Borderlands

Bisected by an international border, the Sonoran Desert is a place of ecological beauty, brutality, and paradox. Economic policies such as the North American Free Trade Agreement of 1994 radically changed the agricultural economies of Mexico and the United States. With the devaluation of major crops and the globalization of agriculture in Mexico and Central America, work opportunities in the US have offered more viable options for survival, particularly for people in rural small-holder agricultural areas.

Military-style weaponry and surveillance technology is used each day by US Border Patrol along the US-Mexico border and at multiple interior checkpoints located on roads 100 miles north of it. Helicopters and drones fly overhead. Motion-sensing and infrared cameras are trained on common paths in the desert.

To date, over 2,000 bodily remains of migrants have been found and officially recorded in the desert north of the border. The nonprofit organization No More Deaths/No Mas Muertes provides basic humanitarian aid to migrants making the dangerous journey. This documentary project depicts the complicated human histories, presences, absences in the Sonoran Desert.