while i gather my thoughts…
while i gather my thoughts from my own (almost) a month away in the southern desert of the arizona/mexico borderlands, i encourage you to check out this writing from a friend of mine about her experiences. the link is to the full piece on her blog and below that are a few pieces that i really liked – just to give you a taste. soon, i will resume posting my own writings including reflections from my time on the border and ongoing related work.
http://www.littlecitygardens.com/report-back/
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A complex political and human tragedy is unfolding on our border. It is devastating and confusing to witness even just a slice of it. Every year hundreds of thousands of Mexican and Central Americans set out on a life-threatening journey across mountainous, desert terrain in order to meet family and find work in the U.S. Every year hundreds of these migrants get lost, injured, raped or attacked along the way. They die from hyperthermia, hypothermia, other illness or acts of violence. In the desert on a summer day, temperatures can soar to 120 degrees and flash rainstorms can produce instant rivers. Ironically on the same day that one migrant might die of hyperthermia–dehydration and heat-exposure, another could die in the same terrain from hypothermia–exposure to cold and wet. I arrived in July and there had been 51 recorded deaths in the month of June alone. The statistic would double or triple if it included the bodies of people who had perished in places so remote that they were never found.
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This is not an issue of comparative national, economic aptitude, as many North Americans might like to believe. This is not merely the fate of one disorganized, inept country ailing next to a vigorous and fair competitor. This is a matter of strategic imperialism in an era of globalization, neo-liberal economics and free-trade agreements.
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The fact is that our corporate, capitalist, economy in its current organization is dependent on cheap, politically marginalized labor, which the infusion of immigrants supplies. It follows that those who control capital are dependent on generating racist sentiment towards “illegal aliens”. They have a deeply vested interest in the fear-mongering, the political theater of claims to defend national security, and the specter of unleashed violence flooding upwards from Mexico.
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In addition to securing a disinherited and pliable labor force for a diverse range of corporate industry, Border Control itself is a significant industry. A perfect hybrid of the military industrial complex and the prison industrial complex, gross quantities of our tax dollars are funneled directly towards private prison corporations and military defense contractors. Greedy corporate interests are driving the militarization of the border and are satiated by its ever-increasing resemblance to a war zone.
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