The first thing I noticed when New Yorker piece (which I read last) was the word bodies. Four bodies. Six bodies. Ten bodies. It seems like such an inhumane way of describing people. People who have stories and emotions, many of whom, nowadays, have experienced immense trauma. Who are escaping inhumane treatment. Who have been sexually assaulted in the Darién Gap . Who are from Mexico to Honduras to Venezuela, fleeing persecution and targeted (or even un-targeted violence). The people who Blitzer writes about in “Everyone Who is Gone is Here.”

I really appreciated reading the Atlantic article, especially because I love Caitlin Dickerson. It was interesting to read this in the context of her piece “‘We Need to Take Away Children.'” It seemed like almost a prequel to that piece – with the traumas that asylum seekers faced when entering the U.S. (among them, family separation), they faced so many on their way there. I was also struck by the actions of the guides: videoing early on; it’s almost like a disinformation campaign, selling their journey as enjoyable and not telling the hardships and abuse. They don’t show them after sexual assaults and traumas. They don’t show hell. And the fact that Caitlin and her team actually went and traveled through the Darién Gap with their subjects is such great reporting. I hope to have an experience like theirs someday (maybe not as dangerous for my mother’s sake).

Reading this in context of the American government’s various policies regarding immigration and the southern border makes the situation seem all the more hopeless. These people need our help, and I believe we are morally obligated – our “moral imperative” – to provide them that aid. Putting the New Yorker article alongside the New York Times review of “Everyone Who is Gone is Here” truly shows, as the New York Times puts it, “the American immigration system as a victim of its own dysfunction.” And this dysfunction is harming real people who have already gone through such trauma and pain to get here, a land they see as an escape from hardships.

P.S. In another edition of this class, I highly recommend assigning “‘We Need to Take Away Children'” – it is hauntingly well-written (it won the Pulitzer, of course).