Border Patrol Threw Away Migrants’ Belongings – A Janitor Saved And Photographed Them

These items were all seized from migrants and asylum seekers trekking through the desert in an attempt to cross the U.S.-Mexico border. Deemed potentially lethal or nonessential by border officials, the medications were thrown away, along with other personal belongings, during the first stages of processing at a U.S. Customs and Border Protection facility in southern Arizona.

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While working as a janitor at the same facility from 2003 to 2014, photographer Tom Kiefer secretly collected the belongings and later began shooting them.

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Throwing away the personal belongings “underscores the cruelty of the tentative punishment that the government feels the need to levy against these people,” Kiefer said. “It’s clear the majority of which are decent, contributing and who want nothing more than a better life for themselves or for their family.”

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It took about six years of collecting — blankets, cellphones, toilet paper, depression medication, shoelaces — before Kiefer began photographing.

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Color is an essential component of the photos, a way to inject humanity into each personal belonging, Kiefer said. Shooting the items on the same background “wouldn’t feel right, it would it would feel like it was a scientific observation of something.”

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