The Land of Open Graves: Living and Dying on the Migrant Trail

by Jason De León

The benefit of the chronological distance from the pain and suffering of past migrations is that many Americans today have no problem putting nationality before humanity.

Rather than being viewed as a key partner in the border enforcement strategy, the desert is framed as a ruthless beast that law enforcement cannot be responsible for.

The pamphlet is missing several key pages about the Rapture. God almighty himself saved the day when Javier needed shit tickets while squatting in a crypt that the cemetery locals converted into a polished marble outhouse.

There is also strong evidence that Border Patrol agents remotely monitor migrants and let them continue walking in the desert for prolonged periods before attempting to apprehend them.

Catholics during the French Wars of Religion feeding the bodies of Protestants to crows and dogs in hopes they would carry their souls to hell.37

A number of canine companions in this region likely have dined on human flesh and then trotted home to lick their owner’s face.

I live in Idaho and was deported a week ago for driving without a license. I need to get back because I was supposed to have internal surgery next week. I just need to get back to my family. They need me. Can you tell me how far it is to Idaho? I have to keep going.

Memo: Supposedly he knew the route.5 Lucho: He didn’t know nothing! [laughs] Memo: He had passed two or three times, right? Lucho: No way, he’d never been. Memo: That’s what he said. Lucho: Then why did he get lost? Jason: This is the person you crossed the desert with the first time? Memo: Yeah, García. He was an older man in his sixties that we met in detention. We went with him because he said he knew the way. He said he had crossed there three years before. Lucho: We climbed this hill and then crossed a fence. It was getting dark and there were trucks driving by. Memo: It was near the Mariposa [border port of entry]. We crossed this fence and kept walking and walking. We walked a long ways and then finally sat down to rest. Then García says, “OK, we crossed over. We are here in the United States.” It was dark and hard to see. I said, “Are you sure?” He says, “Yeah, we are here. We made it. I crossed through here three years ago.” We saw cars going by and thought they were Border Patrol so we hid under a tree. Lucho: We sat there for a long time and waited. Then we saw this couple walking by way off in the distance. We got really worried that they were lost. Memo: I started yelling at them, “Hey! Are you OK? Do you need some water?” I wanted to try and give them some water because those poor things didn’t have anything with them. No backpack or anything. They stopped for a second and waved at us. I kept yelling at them to give them water but they just waved. I started g...

This effect could also be complicated by the tendency of some researchers to paint their subjects as noble creatures who don’t swear or crack anal-sex jokes at the drop of a hat.

I have always imagined the shelter as one of the few places where migrants are relatively safe and not in danger of being exploited or mistreated. Over many years, though, I have observed other researchers bullying exhausted people into participating in their study and journalists aggressively trolling the mass of deportees for “good” stories. I vividly remember overhearing a famous television journalist telling his camera man, “We need to find a mother that has been deported and lost her kids. We need to find someone with a really fucked-up story. That’s pure gold.”

For their time, these lawyers earn $125 an hour. Each of them can easily make an estimated $125,000 annually on Operation Streamline cases alone. No wonder they’re laughing.

The escalating war on immigration has become a profitable business over the past decade.

Memo: Border Patrol plays music like that to trick people into asking for a ride because migrants think it’s a paisano [Mexican]. Fuckers! [laughing] Lucho: Yeah, also polleros doing pickups will whistle in the dark and call out to people, “Vámonos!” La migra will do the same thing to trick people into thinking they are smugglers so that migrants will come out of the woods and walk toward them. Memo: Border Patrol also makes animal noises like birds or coyotes. These are signals that smugglers sometimes use.

Christian: I will never understand the sorrow that the kids feel. They miss Maricela so much. Her daughter misses her the most. Right now my parents are watching them, but they are old. They can’t give them the same attention that their mom would have given. . . . When I was standing over her coffin, I promised my sister-in-law that I would take care of her kids. She came here for them, to give them a better life and give them all the things that she never had. I promised Mari that her kids would never be deprived of anything. I would give them everything I could. I am working and to this day I am taking care of them. I buy what they need, give them food, send them to school. My brother makes very little money in Ecuador. He makes $240 a month. That doesn’t do anything when things there cost the same that they do here.