Critical Response to Jason De León's The Land of Open Graves: Living and Dying on The Migrant Trail
Overview
This critical response examines Jason De León's ethnographic work on migrant experiences crossing the Mexico-US border through the lens of Prevention Through Deterrence policies. The paper analyzes key concepts including the Hybrid Collectif as a network of human and non-human agents, necroviolence as the mistreatment of migrant bodies, and necropolitics as the exercise of political power over life and death. The author explores De León's ethical challenges in conducting fieldwork with bereaved families affected by border crossing deaths.
What this essay covers
- Question 1: Analysis of Prevention Through Deterrence policies and the Hybrid Collectif as a network preventing border crossings through environmental and human obstacles
- Question 2: Examination of necroviolence and necropolitics concepts, their relationship, and their application to migrant deaths in the desert
- Question 3: Discussion of De León's ethical dilemmas and emotional burden when conducting fieldwork with bereaved migrant families
Preview
Critical Response to Jason De León's The Land of Open Graves: Living and Dying on The Migrant Trail
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Critical Response to Jason De León's The Land of Open Graves: Living and Dying on The Migrant Trail
Question 1
Prevention Through Deterrence refers to a set of policies the United States enforced intending to curb illegal crossing through Mexico's southern border. Illegal immigrants are a nuisance to every country but how the US dealt with the situation raises more concern, as Jason De Leon explains in his book The Land of Open Graves. The US took advantage of the Sonoran Desert's desert situation to enforce the policies of Prevention Through Deterrence through The Hybrid Collectif. In his book, De Leon (2015) nicknamed The Hybrid Collectif, the network of human and non-human actants that prevent the migrants from attempting to cross the border by facilitating deaths and disappearance of the migrants. The non-human actants refer to the devastating desert conditions that include the scorching heat, the scavenging animals, robbers, and smugglers.
On pages 49 and 50, De Leon describes one non-human agency in the form of a mountain and a canyon that gives them stress crossing over the border. Javier and his group climbed up an unfamiliar mountain because they did not have a map. Leon says this mountain is Pajarito. Javier and his group still had to climb three more mountains before arriving at a haven where they would be picked up.