This talk offers an ethnographic account of the structures of captivity that keep migrants and deportees in conditions of enforced immobility and precarity at the Mexico-U.S. border. Whereas much scholarship has framed the border primarily as a site of transit or deadly deterrence, Martinez argues that it has been transformed into a carceral frontier that restricts the movements of those rendered disposable while gradually wearing them down. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Tijuana, Mexico, since 2018, the presentation examines the lives of deportees and asylum seekers in the borderlands, focusing on survival strategies, care practices, and forms of solidarity that emerge amid the intertwined politics of expulsion, attrition, and prolonged waiting.

Carlos Martinez, MPH, PhD is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Latin American and Latino Studies and core faculty member of the Global and Community Health program at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Trained in public health and medical anthropology, Dr. Martinez’s research examines the health and sociocultural implications of policing, incarceration, and punitive immigration and drug policies. He is the co-editor of All This Safety Is Killing Us: Health Justice Beyond Prisons, Police, and Borders (North Atlantic Books, 2025).

Spring 2026 COLLOQUIUM SERIES

THE CENTER FOR CULTURAL STUDIES hosts a weekly Wednesday colloquium featuring work-in-progress by faculty & visitors. We are pleased to announce our Spring 2026 Series. Sessions begin promptly at 12:15 PM and end at 1:30 PM (PST) in Humanities Building 1, Room 210.

Staff assistance is provided by The Humanities Institute.