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"A gripping ethnographic portrait written with a deep and nuanced knowledge of life at the border."—Reece Jones, author of Violent Borders: Refugees and the Right to Move
"A fresh perspective on how drug violence has impacted migrants along the US-Mexico border, resulting in a persuasive and important account of how violence associated with the 'war on drugs' and violence experienced by migrants are interconnected."—Shaylih Muehlmann, author of When I Wear My Alligator Boots: Narco-Culture in the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands
List of contents
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
1. The Violence of Mobility
2. I Want to Cross with a Backpack
3. Te Van a Levantar—They Will Kidnap You:
Deportation and Mobility on the Border
4. They Torture You to Make You Lose Feeling
5. Guarding the River: Migrant Recruitment
into Organized Crime
6. The Disappeared, the Dead, and the Forgotten
7. Resistance, Resilience, and Love: The Limits
of Violence and Fear
8. “Who Can I Deport?”: Asylum and the Limits of
Protection against Persecution
Conclusions: Requiem for the Removed
Appendix: A Note on Researching in Violent Environments
Notes
References
Index
About the author
Jeremy Slack is Assistant Professor of Geography at the University of Texas at El Paso. He is editor of The Shadow of the Wall: Violence and Migration on the U.S.-Mexico Border.
Summary
What happens to migrants after they are deported from the United States and dropped off at the Mexican border, often hundreds if not thousands of miles from their hometowns? In this eye-opening work, Jeremy Slack foregrounds the voices and experiences of Mexican deportees, who frequently become targets of extreme forms of violence, including migrant massacres, upon their return to Mexico.
Navigating the complex world of the border, Slack investigates how the high-profile drug war has led to more than two hundred thousand deaths in Mexico, and how many deportees, stranded and vulnerable in unfamiliar cities, have become fodder for drug cartel struggles. Like no other book before it, Deported to Death reshapes debates on the long-term impact of border enforcement and illustrates the complex decisions migrants must make about whether to attempt the return to an often dangerous life in Mexico or face increasingly harsh punishment in the United States.
Additional text
"A striking exploration of the intense marginalisation and vulnerability faced by deportees. . . . Slack is unwavering in his pursuit of the cross-border nature of the forces at work in shaping this environment."
