Anna Ochoa O'Leary

Publications

• Mujeres en el Cruce: Remapping Border Security through Migrant Mobility

  O'Leary, Anna Ochoa

  Journal of the Southwest. 01/2009; 51(4):523-542.

  In this paper I discuss some of the findings of my study of the encounter between female migrants and immigration enforcement authorities along the U.S.-Mexico border. An objective of the research was to ascertain a more accurate picture of women temporarily suspended in the “intersection” of diamet... [more] In this paper I discuss some of the findings of my study of the encounter between female migrants and immigration enforcement authorities along the U.S.-Mexico border. An objective of the research was to ascertain a more accurate picture of women temporarily suspended in the “intersection” of diametrically opposed processes, immigration enforcement and transnational mobility. Of the many issues that have emerged from this research, family separation is most palpable. This suggests a deeply entrenched relationship between family separation and measures to better secure the U.S.-Mexico border. Indeed, women’s accounts of crossing into the U.S. without authorization, as one of many transnational mobility systems, illustrate the nuances of family separation in the context of border enforcement. In this way, the intersection not only sheds light on how opposing forces, mobility and enforcement, converge but also how each exists because of the other.

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• The ABCs of migration costs: Assembling, bajadores, and coyotes

  Anna Ochoa O'Leary

  Migration Letters, Migration Letters. 01/2009; 6(1):27-36.

  In efforts to avoid detection by border enforcement agents, un-documented migrants from Latin America often risk life and limb to enter the U.S. Most commonly, they walk two to four days through an inhospitable desert in hopes of being picked up and whisked away to their final destination. Cost in h... [more] In efforts to avoid detection by border enforcement agents, un-documented migrants from Latin America often risk life and limb to enter the U.S. Most commonly, they walk two to four days through an inhospitable desert in hopes of being picked up and whisked away to their final destination. Cost in human lives not withstanding, the price of this venture correlates to increased bor-der enforcement. Interviews with repatriated migrant women on the border helps uncover this economic “underbelly” of transna-tional movement in what I dub the ABCs of migration costs: those related to assembling, bajadores (border bandits), and coyotes.

• Close encounters of the deadly kind: Gender, migration, and border (in)security

  Anna Ochoa O'Leary

  Migration Letters, Migration Letters. 01/2008; 5(2):111-121.

  In this paper, I discuss several findings of my study of migrant women, temporarily suspended in the “intersection” of diametrically opposed processes: those posed by border enforcement measures and those posed by transnational mobility. A pressing issue that emerged from this research was how close... [more] In this paper, I discuss several findings of my study of migrant women, temporarily suspended in the “intersection” of diametrically opposed processes: those posed by border enforcement measures and those posed by transnational mobility. A pressing issue that emerged from this research was how close women come to encountering death as they side-step the border wall to cross without authorization into the US. Their testimonies shed light on how the intersection of contradictory processes contributes to a humanitarian crisis on the US-Mexico border in which the likelihood of death is increasingly present.

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