JE#5 BarbaAlexandra

The article, ‘Bodies on the Border’ discloses that hundreds of immigrants from south of the border are losing their lives on their perilous journey to the United States. According to the article, about 2,200 dead bodies have been found on the U.S-Mexico border within a span of two decades. While research shows that people continue to find ways to cross into the U.S. regardless of tightening border security, Congress has initiated a “comprehensive immigration reform bill” to impede further illegal migration. While many think this bill will help save the lives of those wishing to cross the border, I believe this bill will only increase the number of deaths because as the article mentions, people will not cease to immigrate as long as there is a demand for low-wage jobs. The families of the immigrants who die while attempting to cross never hear of their relatives again and are never reunited. Family separation is a common theme in Kathleen Alcalás’ novel, The Flower in the Skull. Concha and her siblings are separated from their family as well as all the families whom made up her community. The video clip shares that the Missing Migrant Project investigates who the individual migrants are so that they can communicate with their families and let them know what has happened. In Alcalás’ novel, when Beto runs into Concha on the streets and she finally receives news about her family she discovers that her mother has passed, just like the relatives of those migrants who could not make it across. Both the article and video clip and novel demonstrate how families are tragically separated and torn apart for the need of survival. Ironically though, many family members never survive. Also the Mexicans along with the other groups in the novel who kill, oppress and hold the Opata captive do not care for the natives of the land because they are not their own kind. The compassion for humanity is lost, just like on the border. Those in favor of this new immigration bill do not care for the human beings who are dying every single day in their attempt to cross because those immigrants are not American citizens, they are crossing illegally and chose to risk their lives to cross over. Again there is this dehumanization process and lack of compassion because these people are “not their own kind” and this then justifies their deaths. I agree with Sandy when she points out that these migrants are subjected to the oppressive systems of the dominant society just like the Opata who were displaced, left with nothing, not even relatives and stripped of their customs, language and even birth names! The Opata were trying to survive in a place that was now inhabited by foreigners who had made themselves out to be the owners of the land, just like the migrants, attempting to make a living and survive in lands that were once inhabited by their ancestors but are now controlled and occupied by the U.S.