A crisis goes unseen when its victims stay numbers. If nobody names the people dying or mourns them, a disaster can happen in plain view without being recognized. Each number in a statistic has to be understood as one person's life.
A policy that blocks the easy crossing points doesn't stop people from crossing. It pushes them into the harshest, most dangerous ground, so the land itself does the killing. This happens whether or not anyone meant it to.
Doing a job well can slowly make its harms feel normal. The more skilled you become, the more urgent the question of what being good at this actually means. Doing the work makes you a participant in what happens, not just someone who sees it.
How hard the law falls depends on which officer you meet. Some agents slash migrants' water bottles and burn their food and clothes in the desert. Others don't, and the written rules don't settle which happens.
Policing aimed at serious crime mostly catches people at the bottom. In practice it lands on couriers, scouts, and ordinary people looking for a better life, while those who run the trade stay out of reach.