US-Mexico Border Region Research Articles

Air quality and wheeze symptoms in a rural children's cohort near a drying saline lake

BackgroundIn California, climate change and competing water demands are intensifying the desiccation of the Salton Sea, a large land-locked “sea” situated near the southeastern rural US-Mexico border region known as the Imperial Valley. MethodsTo examine the possible effects of living near a saline lake on children's respiratory health, we analyzed the relationship between respiratory health symptoms and ambient PM concentrations among a predominantly Latino/Hispanic cohort of 722 school age children. Guardians completed a survey of their child's wheeze and respiratory health symptoms over the past 12 months, adapted from the International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood (ISAAC). Exposure to dust storm hours (hourly concentrations >150 μg/m3 for PM10) was estimated using a network of regulatory monitors. ResultsBetween 2017 and 2019, children were exposed to 98 to 395 dust event hours annually. We observed disparate effects for dust events and wheeze among children living near the Salton Sea. Every additional 100 dust storm hours per year among children living near the Sea (<11 km) was associated with a 9.5 percentage point increase in wheeze (95% CI: 3.5, 15.4), a 4.6 percentage point increase in bronchitic symptoms (95% CI: 0.18, 10.2) and a 6.7 percentage point increase in sleep disturbance due to wheeze (95% CI: 0.96, 12.4). Similarly, increases in PM10 were also associated with greater reported wheeze and bronchitic symptoms among those living near the Sea, compared to children living ≥11 km from the Sea. There was no association of dust storms or PM10 with wheeze or bronchitic symptoms among the children residing farther from the Sea. ConclusionWe observed stronger adverse impacts of PM10 and dust events on respiratory health among those living closer to the drying Salton Sea, compared to children living farther away. In this community of predominantly low-income residents of color, these impacts raise environmental justice concerns about the effects of the drying Salton Sea on public health.

What is a migrant death? An operational definition for a more accurate enumeration of migrant mortality along the US-Mexico border

Over the last forty years an indeterminate number of persons, ranging from thousands to tens of thousands, have died along the US-Mexico border during migration, fleeing poverty, armed conflict, situations of violence, and disasters. An accurate accounting of migrant deaths along the southern US border is the first step toward an understanding of the extent and the contributing factors of these deaths. In this article, we describe a key aspect of our collaborative work aimed at developing a more representative account of migrant mortality along the southwestern US border: the determination of criteria for inclusion of specific forensic cases as “migrant.” Our intention is not to propose a definition of “what is a migrant death” applicable to all contexts and situations but rather one specific to the US-Mexico border region. Our main impetus is to build and launch a web portal to track and map migrant deaths at the US-Mexico border. The criteria we have identified are based on an examination of death data collected by various agencies in the four border states (California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas) and at the federal level by the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs). They include a) context of human remains discovery; b) identification media/documentation; c) geographic setting; and d) personal effects. Taken together, these criteria will facilitate our determination, case by case, of the probability that human remains found along the United States side of the border may be from a person in the context of migration.

Risk factors associated with loneliness among mexican-origin adults in southern Arizona

This study examines factors associated with symptoms of loneliness among a sample (n = 213) of mostly Mexican-origin adults at risk of chronic diseases in Southern Arizona’s Pima, Yuma, and Santa Cruz counties. It uses baseline data from a community-based participatory research partnership and multinominal logistic regression models. Controlling for chronic diseases and sociodemographic characteristics, perceived social support and hope exhibit negative main effects on loneliness when comparing individuals who experienced loneliness for 5–7 days in the preceding week with those who did not encounter such feelings during the same period (adjusted odds ratio, AOR = 0.49 and 0.47; 95% confidence interval, CI = 0.34–0.73 and 0.29–0.75, respectively). However, when considered together, perceived social support and hope display a positive and statistically significant combined effect on loneliness (AOR = 1.03; 95% CI = 1.01–1.06). Holding all covariates constant, individuals reporting loneliness for 5–7 days exhibit a relative risk ratio of 1.24 (95% CI = 1.06–1.46) for a one-unit increase in physical problem severity compared to those who do not experience loneliness. Moreover, being 65 years old or older (AOR = 0.16, 95% CI = 0.03–0.84), and having been born in Mexico and lived in the US for less than 30 years (AOR = 0.12, 95% CI = 0.02–0.74) are associated with negative main effects on loneliness when comparing individuals who experienced loneliness 1–2, and 5–7 days in the preceding week with those who did not feel loneliness during the same timeframe, respectively. Recognizing the crucial role of loneliness in shaping health outcomes for Mexican-origin adults, our findings underscore the significance of fostering supportive environments that not only enhance well-being but also cultivate robust community bonds within the US-Mexico border region.

Salud sin Fronteras: Identifying Determinants of Frequency of Healthcare Use among Mexican immigrants in Southern Arizona.

Guided by Andersen's Behavioral Model of Health Services Use (BMHSU), this study aimed to identify determinants of post-migration healthcare use among a sample of Mexican immigrants in a US-Mexico border region in Southern Arizona, while considering pre-migration health and healthcare experiences. A non-probabilistic convenience sample of 300 adult Mexican immigrants completed a telephone survey to assess healthcare practices. Multivariable logistic regressions were fitted to determine adjusted relationships between frequency of care and predisposing, enabling, need, and contextual factors as well as personal health practices. Overall, participants had a 79% probability of receiving healthcare "at least once a year" after migrating to Southern Arizona. Receiving post-migration healthcare was associated with predisposing, enabling, need, contextual factors, and personal health practices (p < 0.05). Consistent with BMHSU, our findings suggest that frequency of healthcare is not only a function of having post-migration health insurance but is also shaped by a complex array of other factors. The results of this study shed light onto potential areas to be leveraged by multifactorial sociocultural interventions to increase Mexican immigrants' frequency of healthcare services use.

A brief instrument measuring the water, sanitation and hygiene domain of menstrual health among women who inject drugs.

Domains of adequate menstrual health (MH) include access to water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH). People who menstruate with social disadvantages-such as homelessness or drug injection practices-often face barriers to WASH access. However, validated instruments to measure MH are limited among marginalized populations, and available instruments involve lengthy surveys. We developed and evaluated psychometric properties of a novel 'MH WASH Domain Scale-12' among people who menstruate and who inject drugs in the Tijuana-San Diego region and identified correlates of MH access using this scale. We constructed a MH-scale based on access to twelve WASH-related items: (1) menstrual products, (2) body hygiene (bathing per week), (3) water sources for bathing, (4) improved, (5) non-shared, (6) available, (7) private, (8) nearby, (9) and safe sanitation facilities, (10) availability of soap, (11) water source for handwashing, and (12) handwashing facilities with soap/water. Variables were dichotomized and summed, with scores ranging from 0-12 points and higher scores indicating better MH access. We assessed the scale's reliability and construct and content validity using data from a binational cross-sectional study. The sample included people who inject drugs (PWID) who had ever menstruated in their lifetime and were 18+ during 2020-2021. MH-WASH items were described, and the scale was further used as an outcome variable to identify correlates. Among 125 (124 cis-female and 1 trans-male) PWID that reported menstruating, our 'MH WASH Domain Scale-12' was reliable (Cronbach's alpha = 0.81, McDonald's Omega total = 0.83) and valid. We identified two sub-domains: Factor-1 included items describing 'WASH availability' and Factor-2 contained items related to 'WASH security'-encompassing physical and biological safety. Scale scores were significantly lower among participants experiencing unsheltered homelessness compared to participants experiencing sheltered homelessness or living in permanent housing. We constructed and validated a novel and reliable scale to measure MH-related WASH access that can be used to assess MH among marginalized populations in English- and Spanish-speaking contexts. Using this scale we identified disparities in MH-WASH access among PWID and who menstruate in the US-Mexico border region.

Castle &amp; Crook: Necroliberalism and Cartographies of Abandonment in Maquilapolis (City of Factories) and Señorita Extraviada (Missing Young Woman)

Abstract “Castle &amp; Crook” argues that the documentary films Maquilapolis (City of Factories) (dir. Vicky Funari, Sergio De La Torre, Mexico/US, 2006) and Señorita Extraviada (Missing Young Woman) (dir. Lourdes Portillo, Mexico/US, 2001) offer critical insights into the necropolitical dimensions of neoliberal modernization along the US-Mexico border during the post-NAFTA era through the turn of the millennium. Both films represent the intersection of neoliberalism and necropolitics, particularly in terms of the spatial aspects or modalities of necropower that inhere in neoliberal development. Moreover, I refer to this complex and violent assemblage of neoliberalism and necropolitics as “necroliberalism” in order to capture the specific ways in which neoliberal discourses of responsibilization and prudentialism serve to reproduce and maintain necropolitical governing in the Mexico-US border region in the context of transnational political activism.

Seeking care across the US-Mexico border: The experiences of Latinx and Indigenous Mexican caregivers of children with asthma or respiratory distress

BackgroundMany Latinx and Indigenous Mexican populations in the United States Southwest live in unincorporated communities in the US-Mexico borderlands called colonias. These environmental justice communities often lack basic infrastructure, including healthcare services, prompting many to seek services across the border. However, due to geopolitical factors more vulnerable caregivers are limited to utilize healthcare services in the US. This paper reports the experiences and healthcare decision-making of caregivers living in colonias in the US-Mexico border region who care for children with respiratory health conditions. MethodsThis study was carried out from September to December 2020. Focus groups and interviews were conducted with Latinx and Indigenous Mexican caregivers of children with asthma or respiratory distress. Qualitative interviews elicited caregivers' perspectives on the environmental factors affecting children's chronic health conditions and use of healthcare services. The analysis employed the concept of structure vulnerability to theorize geography as a structural determinant of health for caregivers faced with making healthcare decisions for their suffering from respiratory health conditions. A survey was administered to collect basic sociodemographic information. ResultsA total of 36 caregivers participated in the study. Structural factors including unincorporated community status and government inaction intersected with social determinants of health to prompt caregivers to cross the US-Mexico border to access healthcare services in Mexico for their children. Yet, more vulnerable caregivers (i.e., those without documentation status in the US) and their children, accessing healthcare services in the US was not an option limiting caregivers' ability to meet their children's healthcare needs. In such cases, geography acts as a structural determinant of health. ConclusionThis study shows the importance of geography in health. Rural unincorporated colonias located in the borderlands are precariously located and lack basic critical infrastructure including healthcare access. Within such places, historically and socially marginalized populations become invisible, are subject to the health effects of environmental hazards, and are limited depending on their positionality and thus vulnerability to healthcare services.

TREVOR PAGLEN’S BORDER ABSTRACTIONS IN THE AGE OF MACHINE VISION

Over the past two decades, machine vision and artificial intelligence (AI) have become integrated into many aspects of daily life, and with machines generating images for other machines, humans are no longer at the centre of the image world. To explore the implications of the age of machine vision, this article focuses on a selection of work by American artist Trevor Paglen made between 2008 and 2018. It examines the significance of the US-Mexico border region as a site of his investigations and the role of abstraction in repositioning machine vision within the human-centred visual language of art. The article shows how Paglen’s body of work turns toward the nonhuman to consider what it means to make images when representation is no longer primarily a site for the construction of meaning by humans but is also a field of data for analysis by machines. It explores how Paglen conveys the interplay between different models of vision with an aesthetic sensibility that develops from the history of photography but signals the breakdown of representational photography. His work highlights the contested space of the US-Mexico border region as a key site in a surveillance infrastructure that depends on a new regime of vision and offers a space to reflect on what it means to live in a world where most images are now made by and for machines.

Urban Violence, Migration and Alcohol, Tobacco, and Marijuana Use among Transnational Students in Northern Mexico.

This article reports on the findings of a study of the relationship between transnational experiences in the United States (US) and the use of alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana among 7th grade students (n = 1418). The study was guided by a cross-national framework for research on immigrant health and assessed the accumulation of risk factors for transnational adolescents. Data came from a survey conducted in 2017 in Nogales, Mexico. In this study, the last 30-day prevalence of use of alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana among students was 21.7%, 8.3%, and 2.4%, respectively. Most students were born in Nogales (69.6%), while 10.5% were born in the US, 7.5% attended school in the US, and 3.6% engaged in health-related risk behaviors while living in or visiting the US. Students with transnational experiences, such as attending school in the US, reported the highest 30-day prevalence of tobacco (13.3%) and marijuana (9.5%) use. After adjusting for family, school, access to substances and neighborhood violence variables, students who engaged in health-related risk behavior in the US had significantly increased odds of alcohol and marijuana use while later attending school in Mexico. The article discusses the findings from a prevention science perspective and provides implications for policy, practice, and future research on the Mexico-US border region.

2228. Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices Regarding Antibiotic Use during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Comparison of United States (US) Survey Respondents Living in the US-Mexico Border Region with those Living in Non-border Regions

Abstract Background Inappropriate use of antibiotics is a driver of antimicrobial resistance globally. The US-Mexico border region is medically underserved and socially vulnerable. This study aimed to assess knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAP) regarding antibiotic use during the COVID-19 pandemic among US residents, and to compare KAPs for those living in border versus non-border regions. Methods A cross-sectional online survey with monetary incentive was deployed to a sample of adults ≥18 years old through Amazon Mechanical Turk with enriched sampling in the US-Mexico border region (defined as residency within 100 km of the border). Surveys were completed from 8/8/2020 to 8/4/2021. KAP questions were aligned with published tools and COVID-19-specific questions were added. Of 602 respondents from the US, 590 (98%) had complete KAP data and were included in this analysis. Chi-square tests were performed to examine the association between KAPs related to antibiotic use and border residency status. Results Overall, for 6 of 8 knowledge items about antibiotic use, fewer than 50% of survey respondents answered correctly (Table 1). 50% of border residents versus 71% of non-border residents (p&amp;lt; 0.01) correctly agreed that “antibiotics should never be saved for the next time you get sick.” Conversely 44% of border residents, versus 31% of non-border residents (p=0.03), correctly disagreed with the statement “when I have a cold, I should take antibiotics to avoid getting a more serious illness.” There was no difference in knowledge about causes of antibiotic resistance by region of residency. Overall, 40% of respondents believed that their personal antibiotic use did not affect antibiotic resistance (Table 2). Finally 37% all respondents said they tried to obtain antibiotics, and 31% tried to obtain chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine, because of concerns about COVID-19 with no difference by region of residency. Table 1: Number and percentage of survey respondents answering correctly to knowledge questions regarding antibiotic use, stratified by residency within 100 kilometers of the US-Mexico border. Table 2: Number and percentage of survey respondants with attitudes consistent with antibiotic stewardship among United States (US) residents, stratified by residency within 100 kilometers of the US-Mexico border. Conclusion KAP findings from this survey suggest that knowledge about antibiotic use is low regardless of proximity to the US-Mexico border. Further, practices related to antibiotic and chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine seeking in the context of COVID-19 suggest a role for public-facing information campaigns regarding medication seeking during public health emergencies. Disclosures All Authors: No reported disclosures

39 Neurocognitive Function in People Living with HIV from Tijuana: a Comparison Between Norms for Latin-American Population and Norms for US-Mexico Border Region

Objective:Global neurocognitive impairment (NCI) has been reported in white people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) in 40%. In Latino populations there have been variable rates described from 30 to 77%. This variation has to do with the lack of normative data for Latino population and the application of norms for English-speakers, increasing the probability of misidentification of NCI. Thus, recognizing which are the best norms available for the Mexican population is important for the accurate identification of NCI. The aim of the present study was to investigate the rate and pattern of HIV associated neurocognitive impairment (NCI) and to compare rates of NCI between rates calculated using norms for the Latin-American population (NLAP) and norms for the US-Mexico border region (NP-NUMBRS).Participants and Methods:CIOMS international ethical guidelines for the participation of human subjects in health research were followed. 82 PLWHA living in Tijuana (Mexico) participated in the study (Age: Mean=39.6, SD=10.9; 28.3% Female; Years of education: Mean=8.5, SD=3.6). PLWHA were recruited from the board-and-care home “Las Memorias” (73.4% on antiretroviral therapy; Years since HIV diagnosis: Mean=9.9, SD=7.1). Participants completed a neuropsychological test battery sensitive to detect HIV associated NCI that assessed four cognitive domains (verbal fluency, speed of information processing, executive function and learning/memory). Raw scores in these tests were transformed to percentiles using LAPN and transformed to T-scores using NP-NUMBRS. T-scores were averaged across tests to compute domain specific and global impairment scores. NCI was defined as percentile scores &lt;16 and T-scores &lt; 40. McNemar’s tests were used to compare the rate of NCI utilizing NLAP vs NP-NUMBRS.Results:According to NLAP, rates of global NCI were about 13.4%. Utilizing NP-NUMBRS rates of global NCI were about 34.1%. However, there is a positive and significant correlation between Global Neurocognitive Function score in PLWHA according to NLAP and NP-NUMBRS (r=0.66, p&lt;.05). Rates of global NCI in PLWHA were significantly lower when using LAP norms (McNemar Chi-Square=29.89; p&lt;.001). Regarding the pattern of NCI according both norms learning and memory was the most affected cognitive domain with 34% of impairment according to NLAP vs 51% of impairment according to NP-NUMBRs.Conclusions:Utilizing NP-NUMBRS, rates of NCI are consistent with findings of prior studies. Employing norms for LAP the rates of NCI are lower that the ones reported in the literature. This is an important finding since PLWHA included in the sample have several vulnerable factors such as deportation, prostitution, drug abuse and discrimination for sexual preference, factor that could impact cognition. The pattern of neurocognitive function was also similar to those of prior studies in HIV. To accurately make NCI diagnosis it is important to use norms that consider specific characteristics of the population. The diagnosis of NCI is important since these deficits present a strong risk of concurrent problems in a wide range of health behaviors like medication non-adherence in PLWHA.

Interpersonal and Community-Level Influences Across the PrEP Cascade Among Young Adult Latinx Men who Have Sex with Men Living in a US-Mexico Border Region: A Qualitative Study.

Latinx men who have sex with men (MSM) are an at-risk population for new HIV diagnoses. Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is a suite of biomedical approaches to prevent HIV infection. Latinx MSM are less likely to take PrEP compared to non-Latinx White MSM. This qualitative study identified interpersonal- and community-level barriers and facilitators of PrEP among young adult Latinx MSM. Using stratified purposeful sampling, 27 Latinx men, ages 19-29 years and living in a US-Mexico border region, completed self-report demographic surveys and participated in semi-structured in-depth interviews assessing barriers and facilitators to PrEP. Directed content analysis was used to identify both a priori and emerging themes. Most participants reported that other people, including peers, friends, partners, and health care providers were both supportive and discouraging of PrEP use. Participants' intersectional identities as members of both Latinx and LGBTQ+ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer) communities both hindered and facilitated PrEP use.

Childhood leukemia survival in the US-Mexico border: Building sustainable leukemia care using health systems strengthening models.

1502 Background: Pediatric leukemia outcomes are poor in most low-and middle-income countries (LMIC) and exacerbated by healthcare systems ill-equipped to manage cancer. Effective leukemia management in LMIC involves curating epidemiologic data; providing healthcare workforce specialty training; developing evidence-based treatments and supportive care; safeguarding access to medications and equipment; providing patient and family psychosocial and financial support; partnering with non-governmental organizations, and ensuring treatment adherence. Methods: We describe the implementation of a collaborative program to achieve sustainable high-quality care for children with leukemia in a unique border health setting. In 2013, in a partnership between North-American and Mexican institutions, we used the health systems strengthening model developed by the World Health Organization (WHO) Framework for Action with domains in Services delivery, Workforce, Information systems, Access to essential medicines, Financing, and Leadership and Governance to implement a sustainable program aimed at improving acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) outcomes at a public, referral hospital in the US-Mexico border region. We evaluated program sustainability indicators, and prospectively assessed clinical features, risk classification, and survival outcomes in children with ALL at Hospital General in Tijuana, Mexico from 2008-2012 (pre-implementation) and from 2013-2017 (post-implementation). Results: Our approach led to a fully-staffed leukemia service, sustainable training programs, evidence-based, data-driven projects to improve clinical outcomes, and funding for medications, supplies and personnel through local partnerships. Pre-implementation and post-implementation 5-year overall survival for children with standard-risk and high-risk ALL improved from 52% to 82% (P = 0 ×023) and from 46% to 76% ( P = 0 ×031), respectively. All sustainability indicators significantly improved between 2013 and 2017. Conclusions: By using a health systems strengthening approach, we improved leukemia care and survival in a public Mexican hospital in the US-Mexico border region. The demonstrated increase in overall survival across a decade after the implementation of our program validates the use of the health systems strengthening models, as they are not only efficacious in improving clinical outcomes, but also serve as financially and organizationally means of building sustainable capacity. Our model serves as an example for future international partnerships aimed at sustainably improving cancer outcomes in LMIC. Future research should evaluate best practices in establishing global health collaborations with particular attention paid towards the individual circumstances that impact healthcare delivery locally in each unique community.

Factors Associated with Depressive Symptoms among Mexican-Origin Adults in a Community Sample at the US Mexico Border Region.

Using baseline data from three partnering federally qualified health centers, we examined factors associated with depressive symptoms among Mexican-origin adults at risk of chronic disease living in three counties in Southern Arizona (i.e., Pima, Yuma, and Santa Cruz). Multivariable linear regression models identified correlates of depressive symptoms for this population controlling for sociodemographic characteristics. Among 206 participants, 85.9% were female and 49% were between 45 and 64 years of age. The proportion of depressive symptoms was 26.8%. Low levels of physical pain and high levels of hope and social support were also reported. Physical pain was positively and significantly related to depressive symptoms (β = 0.22; 95% CI = 0.13, 0.30). Conversely, hope was negatively and significantly associated with depressive symptoms (β = -0.53; 95% CI = -0.78, -0.29). A better understanding of factors related to depressive symptoms among Mexican-origin adults is necessary to fulfill their mental health needs, as well as to achieve health equity and to eliminate health disparities in the US-Mexico border region.

The U.S.‐Mexico border as a model for social‐cultural theory: A brief discussion

AbstractThe US–Mexico border has influenced social‐cultural theory by drawing attention to hybrids that stand apart from supposedly cohesive wholes. This point, albeit important, does not exhaust the lessons to be learned from the US–Mexico border region. It also displays highly unequal power relations. Adjacent, interactive, but profoundly asymmetrical border city pairs are key sites for analyzing unequal relationships between the so‐called global South and global North. This social relationality of apparently contrastive endpoints, and the cultural frameworks and practices that mediate the connections, is yet another lesson from the US–Mexico border. Culture occurs in a matrix of often highly unequal social relationships. Culture is made and reproduced at relational meeting points between differentiated positionalities, even when there is an apparently exclusionary border in between.

Review: Drug Lords, Cowboys, and Desperadoes: Violent Myths of the U.S.-Mexico Frontier, by Rafael Acosta Morales

Review: <i>Drug Lords, Cowboys, and Desperadoes: Violent Myths of the U.S.-Mexico Frontier</i>, by Rafael Acosta Morales

Waste and Textual Expenditure in William T. Vollmann’s Imperial

As a consciously transgeneric text, William T. Vollmann’s Imperial explores the delineated realities of the US-Mexico border region by zeroing in geographically, culturally, historically, even literarily via his own self-reflexive writing on the border county named Imperial. Vollmann’s intense focus on one specific area produces a sort of Pynchonian excess, melded with minimally precise “delineations,” that seeks a never quite settled ethical and aesthetic resolution of a reality where the border region is both literally divisive and ceaselessly porous. Such literal and literary ‘mapping’ articulates ambivalent strategies of material and textual wastefulness, it tracks toxic waste disposal and reckless waste abandonment, and it brings to light the conscious, exploitative wasting of human bodies and marginalized communities. But can a literary work of nonfiction invert the very wastefulness of waste through its own textual excesses? How does one confront an empire of waste through the very strategies of wastefulness?

“We All Have a Job to Do in This World, It’s up to Us”: Farmworker and Farmer Mental Health in a Rural US-Mexico Border Region

ABSTRACT Improving mental health outcomes for agricultural populations is dependent on understanding the unique farming related stressors in context of the local culture and community. This study was designed to assess the prevalence of stressors and mental health risks among farmers and farmworkers in a rural, medically underserved US-Mexico border region. Of 135 study respondents, 55.6% (n = 18) farmers had clinical depression symptomatology based on the Center for Epidemiologic Studies depression screening scale (CES-D) and 40.2% (n = 117) farmworkers had stress levels that pose significant mental health risks based on the Migrant Farmworker Stress Inventory. Farmworker females were 2.3 times more likely to have a score of clinical concern. Results provide an understanding of the distinct sources of stress for both farmers and farmworkers and the mental health challenges across the industry. With an understanding that suicide is the third leading cause of injury death in Imperial County and depression associated with an increased risk of suicidality, the agricultural workforce in Imperial County is particularly vulnerable. Local farm organizations, employers, and community organizations can help increase mental health access, acceptability, and availability to achieve greater safety and health in the region’s largest workforce.

A narrative-based approach to understand the impact of COVID-19 on the mental health of stranded immigrants in four border cities in Mexico.

This paper describes the impact that the different COVID-19 related restrictions have had on the mental health and wellbeing of 57 Central American and Caribbean immigrants stranded in Mexico due to the pandemic. Ethnographic data was obtained through the application of in-depth interviews centered on topics such as migration history, personal experience with COVID-19 and beliefs about the pandemic. This information was further analyzed through a narrative approach and Atlas Ti. US Title 42 and the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) have stranded thousands of individuals in the US-Mexico border region, a situation that has overcrowded the available shelters in the area and forced many of the immigrants to live on the streets and in improvised encampments. Thus, exposing them to a higher risk of contagion. Furthermore, the majority of the interviewed Central American and Caribbean immigrants consider that Mexico is more lenient when it comes to the enforcement of sanitary measures, especially when compared to their countries of origin. Finally, vaccination hesitancy was low among the interviewees, mainly due to the operative aspects of the vaccination effort in Mexico and the fear of ruining their chances to attain asylum in the US. These findings are backed up by the discovery of five recurring narratives among the interviewees regarding: (1) The pandemic's psychological impact. (2) The uncertainty of being stranded in Mexico and the long wait. (3) Their fear of violence over the fear of contagion. (4) The perceived leniency of Mexico with the pandemic when compared to their countries of origin, and (5) their beliefs about the pandemic and vaccines. The mental health of stranded Central American and Caribbean immigrants in Mexico during the COVID-19 pandemic is mostly affected by their inability to make it across the US-Mexico border using legal means.

Bodies on the Border: Rematerializing and Decolonizing Ecologies of Mobility in the Mexico-US Borderlands

Current human migrations and nonhuman extinctions on massive scales compel us to more carefully apply interspecies concepts of mobility to understanding the roles played by geopolitical borders, as well as the various, ongoing forms of colonialism that have produced and continue to perpetuate these borders. This essay applies bioregional, material, decolonial, and borderlands ecocriticism to historicize prevention through deterrence enforcement measures in the Mexico-US border region, and discusses several significant entanglements of interspecies actors in migratory contexts, exploring a range of ways that nonhuman nature has been and continues to be deployed materially against migrants. In historicizing US enforcement tactics, the essay tracks the distribution of human agency from settler colonial, ethnonationalist, and neoliberal US policy makers, to armed paramilitary human bodies, then into structures of the built environment, and, finally, to the ways that agency is further diffused across complex webs of multiple kinds of human and nonhuman actors—plants, animals, landforms, watercourses, climate and weather conditions, and so on. While in some instances, nonhuman animals are deployed against migrant and other indigenous and mestizo people, in other multispecies entanglements, animals participate in the revelation and denunciation of state sponsored violence, leading to larger questions of the status of other nonhuman animals in the borderlands. The essay’s primary focus is on illustrating the practical untenability of, and the severe harm done in, continuing to regard the borderlands from settler colonialist or human exceptionalist positionalities.