What a Tough-Love Sheriff Left Behind

Joe Arpaio’s jail deports a dead man walking, and a Mexican family grieves.


Long before Arizona passed its anti-immigrant law, Sheriff Joe Arpaio was taking border enforcement into his own hands—directing his deputies to check the immigration status of people they encountered in anything from a routine traffic stop to simply walking down the street. This photo essay documents one Mexican family’s grief over the death of their son, David de la Fuente, who was jailed for driving without a license and developed pneumonia while behind bars. His family says he received no treatment, and died shortly after he was released to federal authorities and deported back to Mexico. You can read the full story here.

This photo essay was supported by the Investigative Fund at the Nation Institute.

The local cemetery in Colonia Emilio Carranza features countless shrines to the Virgin of Guadalupe.
 

David de la Fuente’s family home, which doubles as a local corner store.
 

David de la Fuente’s humble, hand-painted grave marker is adorned with a simple iron cross.
 

De la Fuente’s cousin, Norberto Alvarado Santana, fights tears and stares out into the vast horizon near his cousin’s grave.
 

De la Fuente’s mother, Hermelinda, spends most of her days on the bed in her small room since her son passed away.
 

Monserrato “Monse” Martínez saw her uncle, David de la Fuente, just once after he was deported; he died a few days later.
 

De la Fuente’s half-sister, Sara Almanza, hand-washes the family’s clothes in the yard.
 

De la Fuente’s sister, Almarossa, contemplates a picture of her brother taken before he died.
 

Because so many men head north for work, women take on additional labor. De la Fuente’s cousin and niece are joined by a family friend on their way to sell beans to local stores.

 

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate