The Devil's Highway
Sep. 19th, 2018 07:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
djrefugiumAround the time that little kids were being forced to appear in court after being kept in cages in ex-Walmarts, separated from their parents without so much as a hospital band (I mean--- seriously? All you would need is a pack of party bands and a notebook! Write down the number of the band the parent has and the kid has and match them together later!!!! But I digress.) I started realizing how little I knew about what happened at the southern border of our country.
This book is about a group of walkers from Mexico who try to make it through the Sonoran desert with not enough water and an inexperienced guide.
It is both fascinating and totally horrifying.
(edited on completion)
This book made me so angry I couldn't speak. I'd read and have to put it down because I felt like finding the nearest INS office and going in there and punching someone. To treat people so horribly that walking through the desert in killing heat seems like a viable alternative to living where they are is not right.
No human should have to go through this.
Of those that survived, one went to prison (the coyote who left the group to die). The rest were eventually sent back to where they were from, except for two who were allowed to stay, I forget why now.
This is what stuck with me the most: of those that died, that could be found, it cost $26,000 USD to embalm them and ship their remains back to their villages. Many were from the same area. The author makes the very good point that if $26000 were invested in, say, the ten villages from which the most migrants come--- no one would have to migrate. Chew on that for a bit.
What if the money that goes to ICE and INS and border patrol (and walls! Oh, don't forget those walls!) went to USAID instead? Wouldn't that be a more humane solution?
This book is about a group of walkers from Mexico who try to make it through the Sonoran desert with not enough water and an inexperienced guide.
It is both fascinating and totally horrifying.
(edited on completion)
This book made me so angry I couldn't speak. I'd read and have to put it down because I felt like finding the nearest INS office and going in there and punching someone. To treat people so horribly that walking through the desert in killing heat seems like a viable alternative to living where they are is not right.
No human should have to go through this.
Of those that survived, one went to prison (the coyote who left the group to die). The rest were eventually sent back to where they were from, except for two who were allowed to stay, I forget why now.
This is what stuck with me the most: of those that died, that could be found, it cost $26,000 USD to embalm them and ship their remains back to their villages. Many were from the same area. The author makes the very good point that if $26000 were invested in, say, the ten villages from which the most migrants come--- no one would have to migrate. Chew on that for a bit.
What if the money that goes to ICE and INS and border patrol (and walls! Oh, don't forget those walls!) went to USAID instead? Wouldn't that be a more humane solution?
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}