"They cannot really just get in line and wait their turn, or come through the legal path because there's no legal path." -Fernanda Morillon BorderLinks

"I think that it's simple to go ahead and make the undocumented immigrant an enemy of the United States, especially in a poor economy."
-Heather Williams Federal Public Defender

Trails of Hope and Terror is a 53-minute documentary that ends with the stories of two teenage girls, Sandra and Josseline.  One encounters the border (La Frontera) by accident, and the other on purpose. But their journeys, along with the others we hear about in the film, began hundreds of years ago, as complicated political and economic strategies set up a vast system from which there is little hope of escape. 

Manifest Destiny, the Mexican-American War, Gun-Boat Diplomacy, Banana Republics, NAFTA, Operation Gatekeeper. . . all of these political events led up to a system of "prevention through deterrence."  In other words, if people were forced to cross a desert in where they were likely to die, then they might think twice about the risks.

The fact is, no one was deterred.  In Trails of Hope and Terror, we will hear stories about the people whose families needed them. At the time, they felt it was the right thing to do.  So they crossed anyway.

"Borders are everywhere.
Borders are obstacles that divide people."
-Dr. Luis León