The Death and Life of Aida Hernandez Quotes

“Everyone else makes mistakes, but immigrants can never make mistakes," Rosie said, and she was right.”
― Aaron Bobrow-Strain, The Death and Life of Aida Hernandez: A Border Story

“[...] the "explosion" of Mexicans crossing the border without permission was entirely predictable. It was the inevitable consequence of of policies that slashed opportunities to migrate legally without addressing the forces pushing and pulling people across the line. People who had lived their lives across two countries legally and peacefully for decades were suddenly redefined as invaders and threats. The "Illegal immigrant" was thus invented in Washington, D.C., conjured out of contradiction.”
― Aaron Bobrow-Strain, The Death and Life of Aida Hernandez: A Border Story

“For people in Aida's position, "empowerment is not contingent on taking power or security small victories. Empowerment comes from deciding that the outcome of struggle doesn't matter as much as the decision to struggle.”
― Aaron Bobrow-Strain, The Death and Life of Aida Hernandez: A Border Story

“There was dignity, he knew, in the simple act of continuing to live in a world where you were not meant to survive.”
― Aaron Bobrow-Strain, The Death and Life of Aida Hernandez: A Border Story

“Judges knew that a negative verdict, made under intense time pressure, might return a person to a war-torn country, to a cartel-controlled neighborhood, or into the arms of an abusive partner. On the flip side, they feared opening the gates of the United States too wide and experiencing blowback if they released someone who later committed a violent crime. In 2009, the head of the National Association of Immigration Judges declared that their work was "the equivalent of death penalty cases... conduct[ed]... in a traffic court setting.”
― Aaron Bobrow-Strain, The Death and Life of Aida Hernandez: A Border Story

“Aida had spent 316 days in immigration detention. She had committed no crime worse than shoplifing, posed no threat to public safety, and, with her long ties to one hometown, was unlikely to have fled Douglas. Nevertheless, U.S. Taxpayers paid approximately $52,000 to keep her locked down in medium-security prison conditions. That year, Corrections Corporation of America, the company operating Eloy, logged almost $160 million in profits. And the money trail didn't end there.”
― Aaron Bobrow-Strain, The Death and Life of Aida Hernandez: A Border Story