They treat us like animals...

(Photo by David McNew, Getty Images)

There are many strange things that stand out when studying undocumented migration. One in particular is the prevalence of animal nicknames related to migration. These animal metaphors give an important insight into the dehumanizing effect of the undocumented experience. The vocabulary is used to rationalize treating migrants as less than human. However, this language is not relegated to those that make their living off migrants, on the contrary it is even more prevalent among migrants themselves, showing that they rationalize the abuse they suffer (I am not going to dwell on Bourdieu here, but Habitus and Symbolic Violence are excellent theories that speak to this phenomenon.) By understanding how animal vocabulary is used, it shows how central dehumanization has become to the terminology that surrounds unauthorized migration.

Traditionally called coyotes for their trickster nature and the way they are likely to trick migrants, the guides are also frequently called polleros - someone who works with chicken, usually cooking or killing them. Since the guide is the pollero then the migrants are often referred to as the pollos, or pollitos - the chickens, or chicks. Both nicknames, the coyote and the pollero refer to something that kills and even consumes chickens. Moreover, the terminology used for recruiting migrants to cross is often described with words such as grabbing "agarrando", catching "capturando" or even more disconcerting, "estan vendiendo/comprando los pollos" - "they are selling/buying chickens" used to explain when one guide is selling or buying migrants from another guide. Yet another epithet for migrants that is frequently heard is "pollos asados" - "roasted chickens." This is usually used by border residents to mock groups of people that have been repatriated to Mexico. Because of their dark clothes, and sunburned skin migrants are easily identifiable. Moreover, most Sonorans are fair skinned and contrast markedly with Mexicans from the south. This racist term separates and rationalizes the treatment suffered by fellow countrymen that arrive, tired and destitute on the streets of an unknown city. There is a great deal of animosity against migrants by residents of the border that see them as a danger and a nuisance.

Proceeding along the journey, there is the danger of running into bandits, usually known as bajadores, but are also frequently called rateros, translated as ratter, the word used to describe any breed of terrier used to hunt rats (as best as I can tell). These rateros prey on the migrants and threaten them, often with guns called "cuernos de chivo," literally, "goats horns." In reality they are AK - 47s and the nickname, cuernos de chivo was given becuase of the shape of the handle and magazine.

Yet another border animal is the burro or burrero - pack mule. These are the drug runners that carry large backpacks of marijuana into the U.S. The majority of these people are former migrants that are willing to risk involvement in the drug trade to defray the cost of crossing.

When migrants are apprehended by the border patrol or "migra", they are put into converted trucks known as "perreras" - or dog catcher trucks. I have seen this translated as kennel (Nunez Heyman 2007), but it is more accurately described as dog catcher trucks. They function the same way, capturing migrants like stray dogs and putting them in a cage in the back. The border patrol uses flatbed pickup trucks with a cage in back designed to hold migrants. (See photo) I have heard accounts of up to 12 people being put in back. While the back is climate controlled, I often hear more complaints about temperature when migrants are transported in the perreras. One young man told me that when they complained about the heat, the agents turned the heat all the way up to the maximum. He said that he almost passed out before they arrived at the processing center.

As far as I can tell, the nickname perrera, was formulated from by the migrants themselves. I have asked dozens of people whether or not they have heard the border patrol agents refer to their trucks as perreras, and no one has. This suggests that the nickname is a reaction to the experience of being treated like an animal, like a dog. This dehumanizing treatment is a fundamental part of the border crossing experience. People live in fear, knowing that they have limited human rights. They do not have the power to denounce those that have wronged them. They are not able to stand up for what is right because every moment they lose is less money for their family, less chances of getting that job, and a greater likelihood that they will run across someone that will make them pay for not knowing their place. A 50 year old man named Jesus' eyes began to water as he informed me that he wanted to denounce his guide. They had come across a woman that had foam coming out of her mouth due to dehydration and even though none of them had any water either, he wanted to stop and try to help her but the guide would not let them. Jesus knew that if he had told the authorities who the coyote was, he would be in a lot of danger when he got back to the Mexico. Not being able to give that testimony, living in fear of reprisal is a huge part of being undocumented. Even the while they are living in the U.S. there is constant fear of "redadas" or round ups. These are the workplace raids where border patrol checks documents and repatriates people to Mexico that are working illegally. The term redada is used frequently for cattle round-ups, yet another example of how people become animals in the terms of undocumented immigration.

Nowhere is the treatment more dehumanizing than in Operation Streamline, the mass trials. People are rounded up, chained and sent to sit on benches like rows of cattle. A 23 year old man named Alejandro that had made his first attempt to cross, remarked to me, "Nos traten como animales" - "they treat us like animals. All I wanted to do is work and support my family and they treat me like I am not even human."

Riding the train from the bottom tier

(http://www.prensalibre.com/pl/2008/junio/30/_Img/408029_101.jpg)

I recently talked with a 20 year old named Paolo that had come up from Escuintla, Guatemala. He rode the train to the border. Paolo simply stated that the train was very ugly. He explained how people are robbed, kidnapped, and the women are raped. It is better just to give the thieves 200 pesos or they will beat you up and take everything. Paolo said that the Mexican police robbed him in Oaxaca. They punched him in the stomach and took all his and his friend's money. Later, when he was back on the train, bandits assaulted them. One of them hit him on the head with a stick and they took his wallet and cell phone. They were about to kidnap him but he jumped off the train and got away. They immediately called his family and told them that they had kidnapped Paolo. At this point, he had no money so he went to the nearest town to beg and try to get help. The people there warned him that the Mexican immigration authorities would get him so he kept moving. Finally someone gave him a phone card and he called his family to tell them what happened. Having heard the ransom call, his family was petrified. They had been scrambling to try to come up with the money but had not yet sent it to the would-be kidnappers.

The train is incredibly dangerous. People often fall and lose limbs. On one of my first trips to do interviewing there was a man staying at the shelter who had lost his foot falling off a train. He was sleeping on a cot in the corner, covered in bandages. I remember being laughed at by a man from Honduras named Luis when I asked if he thought crossing the desert was dangerous. He explained how you have to learn to sleep on the train, holding on. If you relax your grip you will fall and will most likely die or lose a limb. The train shakes violently and people always fall. Luis said that you have to find a way to wedge your arms in some crevass and hang on while simultaneously sleeping. The train takes over a week and getting off leaves you vulnerable to kidnappings or robberies, and it delays your trip as you wait for the next train. Waiting is dangerous because of the violent gangs such as MS-13 (Mara Salvatrucha 13) that now controls much of the southern Mexican border. A 2009 report by the Comision Nacional de Los Derechos Humanos (National Commission for Human Rights) documented 9,758 kidnappings of Central Americans in Mexico between September 2008 and Febuary of 2009.

Paolo said that he had been hoping to cross to the U.S to work and make enough money to help his family and marry his girlfriend that just gave birth to their first child. At the moment, Paolo's mother, girlfriend and young son live in a one room house in Guatemala. Paolo was intending on being gone for two years to work. He decided to stay at the border and work to recuperate some of the costs of the trip. The money that he had borrowed to make the journey was all stolen on the train so he spent a month in Mexicali working as a welder. He is very passionate about welding. He said that he really wants to work more with artisan welding. He said that back in Guatemala he used to make sculptures when he could find materials. Paolo said that the best piece he ever did was a sculpture of hearts with drops of blood falling from them like tears. "Everyone loved it," he said. Paolo continued to explain that work as a welder is difficult to find in Guatemala. He worked in the campo - the fields and made very little money.

After a month in Mexicali he had saved enough money to attempt to cross into the U.S. He first tried to cross the California border outside Mexicali, but he was caught in five minutes. He tried again here in Arizona and had a 3 day and 3 night ordeal in the desert. He and some friends decided to cross without the aid of the guide and got lost for a few days. Finally they made it to a city and hitched a ride. When the woman found out they were illegal she kicked him out of the car and called the police that picked them up by the side of the road. The officer grabbed Paolo and threw him on the ground to handcuff him. They called him a "mojado" - wetback, as well as other things in English that he did not understand. After he was finally caught, he was sent to operation streamline and given a formal deportation. They lost his wallet and $800 pesos ($60USD) in the process. He was deported to Mexico after lying to the Authorities that he was actually from Chiapas, a state in Southern Mexico. He was left with nothing but a backpack that was promptly stolen while he was sitting on a curb. Paolo said that it didn't matter though. The only thing in his backpack was a dirty old shirt.

He said that he plead guilty to the charges at streamline because he needs to be able to send money to his family. The prospect of staying and fighting the charge was too much of a risk. He owes money for already and needs to be able to continuously send support to his family. He is the only one that works at this moment so they depend completely on him. Paolo does have family that currently lives in the U.S. but he does not know where. He was planning on going to Arizona to find work and see if he can locate some relatives. At this point, Paolo planned on going back to Mexicali to spend a few more months working. Hopefully he will be able to make enough money to pay back the money lender in Guatemala. There is so much that can go wrong in undocumented migration.

It never ceases to amaze me how intelligent and resilient people can be. There is so much talent and passion that is being suppressed, and yet they go on. The frankness and matter of fact nature with which he relayed the abuses and terrors he had suffered surprised me. He barely blinked an eye at being robbed yet again in Nogales. On one hand it is evidence of the way abuse is normalized but on the other hand it is a testiment to the strength and resilience of people. Paolo prefered to talk to me about art. His eyes lit up as he talked about shaping metal into works of art. While it is sad to see a skilled, intelligent, passionate 20 year old that has not even gotten the opportunity to complete secondary school and has to risk so much just to make enough money to support his family and get ahead in life, it is heartening to know that if he can proceed and focus on what he is passionate about, I can do anything. Unfortunately we live in a world that places more emphasis on where you were born than who you are. It is a tiered system that places U.S. citizens at the top, the Mexicans below them and the Central Americans on the bottom; and yet, when all is said and done there is nothing that separates us except for our humanity, compassion and ability to make the best out of life.

Overview of Undocumented Migration and the Border

In this entry I want to give a brief overview of immigration and the border for those of you that are not familiar with the topic or area. For those of you that are experts on these issues, I welcome you to comment and challenge my simplifications. I will include some citations for those of you that would like to read more, but I will base the majority of the information on observations that we have collected during interviews.

In the past, the process of unauthorized migration began in a small rural town in Central Mexico (Guanajuato, Michoacan, Jalisco etc.), where a local coyote would accompany a group of men through the border and to their destination in the U.S. Usually, there are one or two destinations based on the social contacts with migrants that have succeeded at finding employment in a specific city or town in the U.S. Some of this has changed recently. The local guide is not as common as it once was. Today, more migrants travel to the border region, knowing that they will be able to find a coyote or pollero as they are sometimes called, to take them into the U.S. When crossing the Arizona border, which has the highest number of undocumented crossers, most people come to Altar, Sonora to find a guide that will take them across the border. These professional guides offer a greater likelihood of crossing, but at greater expense and risk of foul play. For a good discussion on different types of border guides see Lopez (1998). Moreover, the migration stream has shifted farther south in Mexico to the states of Guerrero, Oaxaca and Chiapas, as well as a large increase in the number of women that are attempting to cross the desert. There are obviously multiple ways to cross, hidden in cargo or using fake documents for example, but, the vast majority of undocumented migrants cross through long treks in the desert. This is also a fairly new phenomenon. Border militarization started in the mid-1990's with Operation Gatekeeper, with goal of securing the cities and forcing people to cross in the more remote, dangerous desert areas.

Once a guide has been found, he informs people how long it will take to cross and what the experience will be like. There is almost always exaggeration or flat out lies aimed at convincing people that they would be better with him than with another guide. The most common promise is "one day and one night" of walking. Since there are many different meeting points where groups of migrants get picked up by vans and are driven to their subsequent destinations, the time it takes to cross can vary greatly. However, the crossing has been getting longer. People have been walking all the way from the border to Casas Grandes (about a hundred miles as the crow flies). This takes about 7 or 8, 16 hour days walking all night to avoid detection and the hot sun. Those that cannot keep up, due to exhaustion or injury are abandoned. Since people do not bring sufficient water, they look for it wherever possible, drinking from cattle troughs, windmills or puddles. There is also the added complication that few people are aware of the topography and the climate in the border region. It snows frequently atop the Arizona mountain ranges near the border during winter and 110 degree heat is all too common in the summer. Few people can be prepared for the immense variations in climate that occur each day because nights are significantly colder than the days in the desert. A 2007 report by the Comision Nacional de los Derechos Humanos (The Mexican Government Human Rights Commission) one migrant has died per day since the start of Operation Gatekeeper in 1994. The worst year was 2005 when the Mexican government reported 516 deaths, and local humanitarian groups report 238 deaths in the Tucson sector alone.

Aside from the perils of the desert, migrants must be wary of bajadores, the bandits that roam the border. If a migrant is forced to make three or four crossing attempts due to apprehension by border patrol, robbery and assault are raised from a likelihood to near certainty. These bandits have been accused of forcing women to remove their clothes or worse. Bajadores always threaten people with weapons and inform people that if they fail to hand over all of their cash and sometimes food or necessary supplies, they will be killed. There is often a suspicion that the coyotes are collaborating with the bajadores so as to collect a portion of the money in return for bringing groups of migrants to the bandits.

If the group is successful and arrive in Phoenix, there is the risk of being kidnapped in a "safe house." These are apartments or houses in Phoenix where smuggling and drug running operations are based. Migrants are held, packed into tiny rooms, often thirty or forty to an apartment (based on my interviews and phoenix police reports). They are given very little food and water, while they wait for family members to pay a ransom. The people that I talked to who had this experience were forced to pay between two and three thousand USD for their release. This was on top of the price for the coyote. This is an issue that is hard to gauge because the only people I talk to that have had this experience are those that are rescued by ICE or were apprehended after paying the ransom. Since groups usually crossed in coordinated, staggered groups, if one is caught, those behind them often make it. I do not know how many of these kidnappings are taking place.

If the crossing is not a success and migrants are apprehended by the border patrol, they are taken to a processing center where they are held in a small cage, often kept at very cold temperatures for about 8-12 hours. If they are unlucky enough to be randomly selected to participate in a new program called operation streamline, they are sent to the federal courthouse to see a judge. The group of 80 - 100 people a shackled at the ankles, waist and wrists and filed into the grandiose courtroom where a judge lectures them on their rights to plead not-guilty, to the charge of entering the U.S. at a time or place not sanctioned by the U.S. government. Those that already have a criminal record are brought forward and incarcerated for anywhere from one month to two years at a prison, run by the Corrections Corporation of America, a private company. Those that have no criminal record are then lectured, through simultaneous translation headsets, that they will be given a formal deportation and must plead guilty. Those that do not plead guilty are instructed to stand up at this time. No one stands. The chorus of "culpable" that echoes through the courtroom is contrasted by the eerie jangle of chains clanking together during the nervous movements of the scared and demoralized crowd. If anyone does not believe this description of mass trial in the U.S., federal courtrooms are open to the public so visit your local courtroom if you live by the border. They are doing this several times a day in most border cities. After the proceedings, the migrants are given a formal deportation, and are now considered criminals in the U.S. If they attempt to return they will be sentenced to anywhere from 30 to 180 days in jail depending on the district. In the past, most people received "voluntary departures" which was not a criminal offense and allowed people to keep trying and not be detained in jail, for the most part. Voluntary departures result in repatriations whereas criminal offenses result in deportations.

Next, the migrants are picked up by another private company, profiting from human misery called Wackenhut, that drives people back to the border in buses and dumps them on the streets of a strange city. For those that have had the misfortune of losing their identification cards in the process of immigration, they are unable to receive a wire transfer and must find someone to trust enough that they can put a transfer in his or her name without fear of the person running off with the money. Unfortunately, losing ID or the credencial electoral as it is known, is extremely common for people coming out of operation streamline.

Nogales receives the second largest amount of repatriations along the border, only surpassed by Tijuana. Since many people have been robbed or no longer have much money, they are in an extremely vulnerable position. There are few social services for repatriated migrants. In Nogales there is one overnight shelter, one soup kitchen and a government agency, Grupo Beta, that provides people with a 50% discount on a bus ticket back home and access to a phone. According to the Instituto Nacional de Migracion in Mexico (Mexican Immigration Services), there were 47,000 people repatriated to Nogales in the month of April. Officially, there are only 200,000 people living in Nogales (INEGI 2005) but, as you may well guess, this number is an underestimate. For people that do not know about these services or are turned away due to lack of resources or space, the city can be a dangerous place. Most of you are aware of the violent drug war that exacted a huge toll in lives this previous year. I have heard stories of people that have been repatriated being forced to carry drugs across, whereas others join willingly due to the need for money. Carrying about 80 lbs of marijuana into the U.S. in a backpack pays you $1800. However, collecting this money is another matter. One must keep doing jobs in order to collect this pay, causing people to get sucked farther and farther into the drug trade.

Some people are able to make their way back home, others try again and still others remain in the border region because there is a higher minimum wage in Northern Mexico and more jobs because of the established maquiladora/industrial sector. The flow of people into the border zone puts an enormous strain on cities that have experienced huge rates of growth in the past few decades. Housing is difficult to find. There are many informal settlements that lack adequate infrastructure such as water, sewage or electricity. Many of the long term residents of the border resent having a large amount of people deported to their doorstep that are essentially homeless and have little to no resources. This can cause clashes between locals and those that are trying to do something to help migrants. Last week a popular radio personality in a border town denounced the migrants and suggested that they be locked up immediately by the police when they arrive.

Sorry for the long post, but I wanted to give my interpretation of the necessary background information on immigration. I will undoubtedly challenge or complicate the majority of the statements that I made here. The border and undocumented crossing is constantly changing and evolving. It makes it hard for a researcher to come up with concrete answers. Our tools and medium for disseminating information is far too slow, whereas journalists are often too fast and fail to see the whole picture.

For more authors' research and interpretations on migration see Joseph Nevins, Josiah Heyman, Wayne Cornelius, Katherine Dauvergne and Douglas Massey to name a few. I cited Gustavo Lopez Castro - Coyotes and Alien Smuggling 1998.

Puppets of Violence

After re-reading Primo Levi's description of surviving the holocaust, some startling comparisons came to mind. Levi described a "gray zone" between perpetrator of atrocities and victim. His experience in the Nazi concentration camp showed him that it the lines are blurred and that there are no innocent bystanders or victims. His striking portrayal of life in the "Lager"and how the Nazis would select people from the prison to control the other inmates, reminded me of the relationship between Mexican American Border Patrol agents and the migrants they apprehend. Migrants almost always vocalize the notion that the dangerous agents, the ones you have to watch out for, are those with Mexican heritage. They are more violent, more abusive and are less likely to help those in need of water or medical attention. While I do not profess to be able to explain why this is, it draws a startling comparison to Nazi totalitarian techniques. The Nazis would select people from the concentration camp populations to do the dirty work. The Special Servicemen that were in charge of gassing people, of cleaning out the bodies and pulling gold teeth from the skulls of the deceased were also selected from within the concentration camps. For Levi, this was possible because of the desperation, the need to do anything to survive and get enough food. Its purpose was also to rationalize abuse. The ability for the guards to turn the inmates on one another and make them commit atrocities helped to support the theory of a master and an inferior race. The U.S. has actively recruited Mexican Americans into the Border Patrol for decades in much the same fashion. Once a legal distinction is met, citizenship in this case, agents are required to preform tasks to show that they are different from their "non-legal" counterparts. They must prove loyalty, and the overzealous nature of their actions shows what a psychologically powerful tool this is.

Unfortunately this comparison is not relegated to the United States Border Patrol. Within the groups of migrants, the desperation, the need that precipitates a crossing attempt can lead to criminal activity and abuse of fellow migrants. Levi's description of the brutality of inmates to new arrivals is all to familiar to the types of abuses leveraged against indigenous, inexperienced border crossers by former migrants that have stayed in the border and began working as coyotes, guides, burreros - trafficking drugs to the U.S., bajadores- bandits that rob migrants or even sicarios - the assassins that work for the cartels. The people engaged in these activities are (almost) always former or would be migrants that decided to stay in the border region. What drives a person to take advantage of his brother? "How do you make someone into Cain?" as Levi states.

There are structures of power at work that spread far beyond those in close contact with immigration. The gray zone is vast. It extends to everyone that buys cheap labor and benefits from cheap construction. It also extends back to a Mexico that would rather see the flood of remittances than oppose the U.S. and work toward immigration reform. Do you ever wonder why punishments for undocumented workers keep coming but rarely do we see laws punishing those that make a profit from the practice of hiring undocumented workers that do not demand the same pay and treatment as citizens? The gray zone extends to everyone, regardless of desire or knowledge of the situation that has been created here at the border and leaks into both countries. I want to end with a question raised by the title of the mural that I included at the start of this entry; Are we just puppets of violence when all is said and done?

The truck

(Photo courtesy of AZ Dept of Public Safety)

I talked to a man named Luis the other day that was one of 97 people that had been caught in a tractor trailer. When I was at INM, interviewing the director of Mexican Immigration, she got a phone call saying that 97 people had been caught in one tractor trailer. They were being repatriated and there were two pregnant women among them. No one knew if people were injured or for how long they had been trapped in the truck.

Apparently they had, for the most part, crossed separately in small groups, jumping over the fence on the outskirts of the city. Luis, the man I talked to was from Tlaxacala and had met the coyote here in this city. He was incredibly confused by the whole experience. One coyote told them to cross with another guide and then that guide told them to meet someone on the other side, where they were put in the truck. They only walked for a few hours before entering the trailer. He was headed to Minnesota and was going to pay 2500 for the crossing.

Luis said that the truck was terrifying. He had no idea that there were that many people there until he was told later. It was cold and pitch black when they closed the door. It was a lettuce truck, which, according to my friends in produce and the reports on the news, runs at 34 degrees, making hypothermia a threat to those inside. "You had no idea who was next to you, touching you," said Luis. After the trailer was packed full, people in the back immediately began to bang on the walls trying to get the driver to stop and let them out. Luckily, they were only in the truck for about 20 minutes. A police officer stopped them before they got to border patrol check-point. He opened the back and was visibly surprised and frightened, slamming the door shut. Luis laughed about the look of shock on the face of the police officer. He said that people began eating the melons that were in the truck after they got out. While he said he was upset about failing to cross, he did not want to stay in that truck. I told him he was lucky. People die frequently trying to cross with cargo. He was surprised about this

After reading some newspaper articles, it seemed that someone must have witnessed people getting into the truck and called police or border patrol. According to periodical sources, the police officer got the call and saw the truck, pulling it over for a mud-flap violation.

The most striking thing to me is that one never knows what the crossing is going to be like. There is no way of preparing for it. Better information to migrants about the risks of crossing may do very little because a coyote will tell you three hours and maybe it is, maybe it isn’t. Other times, they will tell you that you cross in a vehicle, maybe you do, maybe you don’t. Yes, the majority of people cross in the desert and it takes a long time, longer than one day promised by most coyotes. Being prepared, bringing water, knowing how to find water and the likelihood of being able to survive without supplies is all very important information, but all bets are off if you wind up in a truck. I have no idea how long they had planned to keep them in that truck, maybe just to Phoenix, maybe all the way to Minnesota.

For more information or a verification of this story see: http://www.salon.com/wires/ap/us/2009/07/30/D99P3NEG0_us_immigrants_refrigerated_trailer/

Blackout and Five Dead

It was an eventful week in the field. I had a couple close calls and a lot of tough situations to deal with. Besides the non-research related experience of blowing out a tire at 80mph on I-19 to border and changing it in the scorching hot, mid-day sun while traffic whizzed past me, I had to contend with a blackout at the shelter. Mid-interview the power cut off. There were over 70 people arriving to a pitch black, scorching hot shelter. It was chaos. People were bumping into each other and arguing. We were forced to kick out five guys for being drunk. The women were absolutely terrified. I spent 20 minutes convincing a woman that they have separate quarters and will be able to take a shower. I went to buy some flashlights but when I got back around 12:00 am, the lights were back on. I should have gone over there earlier. It was a long three hours of darkness as it was.

On top of the commotion, I talked to a 34 year old man from Apatzingan, Michoacan named Jorge. He had just been deported to Mexico after walking through the desert for 6 days, lost and alone. Originally part of a group of 29 people, he, four others and a guide went in a their small group to cross. It is common for groups to be divided like this to avoid detection or apprehension of everyone. After three days of being lost in the 110 degree Arizona desert, Jorge began begging the coyote for water. He said that the coyote hit him in the face, threw him on the ground and began kicking him. I noticed that his jaw was still badly swollen and the skin had been removed from a chunk of his elbow from the fall. After the beating he left the group and began searching for border patrol to turn himself in. Jorge found some houses and began knocking on doors, looking for someone to help him. He drank water from a hose, but it tasted like chemicals. He saw that the screen on a window to a vacant house was ajar so he broke in and drank some juice and ate food from the refrigerator. A man surprised Jorge but it was a passerby who had seen him enter. Although he did not speak Spanish the man informed him to leave the house and gave Jorge ten dollars. He went back to the desert and was lost again. He stumbled upon the rest of his group and they were all dead. Among the group was a woman and her ten year old son, and a fifteen year old traveling alone. He asked me if I could imagine losing a son in the desert. The parents do not know he is dead. They may never find out for sure. People disappear in the desert and no one knows.

Jorge said that he will not try to cross again. He had spent 9 years in the U.S. but was arrested when returning a gift to a store. According to him, he had no receipt and they accused him of stealing the item and trying to return it. His mother hired a lawyer to get him out, but they found out he was illegal and deported him after a week in holding. He tried to cross in San Luis Rio Colorado, on the border between Arizona and California. Luckily the consul has offered to buy his full bus ticket. Jorge said that he plans on going to Uruapan and waiting for his Aunt that lives in Tijuana to send his belongings to him so he can arrive in his hometown and look like a success and not a failure. He said that he will not tell anyone what happened to him because he is embarrassed about not succeeding in the U.S.

I suspect this is a frequent sentiment. I have been told time and again that people had no idea what they were in for before they crossed, despite having friends and family in the U.S. There is a macho attitude about working in the U.S. that reminds me of military service. It is a right of passage. You do it to improve your social and economic standing in your community. There is a great deal of risk involved. There is the possibility of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. And, because it is a test of one's man-hood, either through preforming a service to one's country through the act of fighting in the military or risking the treacherous crossing to be able to work and support a family back home, there is a stigma attached to complaining about it or discussing how hard it is. Failure in both is a stigma. I have seen it in rural Mexico and I have seen it in rural Virginia. There needs to be more psychological services and support available to both groups.

Introduction to Research Discussions

Many of you are already aware of the work I have been involved in lately, but it is always difficult to keep my friends and family informed. For those of you that do not know, I have been involved in a large project through the sociology department. About 8 graduate students have been volunteering their time to help interview undocumented migrants from Mexico after crossing, being apprehended and repatriated/deported to the border. The interviews that we are collecting are systematic, extensive surveys. We are trying to randomly select a large amount of migrants to get a general idea about what happens during the crossing experience. One issue with this approach is that we hear stories that are not recorded in human terms. The survey instrument is useful in quantifying information, but cannot capture the human dimension of the terrible abuses that occur in the process of undocumented migration. After hundreds of interviews, listening to stories of kidnapping, extortion, injury, death and lost loved ones, I feel that it is more important than ever to share people's stories with a larger audience. While many scholars have compiled vast quantities of migration stories, there can never be enough documentation of the stories of disenfranchised and marginalized people. The purpose of this online research journal is not purely to inform on immigration issues. I am involved in several other projects and would like a forum to discuss social science research and the challenges presented to all scholars that are attempting to use research as a vehicle for social change.

Having never entertained the idea of having a blog, this is a bit of a step for me. I have been asked on numerous occasions by a variety of parties to write about the work that I have been doing in an accessible, human and informative manner. The concept of blogging has always bothered me on a personal and professional level. Personally, I am not interested in hearing people talk about themselves and I also try to avoid the temptation of endless introspection. On the other hand, as a researcher it is also disheartening to see people proselytizing answers and facts without understanding the work involved in trying to arrive at a truly informed opinion. However, I will give it a shot and hope to create a forum to share stories from the field, and to start a discussion about the nature of academic research in general.

My goal is to describe the issues that arise during the research in a way that is accessible to those of you that are not social scientists. I will try my best to limit the jargon and theory, however, I will try to remain relevant to my fellow researchers. Having a strong commitment to applied, activist, engaged or public scholarship, I want to hold these discussions in an accessible, public forum to get perspectives from as many people as possible.

On another even more boring note, I need to inform everyone that certain details in the stories I will write have been omitted or altered for confidentiality reasons. All names are fake as well as any other information that could possibly identify an individual or our research site. Gotta keep IRB happy!

Thank you for reading and I am looking forward to hearing from you.

Jeremias