Migrant children and border sacrifices in the Mexico-United States Region

Abstract

The objective of this article is to propose the concept of border sacrifices, understood as sinister rituals framed in migratory necropolitics of nation-states. It is a theoretical proposal, but also analytical that considers migrant children as the ad hoc victim of such sacrifices, although not the only one. Based on some testimonies of migrant children and adolescents from Central America and Mexico, as well as media reports on migrant children dead on the Mexico-United States border region between 2018 and 2022, it is argued that the border sacrifices of this population become visible in three ways: 1) when they live a social death and decide to follow a transnational utopia sacrificing dreams, family, resources and security; 2) when they literally die at the border region from drowning, heat or suffocation; and 3) when their bodies or remains are exposed as offerings in natural and metaphorical altars, or in artificial tombs.