Los Angeles (AFP)

Toothbrushes, toys, medicines, clothes and handwritten letters. From 2003 to 2014, Tom Kiefer, cleaning up a border post between the United States and Mexico, picked up and photographed the objects confiscated from migrants seeking a better life.

The result is condensed in "The American Dream", a series of photographs exhibited at the Los Angeles Skirball Cultural Center until March.

From a certain distance, many of his works resemble abstract art: modern, lively, colorful. But take a closer look and you will see the dozens of syringes, pills, multicolored and multifaceted mobile phones carefully arranged on canvas.

"We left our clothes, combs, wallets, phone numbers, without knowing whether or not we were going to come back," recalls Dominga Rodriguez, 48-year-old Mexican, who came to see the exhibition.

Nearly 30 years ago, it crossed the desert of the state of Oaxaca, on the way to the United States.

"It's moving, because I came the same way," she says, her throat tied.

Each year, hundreds of thousands of illegal migrants are apprehended, detained and separated from their personal effects during their crossing from Mexico to the United States.

"One of the things that these photographs remind us of is that even the smallest injustices can be the starting point for something completely inhuman," said Laura Mart, curator of the museum.

"It may seem trivial to confiscate someone's shoelaces, or their toothbrush," she said. "But when you start doing that, you accept treating people that way and before you know it, you get things like separating children from their parents."

Families have been separated at the border due to a "zero tolerance" policy advocated by the government of Donald Trump, to discourage migrants arriving from Mexico. And the fight against immigration is a key subject in the campaign of the American president for his re-election.

Laura Mart points to a photograph of plastic ducks, some stained with mud, a sentimental work but with a pragmatic role.

"The plastic ducks were used to mark the way," she explains. "This way the groups of migrants could successfully navigate amidst cacti and undergrowth."

© 2019 AFP