The US-Mexico border has long been a site of contested power, serving as a physical and symbolic boundary between two nations with vastly different economic and political systems. One of the most perilous areas along the border is the Sonoran Desert, which stretches from California to Mexico and is known for its harsh terrain and extreme temperatures. Unlike other more urban areas of entry, which offer some level of infrastructure, crossing the Sonoran Desert requires migrants to navigate remote areas with limited access to food, water, and medical care. For many migrants, the journey through the Sonoran Desert is a matter of life and death, with countless individuals perishing from dehydration, heat stroke, and other forms of trauma. In The Land of Open Graves, Jason de León delves into the complexity and violence of migration through the Sonoran Desert, highlighting the human toll of a border policy that seeks to render the experiences of undocumented migrants invisible. As the book’s central quotation states, “the Border Patrol disguises the impact of its current enforcement policy by mobilizing a combination of sterilized discourse, redirected blame, and ‘natural’ environmental processes that erase evidence of what happens in the most remote parts of southern Arizona. The goal is to render invisible the innumerable consequences this sociopolitical phenomenon has for the lives and bodies of undocumented people. Those who live and die in the desert have names, faces, and families. They also have complicated life histories that reflect an intimate relationship with transnational migration and global economic inequality.” (de León 2015, 4-5). Through employing a mixed-methods approach, drawing on fields such as forensics, anthropology, and archaeology, de León examines the complex forms of violence perpetrated by the hybrid collectif in the context of migration, shedding light on how this violence results in the death of migrants, the mistreatment of their bodies postmortem, and the broader implications of such violence, including the experience of ambiguous loss among family members and the impact on children left behind.
De León employs a semi-fictionalized ethnographic approach to illustrate the theme of violence and the harsh reality of border crossings as caused by Prevention Through Deterrence (PTD), a border enforcement strategy implemented by the US government based on the idea that making crossing more treacherous will discourage people from attempting to cross in the first place. Under this strategy, the government has implemented various tactics, such as increasing border security, fencing, and surveillance and funneling migrants toward the Sonoran Desert, a challenging terrain with extreme temperatures and limited access to resources necessary for survival. He bases the stories of “Lupe, Carlos, Marcos, and Javier” on hundreds of interviews with migrants over the years to combat the dehumanization and erasure of violence perpetuated by PTD (de León 2015, 59). By incorporating these semi-fictional stories, de León provides a human face to the otherwise faceless issue of border crossing, allowing readers to empathize with migrants and see them as individuals rather than statistics on a page.
To further expose the brutal reality of PTD and its effects on the lives of real people, de León draws on methods from contemporary archaeology to gain insight into migrants’ intentions, experiences, and physical suffering they endured during their journey. For example, De León finds a pair of worn-out shoes whose “sole has been separated from the upper” and has been repaired by a “bra strap” (de León 2015, 181). This modification indicates the shoe owner’s desperation to keep moving despite worn-out footwear, highlighting the harsh reality of the environmental conditions migrants must endure, such as blistered feet, as they walk for miles through difficult terrain. De León’s use of contemporary archaeology also provides insight into the economic and social factors driving migration. By examining objects left behind, such as “black and camouflage” backpacks, clothing, and water bottles, he can understand the strategies migrants use to carry personal belongings and other necessities to face (de León 2015, 160). While these strategies highlight migrants’ resourcefulness and resilience in the face of the Sonoran desert’s challenges, they also underscore the violence inherent in US immigration policy that pushes migrants to undertake dangerous journeys and how the desert, intersecting with human actants, shape the experiences and outcomes of migration. ChatGPT indeed corroborates the role of the Sonoran Desert’s “harsh and unforgiving landscape” in deterring migrants from crossing the border, but it mistakenly describes “canines” as the “most prominent” example of nonhuman agency in de León’s book. Canines do consume human flesh and contribute to destroying migrants’ bodies, but they are not the main focus of the author’s discussion surrounding nonhuman forces which act as agents of deterrence and violence.
The violence inflicted upon migrants by the hybrid collectif does not stop at death, however. In fact, de León captures continued violence postmortem, a phenomenon also known as necroviolence, through the use of experimentation with pig carcasses, explicit photos, and in-depth analyses of violent practices. To recreate the necroviolence that occurs at the US-Mexico border, de León conducts experiments with pig carcasses to understand how the environment and the hybrid collectif contribute to the postmortem violence inflicted upon migrant bodies. Observing what happens to a pig carcass days after death—“ripped apart…devoured by vultures…[and] scattered to the wind”—the author finds that the harsh environmental conditions allow for the desecration of migrant bodies, which become unidentifiable and sometimes destroyed altogether (de León 2015, 82). He supplements his text with images that vividly depict the destruction of pig carcasses in just a few days. These visuals, in addition to photos of border crossers’ left-behind personal belongings, provide concrete evidence of the necroviolence that takes place at the US-Mexico border. ChatGPT erroneously states that de León believes including “photographs of migrants’ bodies and personal belongings [contributes] to their objectification and exploitation.” From the beginning, de León makes clear that “words alone could never capture the complexity, emotion, or realities of the violence, suffering, and victories” migrants experience (de León 2015, 18). Including images and faces is, therefore, the author’s attempt at humanizing undocumented migrants and the process of border crossing rather than an attempt to capitalize on graphic images for the sake of sensationalism. De León also takes great care to ensure that his research was conducted ethically and responsibly. Although he shows migrants’ faces and uses real names for deceased members, he is sensitive to the potential harm that his research could cause to the migrants he studies and to the communities he works with, so he takes steps to protect the privacy and anonymity of his research subjects, using pseudonyms and changing identifying details to prevent their identification when necessary. ChatGPT’s statements align with this claim and confirm that “human values” and ethical considerations should be at the forefront of decision-making, even in the pursuit of academic or professional goals.
Additionally, the author argues that the state’s perception of the US-Mexico border as a “space of exception” contributes to the necropolitics of the border by creating a zone where the suspension of human and constitutional rights is justified in the name of national security (de León 2015, 68). As ChatGPT writes, these “‘necropolitical’ policies” lead to the “dehumanization and neglect of” both “living and dead” migrants. Indeed, the continued violence inflicted upon migrant bodies, even in death, is a potent reminder of the power dynamics at play in the hybrid collectif and the ways in which the Sonoran Desert and other environmental factors contribute to the state’s exercise of power over migrant bodies.
De León’s exploration of the hybrid collectif’s violence extends beyond the migrants who attempt to cross the border, as it also affects their families and loved ones left behind. He recounts the story of Maricela, a migrant who died in the desert and suffered the aftermath of the hybrid collectif’s brutality. The majority of Latin America’s population is Catholic, and “viewing the body is a key element of mourning” (de León 2015, 253). Thus, the destruction of the corpse poses a significant threat for two religious reasons: first, the absence of the body rules out the possibility of holding a wake and building a grave for family members to visit and pray; second, a damaged or incomplete corpse is perceived as a threat to the afterlife since it may prevent people from rising from the dead for judgment. The hybrid collectif’s violation of Catholic burial norms in the desert is “symbolically potent, as an exceptional and avowedly demeaning act” (de León 2015, 83). The nonhuman actant that is the Sonoran Desert plays a significant role in the hybrid collectif’s violence towards migrants, as it not only deters them and brings about death but also inflicts further harm upon their families and religious beliefs.
The US-Mexico border, particularly the Sonoran Desert, serves as a site of contested power and violence, and The Land of Open Graves explores the human toll of migration through this harsh terrain. By using a mixed-methods approach, including semi-fictionalized ethnography and contemporary archaeology, de León illustrates the violence inherent in PTD and highlights the impact it has on the lives of real people. Furthermore, de León exposes the continued violence inflicted upon migrants postmortem, a phenomenon known as necroviolence, through experimentation with pig carcasses and in-depth analyses of violent practices. The Land of Open Graves provides a powerful and insightful examination of the experiences of undocumented migrants and the impact of US border policy, reminding readers of the human cost of the ongoing border crisis. By revealing the human consequences of the immigration security paradigm, de León’s work highlights the urgent need for more humane and just policies to address the challenges facing migrants today.