Justice at the Border: Efrén C. Olivares’ New Book

November 11, 2022

On Thursday, November 11, Efrén C. Olivares presented his memoir My Boy Will Die of Sorrow at the Yale Law School. The book talks about Olivares’ experience at the Southern U.S. border helping immigrant parents that the government separated from their children.

Connecting this work with his personal background, Olivares braids into his text episodes from his childhood in Northern Mexico, a formative moment in his life that was marked by the distance between him and his father, who left home for months to work on the U.S. side of the border.

            In the presentation, Olivares shared gripping anecdotes from his days at the border. Among the most touching ones was the experience that gave his book its title. At a trial of immigrant parents who did not know the whereabouts of their children, one man from Guatemala told him that his son “se iba a morir de tristeza” without him. The phrase moved Olivares so much that he chose it as title, illustrative of the plight to which the United States had subjected migrant families. By picking up those words, he explained, he also gives center stage to the parents’ experiences, something that has been absent from the media coverage on the separations, which usually criminalize migrants.

“[Olivares] admitted that migration policy and legislation have a deep-rooted and long history of overt racism against communities of color, and that this historical racism influences how the U.S. government acts against migrants today”

During the Q&A, Olivares talked about the possibilities and limitations of the law in tackling immigration injustices. He admitted that migration policy and legislation have a deep-rooted and long history of overt racism against communities of color, and that this historical racism influences how the U.S. government acts against migrants today. However, he also warned against pessimism, since, as he put it, there have been times when the law and the government were significantly more structurally racist than today, and yet people still fought incessantly for justice. He encouraged law students to work against migration injustices by leveraging their own legal interests, talents, and skills.

            To know more about Olivares, check out the website of the Southern Poverty Law Center, where he works as Immigrant Justice Deputy Legal Director. You can also read more about his book and his work in his interview with CLAIS.

By Alan Mendoza, Graduate Communications Fellow, alan.mendozasosa@yale.edu