Moving Photos Capture the Complex Story of Undocumented Immigrants

Family members reunite through bars and mesh of the U.S.–Mexico border fence at Friendship Park on Nov. 17, 2013, in San Diego. The U.S. Border Patrol allows people on the American side to visit with friends and family through the fence on weekends, although under supervision from Border Patrol agents. Access to the fence from the Tijuana, Mexico, side is 24/7. Deportation and the separation of families is a major theme in the immigration-reform debate.

John Moore/Getty Images

David Rosenberg

February 14, 2014

In 2010 John Moore began photographing immigration and border-security issues in Arizona after the state passed law S.B. 1070, one of the strongest pieces of anti-immigrant legislation ever passed in the United States. The law, among other restrictions, also allows law enforcement to stop anyone who, within reasonable suspicion, might be undocumented, something opponents of the law feel is a free pass for racial profiling. “The basic intent of the law was to make life so difficult for undocumented immigrants in the state that they would ‘self deport’ either to other states or back to their home countries,” Moore said.

Moore, now a New York City-based senior staff photographer for Getty Images, has worked in 15 Latin American countries during his career, including 8 living in Mexico and Nicaragua.* His experience working in those areas and his ability to speak Spanish were essential when he first started covering immigration. He had also worked for both the Associated Press and Getty Images in Iraq and Afghanistan documenting the U.S. military, which introduced him to a culture and language that were applicable to law enforcement. Both of those experiences gave Moore the structure to photograph the highly sensitive issue of immigration from both sides.

Moore said he approached the project with the intent of looking at the issues “in as many ways as possible.” He said he explained the point of his project to immigrant communities and those in migrant shelters around the United States as wanting to put a human face on the issue; many decided to participate. He photographed a variety of people, including older men who were recently deported after living in the United Sates for many years, Cubans seeking asylum, and transgender people. He also tried to focus on families who had assimilated into American society.

Police arrest protesters blocking the entrance ofElizabeth Detention Center on Dec. 10, 2013, in Elizabeth, N.J. A coalition of immigrant advocacy groups markedinternational Human Rights Day, staging the civil disobedience action at the immigration detention center, and eight protesters were arrested. The event was designed to draw attention to the mass deportations of undocumented immigrants by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, as well as Congress' inability to pass immigration reform.

John Moore/Getty Images

Immigrants pray during a Catholic Mass held at the Kino BorderInitiative center for migrants on March 10, 2013, near the U.S.–Mexico border in Nogales, Mexico. The center feeds hundreds of meals per day to immigrants recently deported from the United States and those about to attempt to cross into the U.S. illegally.

John Moore/Getty Images

U.S. Border Patrol agent Sal De Leon stands near a section of the U.S.–Mexico border fence while on patrol on April 10, 2013, in La Joya, Texas. According to the Border Patrol, undocumented immigrant crossings have increased more than 50 percent in Texas' Rio Grande Valley in the last year.

John Moore/Getty Images

His work also led him to more dangerous places, including time in Mexico near the Guatemalan border, where Central Americans ride up through Mexico toward the U.S. border atop freight trains, which they refer to as la bestia or “the beast.” “It’s really dangerous for them, both because they sometimes fall asleep and tumble off the trains and also due to the gangs that board the trains, extorting from these people on certain stretches of the journey,” he said. Moore rode with them but only during short periods of time and only during the day.

Once an undocumented immigrant was in custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, however, Moore said he wasn’t allowed to photograph the faces of the detainees. “This required a fair amount of creative cropping, silhouettes, shots from behind, blurs, etc.,” Moore said. He was also unable to interview the detainees for anything on record and was only able to identify himself and tell them he was working on a project without giving much background information.

By following the rules, Moore gained the officials’ trust, which allowed him rare access into places like the Adelanto Detention Center in Southern California, the largest immigrant detention facility in the state.

Central American migrants climb atop a freight train headed north on Aug. 4, 2013 in Arriaga, Mexico.

Alan: In the 1960s, friend Warren Schmidt hopped a flat car somewhere out west. What Wes did not anticipate -- and what the above photo recalls -- is the deadly danger presented by desert heat as the metal carriage become too hot to stand or sit on. Warren survived by standing on his backpack, although his lumpy perch required him to support himself by alternating his hands against the unbearably hot metal wall. 

John Moore/Getty Images

A Honduran immigration detainee, his feet shackled and shoes laceless as a security precaution, boards a deportation flight to San Pedro Sula, Honduras, on Feb. 28, 2013, in Mesa, Ariz. ICE operates four to five flights per week from Mesa to Central America, deporting hundreds of undocumented immigrants detained in the western states. Detainees typically remain in custody for several weeks before they are deported to their home country, while others remain for longer periods while their immigration cases work through the courts.

John Moore/Getty Images

He also photographed immigrants with shackled feet as they boarded a deportation flight to Honduras. Creative Time Reports published these images in a story last month to highlight that the Obama administration has deported 2 million immigrants since 2008, more than any president in U.S. history. Moore also said that the U.S. government spends more on immigration enforcement than all other federal law enforcement combined.

Moore says he feels comprehensive immigration reform is important for a number of reasons, one being that many immigrants are sent home, separated from their families in the U.S., based on minor violations such as traffic tickets. “It has become a cliché to talk about undocumented immigrants ‘living in the shadows,’ ” Moore said. “That’s of course not literally true, as we are surrounded by them every day, doing the work most Americans refuse to do. We would not have affordable food on our tables without them. And for the most part, these folks go way out of their way to stay out of trouble—the last [thing] they want is to get arrested. The good news is that the political environment is becoming more favorable to reform. I just hope it’s sooner rather than later.”

A U.S. Border Patrol agent escorts a group of undocumented immigrants into custody with helicopter support from the U.S. Office of Air and Marine on May 20, 2013, near the U.S.–Mexico border in Havana, Texas. 

John Moore/Getty Images

Immigrant detainees pray during a prayer group in a general-population block at the Adelanto Detention Facility on Nov. 15, 2013, in Adelanto, Calif. The facility houses an average of 1,100 immigrants in custody pending a decision in their immigration cases or awaiting deportation. The average stay for a detainee is 29 days.

John Moore/Getty Images

Immigrant inmates show off a pair of pink underwear in the Maricopa County Tent City jail on March 11, 2013, in Phoenix. The striped uniforms and pink undergarments are standard-issue at the facility. The tent jail, run by Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, houses undocumented immigrants who are serving up to one year after being convicted of crimes in the county. Although many of immigrants have lived in the U.S for years, often with families, most will be deported to Mexico after serving their sentences.

John Moore/Getty Images

An unidentified immigrant's bones are reassembled after the remains were exhumed from a gravesite on May 22, 2013, in Brooks County, Texas. At least 129 immigrants died in 2012 in Brooks County, most of dehydration while making the long crossing from Mexico. Teams from Baylor University and the University of Indianapolis are exhuming the bodies of more than 50 immigrants who died while crossing illegally from Mexico into the United States. The bodies will be examined and cross-checked with DNA sent from Mexico and Central American countries, with the goal of reuniting the remains with families.

John Moore/Getty Images

*Correction, Feb. 14, 2014: This post originally stated that John Moore has covered Mexico and Nicaragua as a photographer for Getty Images since 2005. He's covered Mexico and Nicaragua at different points in his career for various outlets, including Getty Images and the Associated Press.

David Rosenberg is the editor of Slate’s Behold blog. He has worked as a photo editor for 15 years and is a tennis junkie. Follow him on Twitter.