No Judgementation Without Representation

Throughout the entire book, especially during the second third of the book, the main villains are "los migras," the migration officers. In the book, these men are labeled as crooked cops, rapists, corrupt and even accused of working with gang members. It may be time to see these men in a new light. These men are being paid by the government to complete a hopeless job. Every day, 3,000 migrants cross the Mexico - US border coming from Mexico. 2,200 are caught, leaving about 800 failures per day by the US border patrol. That's pretty good. Los migras failed 3,000 times, probably catching twice that number per day, and they keep on coming back, again and again until they get through, or die. Los migras are fighting an uphill battle that doesn't have a top of the hill. Every day they get up knowing that they will catch dozens of migrants, and twice that number will get through. Also, each person is someone like them, just trying to make a better life for themselves or their family, just like each himself was trying to do when he took the job; a job where you get paid to destroy other peoples dreams. It must get degrading after awhile, to do this day after day, week after week after month after year; It must begin to work on your sanity. That could be why those officers fire at the migrants, out of frustration, out of anger, out of the realization that another person is getting away, and that you failed your job once again. ""Alto! Alto! Stop!" the agents shout. As Enrique runs he hears what he thinks are gunshots behind him." (p74) As demonstrated by the quote, the officers act out of frustration, not a wanton need for violence.
I cant imagine that the officers get payed too much either, and maybe out of a sense of mercy, they told some of the migrants they caught that if they gave them enough money, they would let them go, and then it became a habit, until they were doing it out of a sense of power instead of anything else. Power can go to the head of even the most humble of men, making them do terrible things. This is not to say that I am excusing the accounts of rape, torture or severe beatings. Any and all of those acts are inexcusable, and horrifying. All I am saying is that there many bad people in the world. Just because Hitler was so evil doesn't make every Nazi under his command evil as well. Therefore, positions of power such as that of a migration officer might attract power hungry people who then become evil as the power goes to their head as they commit atrocious acts. We need to remember that all of these people are not necessarily as evil as the man standing next to them, and remember that they are just men doing their jobs, and in fact individual men, not one giant, evil-doing entity defined by the terrible acts that the worst of them commit.