Border Crisis

Memorial for Migrant Children

Threatened

"Border Crisis" consists of a series of paintings created in response to the Zero Tolerance Policy of the Trump administration. Asylum was illegally denied the immigrants desperately fleeing dire situations that include gang violence, starvation, and poverty. Young children were separated from their parents at the Mexican border then imprisoned in CBP holding facilities. They slept on concrete floors fenced with barbed wire. Inadequate adult supervision was worsened by COVID-19 where ICE officers didn't enter these cells for fear of contagion. The US imports avocados, pineapples, bananas and mangos from Guatemala, Mexico and other countries yet, impoverished Guatemalans are fleeing drought; maize, the main staple, cannot be grown. The US depends upon migrant labor to plant and harvest our crops. A flawed government tracking system was unable to reunite families. I memorialized the seven children known to have died in US custody as well as the essentials that were denied them.

US Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776:
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” 

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Children Who Died as Result of Trump Administration’s Immigration Policy in Violation of Flores Agreement.

Mariee Juarez, 19 months, Guatemala (May, 2018)
Darlyn Cristobal Córdova-Valle, 10, El Salvador (September, 2018)
Jakelin Caal Maquín, 7, Guatemala (September, 2018)
Felipe Gomez Alonzo, 8, Guatemala (Christmas Eve 2018)
Juan de Leon Gutiérrez, 16, Guatemala (April, 2019)
Wilmer Josué Ramírez Vásquez, 2, Guatemala (May, 2019)
Carlos Hernandez Vásquez, 16, Guatemala (May, 2019)