Each year hundreds of thousands of immigrants make their way from Mexico and Central America to the United States. Two borders serve as the greatest obstacles in their journey to the north-the US/Mexico border, where migrants evade an increasingly vigilant border patrol, and Mexico’s border with Guatemala, where they face many dangers, including gangs, bandits, corrupt immigration officials, and the “train of life and death.”
Honduran immigrants peer through the door of their holding cell, Tapachula Mexico.
Old indigenous woman at the US border fence, Mexicali.
Leopold, a deported immigrant from the US, works in Mexicali.
Raftsmen cross the river Suchiate ferrying goods and immigrants between Guatemala and Mexico.
Border patrol agents watch the fence near Tecate.
Immigrants scramble to climb “the train of death” in Tapachula.
Crosses mark the graves of uknown immigrants that died in the desert, CA.
Remains of an unidentified migrant found in the desert, coroners office, Holtville CA.
Minutemen volunteer, Campo CA.
Amputees from the train north, Tapachula.
Migrants climb the US/Mexico fence, Mexicali.
Members of the Mara Salvatrucha captured after an attack on the train.
Catholic faithful cross themselves, Mexicali Mexico.
Elisa, a Salvadoran immigrant, shows wounds she suffered in an attack on the train, Tapachula.
A Salvadoran woman lies dead after a gang attack on the train north, Huixtla Mexico.
An elderly woman cries after a passion play, Mexicali.
all photographs ©2006 by victor j blue