Mexican Americans and Latino immigrants prey in the Our Lady Queen of Angeles Church on Sunday, in Los Angeles to remember those who lost their lives or were wounded in mass shootings in the states of California, Texas and Ohio. Photo: Yu Yan/GT

During a decade as a janitor at a US border station, Tom Kiefer gathered the trash left behind by thousands of undocumented immigrants, piecing together the histories of those who arrived seeking a better life.

Everyday objects from clothes, medicine and toys to handwritten letters were confiscated by officials as dangerous or "non-essential" items, leaving photography student Kiefer to sift through fragments of their owners' struggles.

"El Sueno Americano/The American Dream," at Los Angeles's Skirball Cultural Center through March, displays more than 100 photographs of these remnants.

Every year, hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants are detained while crossing into the US from Mexico. 

"One of the things I think these photographs remind us of is that even small injustices can be the first step on a path towards things that are totally inhumane," said curator Laura Mart.

AFP