Bordered

This paper looks at major policy changes from 1960 to 2008 in order to investigate to what extent they have impacted the cities of El Paso, Texas and Ciudad Juárez, Mexico. These two cities offer an interesting urban juxtaposition as they reside on either side of the U.S./Mexico border yet only 20 miles separate their respective city centers. By conducting a longitudinal land cover analysis over these four decades, this study attempts to understand how the macro level of organization (policies delegated at the federal government level) influence organization at the micro level (local policy). Understanding the relationship between certain categories of immigration policy and organizational space could comment on the role of planning in border conditions.