The Land of Open Graves

In the first part of the book, De León discusses the steps that were taken to result in the system, "Prevention Through Deterrence," that is in place today to prevent migrants from coming into America. He also expands upon the ideas of the hybrid collectif and “Prevention Through Deterrence” by arguing that the United States deliberately funnels migrants through the Sonoran Desert so that various human and nonhuman actants do the “brutal work” for Border Patrol.[1]^:60–61 He also uses the phrase bare life to describe those that have died and their death means nothing. This phrase is used to describe many migrants who lost their lives while attempting to cross. De León notes how there are very few posters set up in Mexico that inform migrants of the horrors they will come upon should they choose to attempt to cross. "Operation Blockade" was the very first stone to be thrown in the pond of preventing migrants from entering. Border Patrol knew that by having the only open area to cross be in the Sonoran Desert that there would be fewer attempts at crossing.

In part two he highlights his interactions and the accounts of several people, which includes that of Memo and Lucho's difficult journeys to the United States via the Sonora Desert. The accounts of Memo and Lucho are crucial to the entirety of the book because De León exerts the usage of actual voices of those who have experienced the monster known as the "desert hybrid collective."[1] De León also describes the deportation process and takes distance from his personal expériences. He espouses his opposition to the Department of Homeland Security's former practices of "catch and release", which would lead to an immediate deportation of the migrants, to the one implemented since 2005 and usually referred to as Operation Streamline. He also follows a group of migrants who are deported back to Nogales following their hearing. They are brought to the Juan Bosco shelter where they will be able to spend a few nights.

Part two ends with Memo and Lucho successfully crossing the border and living in Arizona. They readily share their stories even though migrants settled in the US usually choose to forget their crossing experience due to the traumatic circumstances they may have faced in the desert and their illegal status. They are aware of the fragility of the history of border crossing, how migrants and the objects they leave behind are labeled "trash" and disposed of carelessly.[1]^:170 De León uses the method Archaeology of the Contemporary to uncover and document the truth about conditions faced and the origins of those who have braved the Sonoran Desert. A crucial detail of the migrant process he discovers is the typology of layups, or break spots. A way to, “distinguish between sites where people camp for long periods, briefly rest, get picked up, practice religion, get arrested, and die.”[1]^:175 This information brings clarity to the timing and location of events.

In part three De León examines how border crossings, both successful and failed, had an impact. De León and his colleagues discover the dead body of a female migrant that appears to have experienced necroviolence, which he states is the embodiment of what the Department of Homeland Security's "Prevention Through Deterrence" looks like. He discusses the more harrowing aspects of being anthropologists, and expresses the realities of practicing Anthropology, "directing a research project focused on human suffering and death in the desert means we can't ignore certain parts of the social process just because it sickens us or breaks our hearts."[1]^:210 The body is identified as Maricela from Ecuador. The team gets in contact with Maricela's family, one of whom is a migrant living in Queens, New York, Christian. Christian explains that he never wanted Maricela to cross due to the difficulty and horrors that he faced both before, during, and after successfully crossing the border.[1]^:226–228 De León and his colleagues also travel to meet Maricela's family in Ecuador and once there, her family members also state that they warned her against the attempt but that she left in hopes of providing a better life for her three children. De León concludes his book expressing his objective, which was to unveil the curtain that the US Government hides behind, known as "Prevention Through Deterrence", and its lasting after-effects.

Using Callon and Latour's approach of the Actor-Network theory, De León affirms that the American government's policy of Prevention through Deterrence uses an assemblage of actants he nicknames the Hybrid Collectif. This network contains a large set of human and non-human actants (the Desert itself, the heat, the scavenging animals, the smugglers and robbers, etc.) that hinder the migrants' attempt at border-crossing and facilitates death and disappearance. He argues that the United States deliberately takes advantage of the "dangerosity" of the Hybrid Collectif to deter migrants from crossing the border.

According to De León, the death of border-crossers is the result of what Achille Mbembe has described as Necropolitics. In other words, the American Government is using its sovereignty power to justify the death of migrants. He also develops the concept of Necroviolence to describe the mistreatment of bodies of migrants by the Hybrid Collectif. Although these practices of corporeal perversions have always been used to send a message to the living, he notices that the United States uses them as a utensil to deter people from attempting a perilous border-crossing.[1]^:66–72