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Exhibitions

Hostile Terrain 94

January 12 – March 14, 2026
In 1994, the United States Border Patrol formally implemented the immigration enforcement strategy known as “Prevention Through Deterrence.” This was a policy designed to discourage undocumented migrants from attempting to cross the US-Mexico border near urban points of entry. Instead, closing off these historically frequented crossing points would funnel individuals through more remote and depopulated regions, such as the Sonoran Desert of Southern Arizona. According to the NIH, since 1994, more than 5,000 people have died during the perilous journey. 

Hostile Terrain 94 is a powerful participatory map installation and exhibition created by the Undocumented Migration Project, a non-profit research and arts-education collective. This exhibition seeks to humanize and bring visibility to the harsh realities of the U.S.–Mexico border, where migrant deaths have occurred almost daily since 1994. At the heart of the installation are handwritten toe tags, each representing a person who lost their life while attempting the crossing. As participants complete the tags and view the accompanying maps, photographs, and personal artifacts, they are invited to examine the human cost of border enforcement and reflect the broader implications of current immigration policies.