Arizona artist brings story of migrant humanity to Michigan

(GRAND RAPIDS, Mich.) The US Southern Border is thousands of miles from Grand Rapids, but Tom Kiefer is bringing the stories of migrants who cross the border to ArtPrize 2022. 

Kiefer's exhibit "El Sueño Americano/The American Dream features photographs of some of the most personal belongings of migrants who have been taken to the Customs and Border Patrol Processing Center in Ajo, Arizona. 

The photos show passports, jewelry, clothing, and wallets. 

Kiefer found these items during his 11 years working as a janitor at the processing center. 

"I asked for permission to retrieve the food from the trash so I could bring it to our food bank," said Kiefer. "To my utter shock and horror, I found out what was also being taken away besides the food; bibles, rosaries, family photographs. You know deeply personal precious belongings that were considered non-essential or potentially lethal."

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Kiefer has been sharing these photographs since 2015 because he says he wants to educate people. 

"How many of us would even think that the government is taking items like this away and then throwing them in the trash," said Kiefer. 

One of the personal items Kiefer found was a CD collection with songs from Marvin Gaye and other Motown artists. 

"Here's this woman's CD collection just taken away and thrown in the trash," said Kiefer. "I've titled that one Cynthia's CD collection because on several of the CD's she wrote her name."

Kiefer says finding all of these items was astounding and it moved him. 

"Just the Mickey Mouse jacket on a red background that is very powerful. I found an 1879 Indian Head penny once. That was not loose change, that was a treasured keepsake that was just discarded."

Kiefer's hope is for people who see the photographs to remember the humanity of the migrants trying to cross the border for a better life.

"This is not a republican or democrat issue," said Kiefer. "This is truly a humanitarian issue. We can talk about, you know come together in some way to discuss how we're going to come up with some rational, humane immigration reform."