Abstract
<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p>Narratives in healthcare are sites of dispute, where healing and migration enforcement collide in the rehabilitation process of Central American migrants suffering amputations due to injuries caused by the La Bestia the freight train in Mexico. This study, conducted collaboratively in rehabilitation centers in Mexico that are part of the “amputee program,” examines how healthcare institutions become entangled with migration deterrence mechanisms. Through an ethnographic case study of Joe, a Honduran program participant, the chapter explores how amputee rehabilitation programs pressure Central American migrants to conform to Mexican migration policies that link the amputee’s recovery to their deportation, even when this may conflict with their individual needs and aspirations. During rehabilitation two competing narratives emerge: “therapeutic narratives” and “heroic migrant narratives.” These initially align but later reveal deeper tensions that speak to broader concurrent issues in both migration and health. Ultimately, narratives shape both therapeutic encounters and migrants’ responses to cross-border violence, reflecting Mexico’s increasingly ambivalent role in regional migration, where solidarity and humanitarian coercion intersect. The chapter brings greater attention to an analysis of the impacts of language and narrative tensions on migration and health.</jats:p>