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Prevention Through Deterrence Summary

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In The Land of Open Graves, Anthropologist Jason De León provides semi fictionalize personal stories of how US immigration policy effects the lives of border crossers. De León focuses on “Prevention through Deterrence”, the strategy of guiding border crossers towards the Sonoran Desert in order to let the hostile conditions discourage potential crossers and punish those who follow through. De León humanizes his ethnography in order to illustrate the pain and suffering that “Prevention through Deterrence” has caused.
The humanized approach taken by De León provides the reader with an emotional route to understanding the actions, motivations, and struggles of border crossers, as well as making the book more accessible to the average person who …show more content…

He illustrates the suffering people experience at the hands of the desert, the loss that shatters the families of those who lose their lives during the journey, and the desire for the American Dream that motivates the border crossers to risk their lives. The emotional tales in the book give a face to a group of people who are nothing more than a statistic to many Americans. The vast majority of people seem to have no comprehension of the impact that different policies will have, regardless of their support for or rejection of our current immigration policy. Big picture information about illegal immigration is intangible and incomprehensible to most. The emotional arguments provide readers with information that the average person can work with, such as the story of Memo and Lucho crossing the border and eking out a life in the US afterwards (De León 167-201). The stories provided by the book can also connect the effects of immigration policy on the individual to the impact it can have on large groups of people who had no intention of crossing the border. For example, the testimony about Maricela’s life and death provided in Chapter 10 connects the suffering Maricela experienced to the pain her family and friends feel after they learn of her death (De León 243-264). These stories aid in the creation of better arguments about illegal immigration. …show more content…

While I can cite counter statistics just as well as anybody else, I would be lying if I said I understanding these large scale numbers and arguments. Those who disagree with my opinion on the subject more than likely share my ignorance about the nitty gritty of immigration policy. Despite my lack of understanding of the large scale impact of immigration policy, I believe I can still have a well education opinion on the subject matter. My opinion is informed by my sense of morality and compassion for fellow human beings. Everyone is capable of holding an opinion of this form. While The Land of Open Graves seeks to appeal to this emotion based opinion and put a face on illegal immigration, I already saw the face the book tries to illuminate. Despite my previous knowledge, the book still had a powerful impact on

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