Voices of the Border

Migrants, refugees and deportees live through harrowing situations, yet not much is widely known about their experiences. Politicians and commentators mischaracterize and demonize, herald border crises, and speculate about who people are and how they live. This book reflects a desire to communicate their perspectives and experiences. Each one of them goes through the emotional and psychological intensity of alternating motion and stillness. They live through this cycle, and then relive it again and again through memory. Yet these memories are rarely shared. This book emerged as a collaboration between people affiliated-via professional, vocational, religious, and humanitarian commitments, all deeply personal-with the Kino Border Initiative (KBI), a Jesuit-run migration advocacy organization based in Nogales, Arizona and Nogales, Sonora. KBI runs several programs in Mexico and the United States, especially in Nogales, Sonora, by providing services, such as meals, health care, and political and economic aid, to migrants, deportees, and refugees. This book is envisioned as a resource for those who seek to understand the stories of migrants , as well as the cycles of migration, deportation, and political asylum; the public policies that act upon them; and the consequences of these dynamics. This book is not intended to be a scholarly examination of the migrant crisis. Rather, it is an important collection of the first-hand experience of migrants and a tribute to the work of the staff and volunteers at the Kino Border Initiative--