Human Rights Along the US - Mexican Border, annotated biblography

Eric Cheung

Human Rights Along the US - Mexican Border discusses the major issues of sexual violence, human trafficking and indifference of governments along the borders of Mexico. Migrants short on money and legal documents are often victims of sexual violence when trying to cross borders. Olivia T. Ruiz Marrujo, the author of the chapter stresses the importance of recognizing the intensity of sexual violence towards migrants and the increasing trend of femicide along borders.

Distinct from sexual violence of willing migrants, human trafficking involves forced labor and sexual exploitations. Desperate migrants are put into compromising situations in attempts to coerce the victims to be exploited. This leads to many migrants being trafficked across borders to become forced laborers or prostitutes. The biggest issue that encompasses both sexual violence and human trafficking across borders is the government’s inability to handle the issues. Among sexual violence cases, many incidents have been overlooked, undocumented, and the sentence of convicted crimes have been lenient. The same could be said for incidents of human trafficking.

The most important idea the three chapters that Human Rights Along the US - Mexican Border focus on is methods of resolving the issues. Victims have to recognize their civil and personal human rights and should not be afraid to seek authorities to denounce crimes. Governments must recognize these crimes and be readily able to provide help to victims and justly convict the criminals responsible.