Declarations of emergency in US border states like Arizona and New Mexico have kicked the immigration debate into high gear.
Artist Judi Werthein has walked smack into the middle of this controversy.
She is hoping to leave her footprint with a special "crossing trainer" she has designed to help illegal immigrants negotiate the sometimes deadly terrain they encounter when crossing the border from Mexico to the US...
...They call the act of crossing the "brinco" - literally "jump" in Spanish. And that is the inspiration for Werthein's crossing shoes, called Brincos.
The trainers are adorned with unusual items.
"The shoe includes a compass, a flashlight because people cross at night, and inside is included also some Tylenol painkillers because many people get injured during crossing," Werthein says.
The trainers are equipped with a compass, light, map and painkillers
The artist was commissioned by a cross-border arts exhibition called inSite to develop a project that "intervened" in some aspect of border life.
While researching her project, the Argentine native became fascinated by illegal immigrants' primary mode of transportation - their feet.
"If they go through the sierra, they walk eight hours. Their feet get hurt. There's a lot of stones and there are snakes, tarantulas. So that's why it is a little boot," she says.
The Brinco is an ankle-high trainer which is green, red, black and yellow.
An Aztec eagle is embroidered on the heel. On the toe is the American eagle found on the US quarter, to represent the American dream the migrants are chasing.
A map - printed on the shoe's removable insole - shows the most popular illegal routes from Tijuana into San Diego...
Read More at the BBC... or at Infowars
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