Jason De León

Jason De León is an anthropologist, a National Geographic Emerging Explorer (2013), and a MacArthur Foundation 2017 Fellow. He studies the migration from Latin America to the United States of clandestine migrants crossing the U.S.–Mexico border. De León is Loyd E. Cotsen Endowed Chair of Archaeology, Professor of Anthropology, Professor of Chicana, Chicano, and Central American Studies, Director of the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology at the University of California, Los Angeles and Director of the [https://www.undocumentedmigrationproject.org/ Undocumented Migration Project], a non-profit research/arts/education collective aimed at documenting and raising awareness about migration issues while also assisting families of missing migrants search for their loved ones.

Since 2009, he has traveled frequently to the Sonoran Desert in Arizona to collect artifacts left behind by migrants trying to gain access to the United States. His research focuses on issues related to clandestine migration from Latin America to the United States. His Undocumented Migration Project includes more than 9000 objects, some of which are on display at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History in Washington D.C. Provided by Wikipedia