Bare Life And Space In The Devil's Highway

Lastly, the concept of bare life and space as moral alibi described in Governing Immigration Through Crime (2004). According to Dowling and Inda (2013), “in the case of the US border control strategy, geographic space has made it possible to suggest that the consequences in the form of migrant deaths result from “natural causes – e.g., extreme heat, dehydration, thirst, or exposure to the elements- thus deflecting official responsibility….US border control strategies have turned and continue to turn much of the southwestern border areas into spaces of exception, and those traverse them, potentially into bare life” (Dowling & Inda, pg. 138, 2013). In regards to the geography of migrant crossing areas, the state officials would not have to do much in the aspect of deterring immigrants from entering the United States they could simply let nature take its course.
Throughout The Devil’s Highway, bodies of men and women fell numerous times trying to cross into the United States. Once the United States increased patrol of the border, they controlled the geography. Immigrants had to find another way and sometimes it resulted in death. In certain cases, if patrol found men and women dead they would not report them because they would have to take responsibility for anything that comes after. The geography in displacing the immigrants was
beneficial to the border at times but other times immigrants still stumbled upon patrol. For example, “patrol would leave the corpse on the road because if they found the corpse they were responsible for completing the paperwork and the case would continue to stay open, on the other hand, if patrol abandoned the corpse they would not be held to the obligation of filing paperwork and reporting it” (Urrea, pg. 19, 2004). Nature, in this case, took its course many times, but nature taking its course does not always affect only Mexicans.
As illustrated in The Devil’s Highway (Urrea, pg. 118, 2013), a couple by the name of Lisa Scala and Martin Myer were camping at Buttercup. They went out for an adventure that day with their dune buggy, unfortunately, they did not take the recommended two gallons of water. In the same time, the dune buggy malfunctioned and before they knew it, they were stranded in the desert. Lisa and Martin’s body was found several days later and in different locations, because Martin left to get help but he could not make
it.
Another example is the one of the conflicts between Santos and Mendez. The men were convinced they were lost in the desert and Mendez knew it as well but he could not confess. Santos became so frustrated that he insisted on going back to Mexico, Mendez refused. Santos had a small group follow him and the rest stayed with Mendez. Until this day no trace of Santos and his group has ever been found. The border was this secure now that men were lost in the desert and they wanted to head back to Mexico instead of trying to pursue the United States.