Description
This article examines the lived experiences of two groups of border crossers during President Donald Trump’s second term (Trump 2.0): (1) returned Mexican migrants, and (2) regular (trans)border crossers. Using Testimonio methodology and interviews, this qualitative research explores how the hyper-securitised discourse of Operation Aurora shapes border crossers’ experiences of deportability, defined as the constant vulnerability to arrest, removal, and loss of rights to future migration (Talavera, Núñez-Mchiri & Heyman, 2010). Preliminary findings from testimonios and interviews in shelters for migrants in the Mexican border city of Mexicali, and with transborder populations, reveal that deportability moves across (un)documented Mexican border crossers, inhabiting a persistent condition of strangerhood, understood as ‘not someone we do not recognize but someone we recognize as a stranger’ (Maldonado, Licona & Hendricks, 2016:32). These findings provide a grounded understanding of deportability compared to prior U.S. administrations and contribute to ongoing academic discussions in migration studies, critical race theory, and border studies, particularly by applying a Testimonio framework and transborder approaches.
