer to my friend’s question. We’re not in that situation yet, and if we can learn to collaborate instead of dominate, we may avoid it. Dios quiere.

JOHN NICOL

Rosburg, Washington