Borderlands

Jacumba, California. In this small community located in the Pacific Coast Ranges, I climb the wall that winds through and marks off this border territory. For the first time, my gaze and my camera take in its contours, its roughness and dryness. The uneven terrain on which the wall rises up intermittently is where people smugglers drop off clandestine migrants. At the foot of a nearby hill I come across an opening leading to a beaten-earth path. Clothing caught on barbed wire, like the skin or feathers inexorably shed by moulting animals, attests to the difficult transit toward this longed-for refuge. This escape from the past, however, does not ensure that migrants who arrive here will have a future. For those seeking to get into the United States, the voyage is hazardous; indeed a good many of them vanish on the way¹. Desert crossings are dangerous and hundreds of deaths have been recorded at the border. In Mexico, many are kidnapped, detained and held for ransom. Rape is a common occurrence and there are indications of child trafficking².

In recent years there has been a sharp rise in clandestine immigration into the United States. With the reopening of the border in 2021, after its closure during the pandemic, the country has had to manage a huge influx of asylum seekers. In early 2024, a young nursing student was killed by an illegal foreign national in the State of Georgia³. This unforeseen incident brought the question of migration brutally back into the forefront of current political discourse. The increase in the flow of migrants has given rise to tensions among the American population, which is deeply divided on the issue. Some people talk of a humanitarian crisis while others feel threatened by these illegal crossings and consider them a veritable “invasion.” Cartels and other gangs arrange these clandestine crossings, going even so far as advertising them on social media as a way of picking up potential clients. Some of the resulting criticism also claims that the crisis may be underpinned by political manoeuvring, that the inclusion of the new arrivals in census figures could significantly impact State representation in the Electoral College and in the House of Representatives⁴. Since the problem stems from many factors, resolving it effectively will require addressing the deep roots of these population movements in poverty, violence and corruption.

Day after day, night after night, furtive escapes follow in quick succession. A group of young migrants has just been intercepted near Old Highway 80. I take the opportunity to strike up a conversation with the border guards, who are overrun and visibly overwhelmed. The barbed wire was cut and the new gap has to be controlled. This is relentless, the guards tell me, it’s become a kind of daily routine for them as new people show up. Later, vans will come to pick them up and take them to triage centres. I encounter some worried gazes and exchange a few looks and nods with the people around me; soon this steel wall stretching out of sight will be the only thing left. At the foot of the wall I pick up a passport with the pages torn out of it, identity cards and a photo of a nameless family.