Cabrillo College is proud to host the memorial installation Hostile Terrain 94 and Professor Jason De León, UCLA Professor and Director of the Undocumented Migration Project.

Hostile Terrain 94 is a participatory exhibition created by the Undocumented Migration Project, a non-profit organization that focuses on the social process of immigration and raises awareness through research, education, and outreach. The exhibit is composed of approximately 3,800 handwritten toe tags that represent migrants who have died trying to cross the Sonoran Desert from the mid-1990s to 2023. These tags are geolocated on a large wall map of the Arizona-Mexico border, showing the exact locations where human remains were found.

In 1994, the United States Border Patrol launched the immigration enforcement strategy known as “Prevention Through Deterrence” (PTD). With heightened security measures at urban points of entry, undocumented migrants were forced to traverse extremely treacherous environments, land dubbed as “Hostile Terrain” by U.S. Border Patrol. By using this tactic, the U.S. government has weaponized the desert as a natural killing field. As a result of this policy, more than 3,800 people have died, largely from dehydration and hyperthermia, while attempting the journey through Arizona. PTD is still the primary border enforcement strategy being used on the U.S.—Mexico border today. Hostile Terrain '94 seeks to open conversations about migration policies from various points of views while humanizing those who seek better lives through migration.

The physical act of writing out the names and information for the dead invites participants to reflect, witness and stand in solidarity with those who have lost their lives in search of a better one. This exhibit has taken place at over 120 institutions across 6 continents since 2020, with the intention to raise awareness about the humanitarian crisis at America’s southern border and to engage with communities around the world in conversations about migration.

The creation of HT94 is made possible by teams of volunteers from each hosting location, who participate in tag-filling workshops, where they write the details of the dead and then publicly place the tags on the map– in the exact location where each individual's remains were found. Join Cabrillo's drop-in creation workshops (schedule below) to participate in writing tags and the creation of the memorial at Cabrillo College.