The Land Of Open Graves Summary

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In Jason de León's eye opening and heartbreaking book The Land of Open Graves, we get an indepth ethnological account of the many people who's lives have been shaped in one way or another by the Mexican-American border, and the weaponization of the inhospitable Sonoran desert. In this section of border crossing, 4 million undocumented migrants have been arrested (more than one third of all immigration arrests), and countless others have tried, failed, succeeded or died (1). De León also frames Border Patrol as a tool of state-sponsored structural violence and highlights the horrendous after effects of free trade policies for tens of millions of immigrants seeking to regain what they had lost. The author also details the ethical and moral …show more content…

The United States-Mexico border represents a microcosm, a cross section of humanity's downtrodden being met with beuracratic, neo-liberal policies and an utter indifference to life itself. A modern version of David vs Goliath plays out along these lines day after day and while the border may seem well-defined, the laws, regulations, and enforcement patterns surrounding it are amorphous at best and murderous at worst. De León heavily takes into account how the environment plays a key role in not only the mortality rate of migrants but also how it becomes a breeding ground of extrajudicial activity. He mentions "The isolation of the desert combined with the public perception of the border as a zone ruled by chaos allows the state to justify using extraordinary measures to control and exclude “uncivilized” noncitizens" (2). There is a concerted effort by border officials to …show more content…

They not only distance themselves from the events they've created but simultaneously try to downplay and minimalize the after-effects of violence and brutality by using decontaminated language. De León notes this in the name Prevention Through Deterrence itself, saying "It’s an ambiguous and sterile phrase. Much like the insipid language that defense intellectuals use to sanitize discussions of weapons of mass destruction and their human costs, the Border Patrol has adopted a lexicon that’s full of euphemisms and abstractions" (4). Through manipulative and deceitful rhetoric, everyone from your 'average Joe' to a multitude of political figures are being hoodwinked, under a false notion that the efforts on behalf of Border Patrol are not only effective, but humane and necessary as

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