A#05-14-1989
Coming into the United States as a war refugee, my mother was detained and first recorded and documented on May 14th, 1989. She was given an Alien registration number, otherwise known as an A#, which became the basis of her identity in government paperwork. While similar to a social security number, Alien registration numbers single out and are only assigned to migrants considered as "noncitizens". The portraits that Homeland Security took of her shown in her paperwork offer no context of their purpose. Thus, questions such as, "are they passport images Homeland Security took?", "were they perhaps taken every few years to record her identity through time?", "who was my mother when she was photographed?" and "how did this invasion of privacy change her identity and possibly her behavior with authority?" begin to surface. These questions are left unanswered and remain to be void of absolute certainty as the only additional information on these images are her Alien registration number and a "photo available" stamp. Due to this uncertainty, I am allowed to examine these images to further reimagine and question the purpose of them, what they mean in a migrant’s identity, and how immigration surveillance transforms that identity through time.
Archival inkjet print
Art League Houston
2018