![In the Footsteps of Migrants Who Never Made It](https://cdn.magzter.com/1470409556/1717449174/articles/mgurf-_Dv1719487984600/IN-THE-FOOTSTEPS-OF-MIGRANTS-WHO-NEVER-MADE-IT.jpg)
LATE LAST SPRING, I stood alongside the steel bollard panels of the US-Mexico border wall and thought about the dead.
I'd joined about thirty others who had driven down to the frontier from Tucson, Arizona, early that morning, then crossed into Sasabe, Mexico, on foot. In the shadow of the nine-metre-high barrier, an Indigenous Mayo woman named Maria Padilla smudged our group with burning sage and tobacco. Then she slowly unspooled a string knotted with 160 prayer ties.
Each pinch of tobacco entwined in red cloth represented a set of migrant remains recovered from the Sonoran Desert in the past year, along with a blue tie to represent the sky, a yellow one for the sun, and a white one for the bodies that haven't yet been found.
Later, Padilla would tell me she had difficulty knotting the cloth on some of the tobacco bundles, as if they resisted being tied. This meant the person had struggled in their final moments, Padilla said. Their desert death was particularly hard.
Thousands of bodies have been recovered from the borderlands since the mid-'90s, when the American government launched a series of border policies many observers believe was designed to kill. The strategy gradually erected walls near large border communities like Sasabe, Nogales, and Douglas, where migrants who managed to cross could easily "assimilate with the population," according to a 1994 document prepared by the US Border Patrol. Walling off the urban areas would funnel migrants into "remote, uninhabited expanses of land," the plan said, where they could find themselves in "mortal danger." The risk of death was to provide "prevention through deterrence" and discourage migrants from trying to cross in the first place.
Denne historien er fra July/August 2024-utgaven av The Walrus.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent ? Logg på
Denne historien er fra July/August 2024-utgaven av The Walrus.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
![Dream Machines - The real threat with artificial intelligence is that we'll fall prey to its hype](https://reseuro.magzter.com/100x125/articles/13875/1721021/mpkA9pAuF1719486535433/crp_OpenAI-Chatgpt-Chris-Barry-Sam-Altman-tech-Silicon-Valley-startups-technology-AI-tools-AI-Artificial-intelligence-ChatGPT-Microsoft-Copilot-Generative-AI-Midjourney-content-creators-Al-powered-Science.jpg)
Dream Machines - The real threat with artificial intelligence is that we'll fall prey to its hype
Some of the world's largest companies, including Microsoft, Meta, and Alphabet, are throwing their full weight behind AI. On top of the billions spent by big tech, funding for AI startups hit nearly $50 billion (US) in 2023.
![MY GUILTY PLEASURE](https://reseuro.magzter.com/100x125/articles/13875/1771122/Mod6s8Lph1721739600875/MY-GUILTY-PLEASURE.jpg)
MY GUILTY PLEASURE
MY CHILDREN are grown, with their own partners, their own lives.
![The Quest to Decode Vermeer's True Colours](https://reseuro.magzter.com/100x125/articles/13875/1771122/Aw4StcOcH1721739445375/THE-QUEST-TO-DECODE-VERMEERS-TRUE-COLOURS.jpg)
The Quest to Decode Vermeer's True Colours
New techniques reveal hidden details in the Dutch master’s paintings
![Repeat after Me](https://reseuro.magzter.com/100x125/articles/13875/1771122/UwV2J4dzF1721739190466/REPEAT-AFTER-ME.jpg)
Repeat after Me
TikTok and Instagram are helping to bring Indigenous languages back from the brink
![Smokehouse](https://reseuro.magzter.com/100x125/articles/13875/1771122/zuS-yLypW1721738756152/SMOKEHOUSE.jpg)
Smokehouse
I WAS STANDING THERE at the corner, the corner where the smaller street intersects with the slightly wider one.
![How Could They Just Lose Him?](https://reseuro.magzter.com/100x125/articles/13875/1771122/50Fz0bOB01721738303312/HOW-COULD-THEY-JUST-LOSE-HIM.jpg)
How Could They Just Lose Him?
The Huronia Regional Centre was supposed to be a safe home for people with disabilities. Then, amid suspicions of abuse at the facility, twenty-one-year-old Robin Windross vanished without a trace
![Prairie Radical](https://reseuro.magzter.com/100x125/articles/13875/1771122/O10U1A6Fl1721737787210/PRAIRIE-RADICAL.jpg)
Prairie Radical
How conspiracy theorists splintered a small town
![Eeny, Meeny, Miny, Moe](https://reseuro.magzter.com/100x125/articles/13875/1771122/etJ_NxrdD1721737419838/EENY-MEENY-MINY-MOE.jpg)
Eeny, Meeny, Miny, Moe
Scott Moe rose quietly through the ranks. Now the Saskatchewan premier and his party are shaping policies with national consequences
![The Accommodation Problem](https://reseuro.magzter.com/100x125/articles/13875/1771122/-nsjnqoWl1721736301032/THE-ACCOMMODATION-PROBLEM.jpg)
The Accommodation Problem
Extensions. Extra exam time. Online everything. Addressing the complex needs of students is creating chaos on campus
![MY GUILTY PLEASURE](https://reseuro.magzter.com/100x125/articles/13875/1721021/ZjBpzYG4o1719492279999/MY-GUILTY-PLEASURE.jpg)
MY GUILTY PLEASURE
I WAS AS SURPRISED as anyone when I became obsessed with comics again last year, at the advanced age of forty-five. As a kid, I loved reading G.I. Joe and The Amazing Spider-Man.