Deported to Death: How Drug Violence Is Changing Migration on the US–Mexico Border

Description

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.   Cover Deported to Death Title Copyright Dedication 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