Photos from the Border Crossing Trail in Arizona
In 2009, Denver photographer Matt Nager spent two months working with law enforcement and activist groups at the US-Mexico border in Arizona and documenting what he saw, often focusing on the harrowing cycle of death that happens at the border: migrants who die in the desert, the border officials who find them, the morgue workers who tag them, the families that erect shrines in their wake as the unidentified bodies are placed in unmarked graves.
Some of his photos are up at Feature Shoot. They’re wonderful and very difficult to look at, especially in light of what’s in store for the people who make it: a country whose promises of support and opportunity are eroding to the tune of 1 in 7 Americans on food stamps and seeing their benefits being chipped away. From a New York Times article yesterday:
“I don’t need a whole lot to eat,” said Leon Simmons, 63, who spends more than half of his monthly $832 Social Security income to rent a room in an East Charleston house. “But this month I know I’m not going to buy any meats.”