My piece ‘The promised death of the monarch’ illustrates immigration through images and words in a collage format. Pieced together throughout are different symbols of migration like the monarch butterfly, the abstract path through the desert depicting the journey many take. I also included images of workers that were especially blurry or anonymous to show how they are largely invisible. The monarch held by hands is not fully glued down and I did this purposefully to bring dimension to this piece, to show the natural and constant movement of the butterfly, unbound by arbitrary man-made borders. I added smaller, subtler details compared to the monarch. For example, I created a border around the two butterflies on the right side of the collage using a magazine snipping of a foil blanket, illustrating very literally the conditions in the detention facilities at the border. This tied in with the lyrics winding atop the collage in white ink. They are lyrics from Precious Cargo by Hurray For The Riff Raff, a testimonial song, real-life stories from a migrant held in a detention facility. Around the edges of the black paper, the word ‘precious’ is repeated almost like an affirmation. I use the gold pen for the lyrics and the lines around the butterfly wings to portray that humans are precious. Migrants are precious. The message I am trying to convey is the humanity in all immigrants, for this project, focusing on those migrating through the southern border. I created this piece because I have been thinking a lot about the implications for undocumented immigrants under the second Trump presidency, and I urge others to think about what they can do in their communities. I chose to title this piece ‘The promised death of the monarch’ alluding to Trump’s promise to carry out mass deportations when he takes office, as well as hinting at the looming threat of extinction of the monarch species altogether.