A wall inside the University of San Diego library is now covered with 1,500 manila and orange toe tags. Each represents a migrant who died while entering the U.S. through San Diego and Imperial County borders.
The manila-colored tags list an identified migrant while the orange ones denote unidentified human remains.
“Many of them were cremated and scattered at sea and so there's nothing remaining from those people other than a tag on the wall,” said Marni LaFleur, associate professor at USD and creator of the exhibit.
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The deaths displayed in the exhibit date back to 1994, with the most recent ones being from 2021. On the tags is also their cause of death.
“I think awareness is really needed with this because it's so impactful and it's happening right here,” said LaFleur.
According to data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection, over 24,000 migrants were apprehended in San Diego last month, an increase of 27% from February. As the end of Title 42 inches closer, officials don’t anticipate those numbers to go down anytime soon, meaning there could be more deaths.
“Immigration is such a polarized field right now,” said LaFleur. “I hope that people can remember that policy impacts people and policy can really hurt people.”
Creating change in policy won’t be easy but at least for now, LaFleur is inspiring something else: Compassion.
Fluttered across another exhibit wall are hand-written messages on monarch butterflies.
“Really, coming back to just humanity and being human ourselves and knowing that these other people are also human can really help us come together,” said LaFleur.
The exhibit is an adaptation of a separate exhibit currently at the Museum of Us that tracks deaths along the Arizona border. The USD exhibit will be on display until May 17.
