In 2025, the binational conversation around migration has been told almost exclusively through numbers—“encounters,” detentions, deportations, and crossings. Yet the real pressure gauge in border cities is not found in a monthly report, but in faucets, sewer systems, and wastewater treatment plants. The border is living a paradox: even as migration dynamics shift in volume or routes, demand for water and sanitation becomes more expensive, more political, and more technologica