The Land of Open Graves

The Land of Open Graves is a book by anthropologist Jason De León with photographs by Michael Wells. The book examines the human consequences of United States immigration policy. Using research methods from all four subfields of anthropology, De León sheds light on the lives (and deaths) of the thousands of migrants who cross the US border with Mexico daily in the Sonoran Desert of Arizona. The book was published in hardcover and paperback by the University of California Press in 2015 as part of the California Series in Public Anthropology. Jason De León details the effects of U.S. border control policy through stories of suffering and struggle. He discusses the hopes of migrants, the challenges they face as they attempt to cross the border, and the impact that these experiences have on the migrants both physically and psychologically. The book is broken out into three parts. Part One is the discussion of the border control policies and the dangers that come with attempting to cross the border. Part Two recalls the personal stories, journeys, and aftermath of immigrants who crossed the border. Part Three concludes the book and shows how the repercussions of successful and failed border crossing attempts extend far beyond the immigrant himself. In the first part of the book, De León discusses the steps that were taken to result in the system, "Prevention Through Deterrence," that is in place today to prevent migrants from coming into America. He also expands upon the ideas of the hybrid collectif and “Prevention Through Deterrence” by arguing that the United States deliberately funnels migrants through the Sonoran Desert so that various human and nonhuman actants do the “brutal work” for Border Patrol. He also uses the phrase bare life to describe those that have died and their death means nothing. This phrase is used to describe many migrants who lost their lives while attempting to cross. De León notes how there are very few posters set up in Mexico that inform migrants of the horrors they will come upon should they choose to attempt to cross.