What Garbage at a US-Mexico Patrol Facility Reveals About the Migrant Journey Monica Campbell - PRI's The World
go to original October 12, 2015

For years, photographer Tom Kiefer collected and assembled items he found in the garbage at a US Customs and Border Protection processing center in Ajo, Arizona, about 40 miles from the US-Mexico border. (Tom Kiefer)

Tom Kiefer worked as a janitor and groundskeeper at the US Customs and Border Protection processing facility in Ajo, Arizona.

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It’s about 40 miles from the US-Mexico border and it’s where migrants detained by agents at the border await their next step in their either successful or failed journey to the United States. Many will face deportation back home, mostly to Mexico or parts of Central America.

It was sometime in the fourth year when Kiefer, a photographer, started noticing — and photographing — trends among the items tossed into the trash at the holding facility. Like being processed at jail, migrants are stripped of their personal belongings.

At first, Kiefer was struck by the number of toothbrushes he saw in the trash at the US Border Patrol facility, where detained migrants are stripped of their belongings. Then he started noticing more personal items: rosaries, Bibles, handwoven satchels. (Tom Kiefer)

Read the rest and view photos at PRI's The World

Related: The US Government Is Deporting Central American Migrants to Their Deaths (The Guardian)

Related: Three Facts About the Supposed Cost of Undocumented Immigration (The Nation)

Related: In a Nation in the Grip of Gangs, 2 Sisters Make a Bid for Safety (WPSU)

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