Witnessing Trauma and Deconstructing Healing on the United States-Mexico Border

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to research the emotional effect of undocumented immigration on humanitarian aid works within the organization, No More Deaths. No More Deaths is a service organization that focuses on providing direct aid (food, water, and immediate medical aid) to undocumented migrants on the Arizona-Sonora border. This thesis hopes to examine the emotional conflicts, strains, and ways of managing stress that arise when United States citizens realize that an imaginary line dictates their social relationships. As a result of this line, the border has become a violent landscape at which the first world intersects with the developing world, where the privileged are confronted by their own ignorance.