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The Land of Open Graves: Living and Dying on the Migrant Trail
In his gripping and provocative debut, anthropologist and MacArthur "Genius" Fellow Jason De León sheds light on one of the most pressing political issues of our time—the human consequences of US immigration policy. The Land of Open Graves reveals the suffering and deaths that occur daily in the Sonoran Desert of Arizona as thousands of undocumented migrants attempt to cross the border from Mexico into the United States.
Drawing on the four major fields of anthropology, De León uses an innovative combination of ethnography, archaeology, linguistics, and forensic science to produce a scathing critique of “Prevention through Deterrence,” the federal border enforcement policy that encourages migrants to cross in areas characterized by extreme environmental conditions and high risk of death. For two decades, this policy has failed to deter border crossers while successfully turning the rugged terrain of southern Arizona into a killing field.
In harrowing detail, De León chronicles the journeys of people who have made dozens of attempts to cross the border and uncovers the stories of the objects and bodies left behind in the desert.
The Land of Open Graves will spark debate and controversy.
Drawing on the four major fields of anthropology, De León uses an innovative combination of ethnography, archaeology, linguistics, and forensic science to produce a scathing critique of “Prevention through Deterrence,” the federal border enforcement policy that encourages migrants to cross in areas characterized by extreme environmental conditions and high risk of death. For two decades, this policy has failed to deter border crossers while successfully turning the rugged terrain of southern Arizona into a killing field.
In harrowing detail, De León chronicles the journeys of people who have made dozens of attempts to cross the border and uncovers the stories of the objects and bodies left behind in the desert.
The Land of Open Graves will spark debate and controversy.
384 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 2015
275 people are currently reading
6447 people want to read
About the author
Jason De León
4 books161 followersJason De León is Professor of Anthropology and Chicana/o and Central American Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles, with his lab located in the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology. De León is Executive Director of the Undocumented Migration Project (UMP), a long-term anthropological study of clandestine migration between Latin America and the United States that uses a combination of ethnographic, visual, archaeological, and forensic approaches to understand this violent social process while assisting families of missing migrants search for their loved ones. His academic work has been featured in numerous media outlets, including National Public Radio, the New York Times Magazine, Al Jazeera, The Huffington Post, and Vice. De León is A 2017 MacArthur Fellow.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 237 reviews
April 16, 2019
I read this for my Anthropology of Race class. It is an absolutely heart-breaking read, but I learned SO much. I cannot recommend this enough, especially to those living in the United States.
May 22, 2019
De León seems to have two voices; he either writes as an academic anthropologist or he writes about people and tells / helps them tell their stories. When he writes in the first voice, I find him insufferable, as he mixes the obscurantism of leftist social science with a kind of tabloid sensationalism. There is, for instance, a lengthy discussion of “agency” which is incoherent until you realize he is trying to interpret the entire world within the context of social theory, so in order to talk about the land he must ascribe agency to it. Of course, talking about deserts and mountains is not a new conceptual challenge and there are many terms and concepts already available--there's no need to twist social theory into a pretzel to accomplish the task. As one example of his sensationalism, he emphasizes the extreme heat and aridity of the Tumacacori Mountains, saying it is the hottest desert in Arizona and precipitation is barely measurable. Well, no, by Arizona standards the area is fairly wet and not particularly hot (nearby Nogales gets 16 inches of rain a year and has an average high of 94 in July, while Phoenix gets 8 inches & an average high of 105 in July). Putting the climate in perspective does not at all diminish the difficulty of walking through this area, but De León apparently thinks he needs to sensationalize it in order to support his social advocacy.
When he is telling the stories of migrants, the writing is direct and clear, the migrants are presented very compassionately and their stories are told well, with many direct quotes to allow them to tell their own stories. These stories are important and worth reading.
My suggestion to anyone interested in the book is to skip all the academic passages and read all the passages about people. Luckily, the two are easy to tell apart. If you see words like "actant", "hybrid collectif", and so forth, skip to the next page. If you see the names of people, read the page. The two voices are kept fairly separate, so this shouldn't be too difficult.
When he is telling the stories of migrants, the writing is direct and clear, the migrants are presented very compassionately and their stories are told well, with many direct quotes to allow them to tell their own stories. These stories are important and worth reading.
My suggestion to anyone interested in the book is to skip all the academic passages and read all the passages about people. Luckily, the two are easy to tell apart. If you see words like "actant", "hybrid collectif", and so forth, skip to the next page. If you see the names of people, read the page. The two voices are kept fairly separate, so this shouldn't be too difficult.
April 24, 2018
If you're looking for a book that isn't heavy in Anthropological jargon but are interested in what happens between the borders of Mexico and America then read this book. De Leon writes such a heart breaking tail of what is happening and the policies America has enacted to create this violent arena. He doesn't offer any solutions but rather helps to illuminate the people who are getting lost under the rhetoric America puts out about the happenings on our borders.
May 27, 2016
It’s hard to formulate a coherent response to this book because it’s such a hodgepodge of ideas and styles; a true interdisciplinary effort. In the end, however, it felt more like a memoir than anything else – a memoir of an academic who is on the way to becoming an activist. Jason De León does a great job telling the dramatic and emotionally draining stories of migrants, and that’s really the strength of the book. The photographs become essential as these stories grow deeper and more resonant. Academic language is used sparingly, but well, to give a patina of objectivity to the whole endeavor (as well as to provide the kind of clarity that can only come from distance).
The book begins with a forceful critique of the policy known as “Prevention Through Deterrence (PTD)” [see http://content.ucpress.edu/chapters/1...]. However, this is not a book about how policy is made (or unmade). It’s a book about individual people and their journeys north to the United States. As a consequence, there isn’t much else about U.S. policy or the political milieu responsible for it. Oddly, there is also very little about the desert ecosystems that are clearly central to the book’s premise. De León and his students conduct forensic experiments with decomposing pigs in the desert (the accounts of which are fascinating and well-written), but we learn little about the animals and plants that play important roles in such processes.
If anything, I think the book could have been longer. I would’ve appreciated the inclusion of more journalism; a simple breakdown of border policy and its attendant bureaucratic landscape would have been most welcome. Stateless individuals have always been the most vulnerable to violence, whether such violence is perpetrated by ecosystems or armies. Undocumented (i.e., stateless) people deprived of the protections afforded by citizenship have always been—and will continue to be—at risk. Ultimately, I came away from this book more convinced of this than ever.
The book begins with a forceful critique of the policy known as “Prevention Through Deterrence (PTD)” [see http://content.ucpress.edu/chapters/1...]. However, this is not a book about how policy is made (or unmade). It’s a book about individual people and their journeys north to the United States. As a consequence, there isn’t much else about U.S. policy or the political milieu responsible for it. Oddly, there is also very little about the desert ecosystems that are clearly central to the book’s premise. De León and his students conduct forensic experiments with decomposing pigs in the desert (the accounts of which are fascinating and well-written), but we learn little about the animals and plants that play important roles in such processes.
If anything, I think the book could have been longer. I would’ve appreciated the inclusion of more journalism; a simple breakdown of border policy and its attendant bureaucratic landscape would have been most welcome. Stateless individuals have always been the most vulnerable to violence, whether such violence is perpetrated by ecosystems or armies. Undocumented (i.e., stateless) people deprived of the protections afforded by citizenship have always been—and will continue to be—at risk. Ultimately, I came away from this book more convinced of this than ever.
December 14, 2019
This book was difficult to read, both because of the disturbing subject matter but also because at times it is mind-numbingly dull repetitive scientific prose. This is what happens when an academic tries to write a book for normal people. Drink every time he says "hybrid collectif."
February 28, 2023
Unbelievably difficult and unbelievably good
May 7, 2025
really good :(
November 7, 2024
An ethnographic account of the experiences of migrants from central and south America traveling north to reach the US. The author's focus in this book is a strategic policy enacted by the United States called "Prevention Through Deterrence" (PTD). PTD is a complex strategy utilizing several human and non-human actors, that the author refers to as the "hybrid collectif", to deter migrants from reaching the US.
Hybrid collectif includes largely the Sonoran desert, animals, smugglers, and robbers that work to traumatize, hinder, and kill migrants.
PTD efforts have worked to strategically funnel migrants into the harshest corridors of travel, and PTD has effectively doubled the amount of migrant deaths. Rather than this being a passive deterrence method, this is a method of deterrence seeking to inflict the highest level damage on migrants through this hybrid collectif. PTD does not deter migrants from attempting to cross the US Mexico border, it simply makes it more deadly.
Through in-depth qualitative research and interviews, the author takes us through the hard hitting and wide spread implications of PTD.
Very well written and tragic book. How does our government reconcile this extreme violence towards such a large group of people, most of which are seeking a better life for themselves and their family?
This book doesn't seek answers to the border crisis but highlights the violence accomplished by PTD.
Hybrid collectif includes largely the Sonoran desert, animals, smugglers, and robbers that work to traumatize, hinder, and kill migrants.
PTD efforts have worked to strategically funnel migrants into the harshest corridors of travel, and PTD has effectively doubled the amount of migrant deaths. Rather than this being a passive deterrence method, this is a method of deterrence seeking to inflict the highest level damage on migrants through this hybrid collectif. PTD does not deter migrants from attempting to cross the US Mexico border, it simply makes it more deadly.
Through in-depth qualitative research and interviews, the author takes us through the hard hitting and wide spread implications of PTD.
Very well written and tragic book. How does our government reconcile this extreme violence towards such a large group of people, most of which are seeking a better life for themselves and their family?
This book doesn't seek answers to the border crisis but highlights the violence accomplished by PTD.
August 6, 2024
I was given this book by my little sister, who got it for a class and never read it. She said it was “boring” but thought I could read anything and gave it to me. I chose it as my nonfiction book of the month and I’m so glad I did! I listened to the audiobook mainly on my drive home alone from a music festival. The audiobook was great, but flipping through the book was even more impactful for the photos! Such an informative, well written book. The individual stories were my favorite part. My only note was the storytelling is a little hard to feel so moved by at times when in the introduction the author states some of the stories are fictionalized and some are fully true. So glad I read it though!
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November 20, 2020The Land of Open Graves
Tears, death, violence, and suffering are disturbing realities that Jason De Leon noticed during his five years of fieldwork at the US-Mexican border that he vividly describes in Land of Open Graves: Living and Dying on the Migrant Trail. In Leon’s ethnography he clearly states his argument as, “The terrible things that this mass of migrating people experience en route are neither random nor senseless, but rather part of a strategic federal plan that has rarely been publicly illuminated and exposed for what it is: a killing machine that simultaneously uses and hides behind the viciousness of the Sonoran Desert.” (Leon,3) This book sheds a light on the truths of the migration from Mexico to the U.S. which were seen first hand by Leon at the geopolitical warzone, and he explains that they were worse than he had even imagined. The focal point of this research took place at the border between Mexico and Arizona in the strip of desert south of Tucson. What lies between these immigrants hope of getting into America is a deadly and rugged landscape of mountains, smoldering deserts and border patrol. Leon says, “The American federal government has turned their sacred landscape into a killing field, a massive open grave.”(Leon,8) The immigrants that do make it across the border and into the United States are doing the back breaking jobs that Americans can't or don't want to do, some of these cheap labor jobs are farming and meat packing. The undocumented immigrants are constantly being tracked down by law enforcement and deported back to Mexico. The primary theme of this book is that Leon states is violence and the way it is constructed in the desert and the perspective of those benefiting from it. The strong force of the US economy and the trauma of the immigration enforcement practices are a form of structural violence, but he concludes his statement stating that “No one individual is responsible for it, but many portray it as natural.” (Leon,16)
The first part of this book starts out with the three men in the Tumacácori mountains where they find remains of a dead immigrant trying to make it to the US. Leon says when Americans are asked about the findings their reaction is, “It was an “illegal”, a noncitizen who broke US law and faced the consequences.”(Leon,26) Leon raises the point that Americans tend to forget that America is a nation that was founded by immigrants and if it wasn't for the “noble” European immigrants of the past America wouldn't be the same. At the border zones normal state or moral law are stripped away, the individual’s rights and protection disappear and this is a result of federal immigration policies. Seeking to enter a country without permission often results in death as a consequence, and ultimately dehumanization. The first chapter is labeled Prevention Through Deterrence which dives into the strategic plan the US government is using to use the raw land as part of that plan. Leon says, “Sovereign power produces migrants as excluded subjects to be dealt with violently while simultaneously neutralizing their ability to resist or protest.”(Leon,28) Basically with this strategic plan put into place by the state there is nothing these immigrants can do about it, they are met with violence or will die trying to make it across. This strategic plan did not just happen recently this has been on the radar of the US government for a much longer time, but since 1994 and on the plan has been getting more violent over the years. “Prevention Through Deterrence has evolved from an explicit program that once acknowledged that the dangers posed by the desert could be strategically exploited as a weapon in the war on immigration to a sterilized description of an enforcement paradigm that resulted in migrants risking their lives.”(Leon,36) Leon throughout this book is trying to focus on how these immigrants' lives and deaths are closely intertwined and shaped by cultural, economic, and political forces. The words, plausible deniability, that Leon uses when he discusses the dead is what takes these acts if violence to the next level and are disturbing, in essence he is saying that the power suggests that if there is nobody then you can't point fingers at the government of patrol.The second part of this book goes into the lives of the immigrants and the globalization of this problem. A lot of these migrants are trying to get to the US for a better life, they are trying to accumulate capital and return to Mexico to start a small business or buy land. Leon, moves on to the fact that this is not just in the US but a global problem that is seen across the world at border zones, of economic and political power that are vastly unequal. When immigrants are being deported it is a grueling and disturbing site,almost all are treated extremely harshly and chained up in a cell.
The time leading up to people gearing up to make the trek across the border was very interesting to Leon, he was intrigued on the things they packed and the reasons behind them as well. Immigrants tend to learn more and more about what they need and what they need to do in order to get across by failing multiple times. As these people prepare to travel across the border, the Border Patrol is being poured millions of American taxpayer dollars by the government into their security budget to ensure the ability to lockdown and secure US borders.Leon says in the final part that, “These photographs, that he puts in throughout the book, should disturb us, because the disturbing reality is that right now corpses lie rotting on the desert floor and there aren’t enough witnesses.” (Leon,213) I believe that is a perfect summary of what Jason De Leon has tried to get across throughout his book is that these horrible violences that American’s are shrugging off is one of the major problems associated with the immigration process. He shines a light on the fact that the lives on the other side of the US-Mexico border are lives that are being dehumanized and overlooked and that is the worst part. His ethnography is grim and dives into the lives of Mexican immigrants' journey to get across and make a better life for themselves and their family and the violence that they incur along the way. He finishes his book talking about the people being left behind, and describes the life of a 15 year old, Jose, who prayed to reunite with his family but unfortunately did not make it. The journey deterred him and nobody knows what exactly happened to him, but this is just another way to show how migration affects families lives.
Tears, death, violence, and suffering are disturbing realities that Jason De Leon noticed during his five years of fieldwork at the US-Mexican border that he vividly describes in Land of Open Graves: Living and Dying on the Migrant Trail. In Leon’s ethnography he clearly states his argument as, “The terrible things that this mass of migrating people experience en route are neither random nor senseless, but rather part of a strategic federal plan that has rarely been publicly illuminated and exposed for what it is: a killing machine that simultaneously uses and hides behind the viciousness of the Sonoran Desert.” (Leon,3) This book sheds a light on the truths of the migration from Mexico to the U.S. which were seen first hand by Leon at the geopolitical warzone, and he explains that they were worse than he had even imagined. The focal point of this research took place at the border between Mexico and Arizona in the strip of desert south of Tucson. What lies between these immigrants hope of getting into America is a deadly and rugged landscape of mountains, smoldering deserts and border patrol. Leon says, “The American federal government has turned their sacred landscape into a killing field, a massive open grave.”(Leon,8) The immigrants that do make it across the border and into the United States are doing the back breaking jobs that Americans can't or don't want to do, some of these cheap labor jobs are farming and meat packing. The undocumented immigrants are constantly being tracked down by law enforcement and deported back to Mexico. The primary theme of this book is that Leon states is violence and the way it is constructed in the desert and the perspective of those benefiting from it. The strong force of the US economy and the trauma of the immigration enforcement practices are a form of structural violence, but he concludes his statement stating that “No one individual is responsible for it, but many portray it as natural.” (Leon,16)
The first part of this book starts out with the three men in the Tumacácori mountains where they find remains of a dead immigrant trying to make it to the US. Leon says when Americans are asked about the findings their reaction is, “It was an “illegal”, a noncitizen who broke US law and faced the consequences.”(Leon,26) Leon raises the point that Americans tend to forget that America is a nation that was founded by immigrants and if it wasn't for the “noble” European immigrants of the past America wouldn't be the same. At the border zones normal state or moral law are stripped away, the individual’s rights and protection disappear and this is a result of federal immigration policies. Seeking to enter a country without permission often results in death as a consequence, and ultimately dehumanization. The first chapter is labeled Prevention Through Deterrence which dives into the strategic plan the US government is using to use the raw land as part of that plan. Leon says, “Sovereign power produces migrants as excluded subjects to be dealt with violently while simultaneously neutralizing their ability to resist or protest.”(Leon,28) Basically with this strategic plan put into place by the state there is nothing these immigrants can do about it, they are met with violence or will die trying to make it across. This strategic plan did not just happen recently this has been on the radar of the US government for a much longer time, but since 1994 and on the plan has been getting more violent over the years. “Prevention Through Deterrence has evolved from an explicit program that once acknowledged that the dangers posed by the desert could be strategically exploited as a weapon in the war on immigration to a sterilized description of an enforcement paradigm that resulted in migrants risking their lives.”(Leon,36) Leon throughout this book is trying to focus on how these immigrants' lives and deaths are closely intertwined and shaped by cultural, economic, and political forces. The words, plausible deniability, that Leon uses when he discusses the dead is what takes these acts if violence to the next level and are disturbing, in essence he is saying that the power suggests that if there is nobody then you can't point fingers at the government of patrol.The second part of this book goes into the lives of the immigrants and the globalization of this problem. A lot of these migrants are trying to get to the US for a better life, they are trying to accumulate capital and return to Mexico to start a small business or buy land. Leon, moves on to the fact that this is not just in the US but a global problem that is seen across the world at border zones, of economic and political power that are vastly unequal. When immigrants are being deported it is a grueling and disturbing site,almost all are treated extremely harshly and chained up in a cell.
The time leading up to people gearing up to make the trek across the border was very interesting to Leon, he was intrigued on the things they packed and the reasons behind them as well. Immigrants tend to learn more and more about what they need and what they need to do in order to get across by failing multiple times. As these people prepare to travel across the border, the Border Patrol is being poured millions of American taxpayer dollars by the government into their security budget to ensure the ability to lockdown and secure US borders.Leon says in the final part that, “These photographs, that he puts in throughout the book, should disturb us, because the disturbing reality is that right now corpses lie rotting on the desert floor and there aren’t enough witnesses.” (Leon,213) I believe that is a perfect summary of what Jason De Leon has tried to get across throughout his book is that these horrible violences that American’s are shrugging off is one of the major problems associated with the immigration process. He shines a light on the fact that the lives on the other side of the US-Mexico border are lives that are being dehumanized and overlooked and that is the worst part. His ethnography is grim and dives into the lives of Mexican immigrants' journey to get across and make a better life for themselves and their family and the violence that they incur along the way. He finishes his book talking about the people being left behind, and describes the life of a 15 year old, Jose, who prayed to reunite with his family but unfortunately did not make it. The journey deterred him and nobody knows what exactly happened to him, but this is just another way to show how migration affects families lives.
November 22, 2019
As harrowing, bleak and brutal as the desert which plays such a great role in the tragedies that play out at the Mexico-US border as a result of hostile US immigration policies. The best parts of this book (for me, at least) were those recounting the stories and experiences of actual individuals who have undertaken the hazardous journey through the deserts. The more academic parts, while interesting and informative, were often somewhat too dry and formal, too longwinded and repetitive (if I never encounter the phrase "hybrid collectif" again, it'll be too soon), thus detracting from the otherwise powerful impact of the book.
April 9, 2024
heartbreaking but necessary read. really amazingly written and researched.
October 26, 2024
Read this book for my study anthropology. Makes the invisible visible; the voilence that happens at the mexican-us border.
September 15, 2025
horrific at times but well worth the effort!
November 6, 2025
hated every second 10/10
July 8, 2023
Just read it and then tell me what you think
July 1, 2017
It’s an eye-opening and shocking reading. I bursted out tears from time to time when reading this book.
The book states some often ignored realities.
1. People living in extreme poverty will do everything to make a living, even it will mean for them to risk their life to cross the desert.
2. The inequality in world economy makes the US more attractive.
3. Deterrence by death does not stop the undocumented immigrants.
They are very valuable points and worth to be reminded when we view the topic of undocumented immigrants.
Also, I saw a lot of cruelty inside the government system from this book. I wish the authors could explore more, if anyone could give good suggestions on this issue, it’s people like the authors of this book and their research group who take huge time trying to understand and analysis the current situation.
I wish I could see more discussion on:
1. How does the government agencies feel about the current policy?
2. Why is the policy carried out that the first place?
3. Why the citizens didn’t get well informed on the result of the policy, or why do they ignore?
4. What’s the reason behind some of the cruelness of the government agencies?
5. What have we tried / could we try to make the things better?
I see a lot of value bring the topic of undocumented immigrants up to the table, I wish we could have some possible solution / next steps as well. I wish people stop suffering from the violence made by the government.
The book states some often ignored realities.
1. People living in extreme poverty will do everything to make a living, even it will mean for them to risk their life to cross the desert.
2. The inequality in world economy makes the US more attractive.
3. Deterrence by death does not stop the undocumented immigrants.
They are very valuable points and worth to be reminded when we view the topic of undocumented immigrants.
Also, I saw a lot of cruelty inside the government system from this book. I wish the authors could explore more, if anyone could give good suggestions on this issue, it’s people like the authors of this book and their research group who take huge time trying to understand and analysis the current situation.
I wish I could see more discussion on:
1. How does the government agencies feel about the current policy?
2. Why is the policy carried out that the first place?
3. Why the citizens didn’t get well informed on the result of the policy, or why do they ignore?
4. What’s the reason behind some of the cruelness of the government agencies?
5. What have we tried / could we try to make the things better?
I see a lot of value bring the topic of undocumented immigrants up to the table, I wish we could have some possible solution / next steps as well. I wish people stop suffering from the violence made by the government.
March 25, 2024
Realized I’ve never given this a review despite reading it multiple times, but this book is single-handedly why I’m studying anthropology. It is provocative, ground-breaking, and revolutionary ethnographic work that has completely set the bar for future anthropologists. Told through a mix of theory, ethnographic interviews, and anecdotes, De León is brilliant in detailing the policies and systems of power that have created a mass graveyard in our borderlands through the use of predatory weapons of deterrence. Can’t recommend it enough
July 19, 2018
This book is a must- read for every adult American. I gave it 4/5 stars because the pages where the author describes his methodology can be dry, but they are absolutely worth wading through to hear the voices of the migrant trail.
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October 28, 2021This book (a Maren recommendation) felt sort of like a nonfictional counterpart to Lost Children Archive--both make the Sonoran Desert a main character in their migration stories; both start with big-picture ideas about migration, Prevention Through Deterrence, and the border before zooming in on specific stories; both foreground methods as a core part of the story. De León uses ethnography, archaeology, forensic science, photography, and collage-type interviews to argue that Prevention Through Deterrence--the US Border Patrol's core anti-migration strategy since the mid-1990s--accomplishes its goals by delegating the work of torturing and killing migrants to the "hybrid collectif" of the Sonoran Desert. In De León's words, "The terrible things that this mass of migrating people experience en route are neither random nor senseless, but rather part of a strategic plan that has rarely been publicly illuminated and exposed for what it is: a killing machine that simultaneously uses and hides behind the viciousness of the Sonoran Desert." It is a convincing, and horrifying, point.
De León uses creative methods to fascinating effect: he devotes a chapter to describing how freshly-killed pig carcasses decompose in the desert, spends much of the book letting migrants he meets tell their own stories in their own words, and sprinkles the text with photographs that help tell the story. (It reminds me of The Mushroom at the End of the World: On the Possibility of Life in Capitalist Ruins, but less theory and more narrative.) When he runs into a moral dilemma, he addresses it head-on (again, making the methods a core part of the story): for example, late in the book he prints a picture of a dead migrant's body, and spends the final third of the book grappling with this decision while telling the story of the woman and her family, who he visits in Ecuador and New York. De León is also straightforward about the possibilities and the limits of each of his methods, and of his role as an academic in general.
I'd been meaning to read more about migration, borders, and US empire, and this ended up being a great place to start.
On the downside, this book has pretty much the most annoying set of endnotes I've ever seen. The endnotes themselves only list the author's name and date of publication, so you have to flip back and forth among the relevant page of the book, the relevant endnote, and the bibliography with the full citation, just to figure out the title or topic of the thing being cited. The endnotes also don't consistently explain what job the citation is doing--even a "see, for example, [cite]" here and there would have been helpful, as sometimes the connection between the text and the reference cited is not obvious. Some of the endnotes also have confusing typos--like, the number in the text doesn't correspond with the numbered endnote, or one or the other doesn't exist. De León has a very intriguing bibliography, but it was a little hard to navigate.
De León uses creative methods to fascinating effect: he devotes a chapter to describing how freshly-killed pig carcasses decompose in the desert, spends much of the book letting migrants he meets tell their own stories in their own words, and sprinkles the text with photographs that help tell the story. (It reminds me of The Mushroom at the End of the World: On the Possibility of Life in Capitalist Ruins, but less theory and more narrative.) When he runs into a moral dilemma, he addresses it head-on (again, making the methods a core part of the story): for example, late in the book he prints a picture of a dead migrant's body, and spends the final third of the book grappling with this decision while telling the story of the woman and her family, who he visits in Ecuador and New York. De León is also straightforward about the possibilities and the limits of each of his methods, and of his role as an academic in general.
I'd been meaning to read more about migration, borders, and US empire, and this ended up being a great place to start.
On the downside, this book has pretty much the most annoying set of endnotes I've ever seen. The endnotes themselves only list the author's name and date of publication, so you have to flip back and forth among the relevant page of the book, the relevant endnote, and the bibliography with the full citation, just to figure out the title or topic of the thing being cited. The endnotes also don't consistently explain what job the citation is doing--even a "see, for example, [cite]" here and there would have been helpful, as sometimes the connection between the text and the reference cited is not obvious. Some of the endnotes also have confusing typos--like, the number in the text doesn't correspond with the numbered endnote, or one or the other doesn't exist. De León has a very intriguing bibliography, but it was a little hard to navigate.
August 8, 2025
2 books into my personal project of “becoming significantly more knowledgable than the average person about migration to the US” — this is the kind of book that makes it clear this was a good idea, and the kind of theory that makes you sick to read.
3 letters—EWI, entry without inspection—on an application for relief indicate the applicant has come here through the trial-by-desert De Leon describes here. as De Leon notes, immigrants rarely offer their stories of the desert proactively (and I do not ask, and I certainly do not blame them). Even asylum applications—wherein people volunteer their private trauma for the small and shrinking chance of lawful status, wherein i take their money to pore over private lives, probe into traumas, re-traumatize them for practice so they won’t lose their composure in front of an asylum officer re-traumatizes them at DHS Newark—don’t mention the journey, except to say that it was too dangerous to stay in one place for long. We are left with “EWI” on an application and thousands of corpses in the desert.
De Leon has done a masterful thing here in demystifying those three letters with three other ones—PTD, prevention-through-deterrence—in letting immigrants speak of their journeys for themselves and scaffolding it with like every anthropological technique under the sun. I will never see EWI the same again and shudder to think of how much worse it’s gotten since this book was published.
3 letters—EWI, entry without inspection—on an application for relief indicate the applicant has come here through the trial-by-desert De Leon describes here. as De Leon notes, immigrants rarely offer their stories of the desert proactively (and I do not ask, and I certainly do not blame them). Even asylum applications—wherein people volunteer their private trauma for the small and shrinking chance of lawful status, wherein i take their money to pore over private lives, probe into traumas, re-traumatize them for practice so they won’t lose their composure in front of an asylum officer re-traumatizes them at DHS Newark—don’t mention the journey, except to say that it was too dangerous to stay in one place for long. We are left with “EWI” on an application and thousands of corpses in the desert.
De Leon has done a masterful thing here in demystifying those three letters with three other ones—PTD, prevention-through-deterrence—in letting immigrants speak of their journeys for themselves and scaffolding it with like every anthropological technique under the sun. I will never see EWI the same again and shudder to think of how much worse it’s gotten since this book was published.
April 28, 2025
"This is what 'Prevention Through Deterrence' looks like. These photographs should disturb us, because the disturbing reality is that right now corpses lie rotting on the desert floor and there aren't enough witnesses." (pg. 213)
Heartbreaking read about needless violence, death, and trauma caused by "Prevention Through Deterrence," the official US immigration policy that attempts to make physical entry into the US from the southern border as hard as possible by funneling migrants into the US desert with the hope that horror stories of death on the multi-day journeys lead others to change their mind.
De León argues that US Border Patrol designed this policy with violence in mind (he quotes memorandum creating this policy: "violence will increase as the effects of strategy are felt") (pg. 249). Violence and death are the deterrent, but migrants have not been deterred, and this has made Arizona's Sonoran Desert a killing field of innumerable immigrant deaths.
De León uses a mix of techniques in his investigation of this policy, but his deferral to the experiences of migrants who survived their journey and the families of those who did not are crushing.
"On June 2, 2013, the Sonoran Desert did what Border Patrol strategists wanted it to do. It deterred José Tacuri from entering into the United States. But instead of just stopping him, the hybrid collectif swallowed him alive, erased all traces of him, and sent shockwaves of grief felt as close as New York City and as far as Ecuador. This erasure was not, however, an "accident" or act of nature. It was part of a clearly laid out federal security plan, whose efficacy is measured by how many people it "deters." (pg. 274).
"When this type of death starts to feel normal, that's when we should worry." (Pg. 210).
Heartbreaking read about needless violence, death, and trauma caused by "Prevention Through Deterrence," the official US immigration policy that attempts to make physical entry into the US from the southern border as hard as possible by funneling migrants into the US desert with the hope that horror stories of death on the multi-day journeys lead others to change their mind.
De León argues that US Border Patrol designed this policy with violence in mind (he quotes memorandum creating this policy: "violence will increase as the effects of strategy are felt") (pg. 249). Violence and death are the deterrent, but migrants have not been deterred, and this has made Arizona's Sonoran Desert a killing field of innumerable immigrant deaths.
De León uses a mix of techniques in his investigation of this policy, but his deferral to the experiences of migrants who survived their journey and the families of those who did not are crushing.
"On June 2, 2013, the Sonoran Desert did what Border Patrol strategists wanted it to do. It deterred José Tacuri from entering into the United States. But instead of just stopping him, the hybrid collectif swallowed him alive, erased all traces of him, and sent shockwaves of grief felt as close as New York City and as far as Ecuador. This erasure was not, however, an "accident" or act of nature. It was part of a clearly laid out federal security plan, whose efficacy is measured by how many people it "deters." (pg. 274).
"When this type of death starts to feel normal, that's when we should worry." (Pg. 210).
March 18, 2025
The Land of Open Graves is a powerful and eye opening exploration of the migrant journey across the Sonora Desert which is a harsh and unforgiving landscape between Mexico and the United States. Through thorough research and personal accounts, De León explains how millions of dollars are spent on constructing the border wall and equipping border patrol agents with advanced technologies, BUT his key argument is that it is not the wall or the agents that create the most danger instead it is the desert itself. The extreme environment, with its blistering heat and lack of water, makes survival nearly impossible for those trying to cross.
What really stood out to me in this book was how De León incorporates the environmental conditions of the desert as a critical factor in the migrant crisis which is something that is often overlooked in political and media narratives. This book expanded my understanding of the migrant experience and gave me a deeper perspective on the realities of the borderlands. This book is not just about migration, but it is also about the human lives impacted by policies and systems that prioritize enforcement over humanity. It is a sobering reminder of the challenges faced by migrants and the cruelty of the environment they must endure.
What really stood out to me in this book was how De León incorporates the environmental conditions of the desert as a critical factor in the migrant crisis which is something that is often overlooked in political and media narratives. This book expanded my understanding of the migrant experience and gave me a deeper perspective on the realities of the borderlands. This book is not just about migration, but it is also about the human lives impacted by policies and systems that prioritize enforcement over humanity. It is a sobering reminder of the challenges faced by migrants and the cruelty of the environment they must endure.
January 12, 2025
An informative look into the realities of crossing the Sonoran Desert into the US. The Book highlights our complicity in using this deadly environment as a detergent to migration in order to outsource our responsibility in taking the effort to build a thoughtful, humane, and realistic policy of immigration.
The cost of our buried heads in the sand results in actual bodies buried in the sand (or more accurately not burried).
Contextualizing these bodies into actual lives and then putting yourselves in their shoes is the goal of this book. However, I think the author gets lost in the middle in attempting to put everything in terms of academic anthropology and ethnography. This seems counterproductive as the scientific jargon actually seems to dehumanize the situation as well, not from a social aspect, but by giving the most troubling aspects of his studies a sterile textbook treatment.
He returns more to the human side of the story in the end. I appreciate his commitment to presenting people as simply people, good, bad, ugly, and difficult. However, I think his commitment to realism would lose a lot of pessimistic or even neutral readers.
The cost of our buried heads in the sand results in actual bodies buried in the sand (or more accurately not burried).
Contextualizing these bodies into actual lives and then putting yourselves in their shoes is the goal of this book. However, I think the author gets lost in the middle in attempting to put everything in terms of academic anthropology and ethnography. This seems counterproductive as the scientific jargon actually seems to dehumanize the situation as well, not from a social aspect, but by giving the most troubling aspects of his studies a sterile textbook treatment.
He returns more to the human side of the story in the end. I appreciate his commitment to presenting people as simply people, good, bad, ugly, and difficult. However, I think his commitment to realism would lose a lot of pessimistic or even neutral readers.
September 16, 2024
The Land of Open Graves is a heart-breaking, yet incredibly readable, ethnographic/archaeological account of the absurd violence that undocumented border crossers face in the desert between Mexico and the US. It is an incredible example of anthropological creativity - in methods, questions, outputs, style - that, as a wanna-be ethnographer, I learnt a lot from. The book is dense with life stories and ethnographic accounts, but never, never boring. Despite its inevitable intensity, it never scares you away - De León's style is always gentle.
My least favourite element is De León's choice and depth of deployment of theoretical tools. He chose to focus on new materialist ideas - the agency of non-humans - to explain the violence of a “hybrid collectif” that is set in motion by the “Prevention Through Deterrence” US strategy. He does nuance this argument by making evident how the violence of the desert is not an agent in itself but an indirect tool of Border Patrol to “deter” (kill) crossers. But the need to focus so much on the agency of the desert remains unjustified for me, especially in the context of the rampant overuse of these theories in the social sciences. Political economic reflections on this issue's complex, structural, imperialist / world-systemic nature remain scant, imprecise, and shallow.
Nonetheless, as the author points out, this is not a book about the political economy of migration - it is an ethnography about the real lives and real pain of people who go through this: lives often devalued, forgotten, cancelled, and dehumanized. And De León masterfully succeeded at portraying this excruciating human experience that continues to this day in many places of the world.
My least favourite element is De León's choice and depth of deployment of theoretical tools. He chose to focus on new materialist ideas - the agency of non-humans - to explain the violence of a “hybrid collectif” that is set in motion by the “Prevention Through Deterrence” US strategy. He does nuance this argument by making evident how the violence of the desert is not an agent in itself but an indirect tool of Border Patrol to “deter” (kill) crossers. But the need to focus so much on the agency of the desert remains unjustified for me, especially in the context of the rampant overuse of these theories in the social sciences. Political economic reflections on this issue's complex, structural, imperialist / world-systemic nature remain scant, imprecise, and shallow.
Nonetheless, as the author points out, this is not a book about the political economy of migration - it is an ethnography about the real lives and real pain of people who go through this: lives often devalued, forgotten, cancelled, and dehumanized. And De León masterfully succeeded at portraying this excruciating human experience that continues to this day in many places of the world.
February 17, 2021
I’m biased because my colleague wrote this book so the depth of archaeological and ethnographic work is just astounding. This book is primarily about the human cost of the prevention through deterrence (PTD) policy and I wanted to learn more about it. This policy has been devastating for migrants and literally changed the space and experience of migration. The book is well written because it balances people’s stories with more political and legal analysis, but the human stories are also very sad and can be triggering (especially ch 1). At the same time, I could have just read a statistical or quantitative based analysis and wondered about the people. This book doesn’t leave you wondering about anything. So, big trigger warning because migrants confront so much abuse and horror.
Read
April 17, 2018DNF at something like 10%. This is one of the best ethnographies I've come across, but I don't think it's worth trying to rush to finish the rest when I'll need to return it in two weeks. The premise is fantastic, and the writing is as harsh as the deserts it describes, but it's a huge undertaking, and anyone who picks it up had better have a long time and an open mind. Overall, The Land of Open Graves was brutally honest and revealed the suffering hidden from most Americans that takes place at our border. If you're against DACA or are "hard on illegal immigrants", you should pick up this book and sit through a chapter or two. It will make you more understanding, I promise.
January 21, 2020
A powerful and important book that provides perspective on migration at our southern border. De Leon uses anthropology and archaeology to document the difficulties, violence, and untold numbers of deaths that happen when migrants are forced into the desert in order to find better lives for themselves and their families. Perhaps most importantly though, De Leon lays bare the source and cause of this violence: US immigration policy. He describes how Prevention Through Deterrence creates a complex web of socio-political and environmental hazards designed to inflict violence on migrants and sweep the evidence under the proverbial rug that is the Sonoran desert.
April 21, 2024
Devastatingly bears witness to the reality of migrants who attempt crossing the US-Mexican border, particularly between Arizona and the Sonoran Desert. The author describes how the US turns a blind eye through its “prevention through deterrence” policy, passing off the responsibility for the inhumane conditions and violence towards migrants, to the conditions of the desert. This should be required reading for all US politicians.
May 26, 2024
Kanskje noe av det mest hjerteknusende jeg har lest. Denne monografien beskriver volden migranter opplever når de prøver å komme seg til USA, hvorfor de drar dit, og hva som blir forlatt hjemme. Gråt flere ganger, denne må dere lese om dere er interessert i amerikansk politikk, eller bare interessert i menneskerettigheter og mennesker generelt!
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