Called to “Ankle Alley”: Tactical Infrastructure, Migrant Injuries, and Emergency Medical Services on the US–Mexico Border

Publisher： John Wiley & Sons Inc

E-ISSN： 1548-1433|120|1|89-101

ISSN： 0002-7294

Source： AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST, Vol.120, Iss.1, 2018-03, pp. : 89-101

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Abstract

ABSTRACTIn southern Arizona, emergency responders rescue and transport unauthorized migrants who get hurt crossing the border, either when scaling the steel fence in urban areas or taking remote and dangerous routes through the desert. Using data collected during ethnographic research between 2015 and 2017 with firefighters trained as EMTs or paramedics, the article shows how Border Patrol's tactical infrastructure produces specific patterns of traumatic injury that are not only routine but also deliberate, allowing us to trace government's responsibility for what it presents as the unintentional consequence of security buildup on the US–Mexico border. [migration, emergency, infrastructure, border, accident]

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