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Overview
- Thoughtful investigative report about a central issue of the 2008 presidential race that examines the border in human terms through a cast of colorful characters
- Asks and answers the core questions: Should we close the border? Is a fence or wall the answer? Is the U.S. government capable of fully securing the border?
- Reviews the political, economic, social, and cultural aspects and discusses NAFTA, immigration policy, border security, and other local, regional, national, and international issues
More than 250 million people cross the U.S.- Mexican border legally each year, and as many as 10 million do so illegally, making the border--la frontera to Mexicans--the most traversed national boundary on the planet. In an age of terrorism and economic uncertainty, that border is already one of the most hotly debated issues in American politics and is certain to play a prominent role in the 2008 campaign for president.
In 2007, David Danelo spent three months traveling the 1,952 miles that separate the United States and Mexico, beginning at Boca Chica, Texas, and traveling to the westernmost limit at Border Field State Park in California--a journey that took him across four states and two countries through a world of rivers and canals, mountains and deserts, highways and dirt roads, fences and border towns. Here the border isn't just an abstraction thrown around in political debates in Washington; it's a physical reality, infinitely more complex than most politicians believe. Danelo's reporting digs beneath the debate and attempts to explain the border and related issues--from legal and illegal immigration to NAFTA and border fences--as they are experienced by the people who live and work there: businessmen, smugglers, Minutemen, migrants, humanitarians, border patrol agents, government officials, and everyday people in the U.S. and Mexico.
The divide is great, as Danelo makes clear, but so is the opportunity. Refreshing in the new perspectives it offers and captivating in its depiction of this vibrant, if troubled, region, The Border is an essential starting point for understanding this vital topic.
Editorials
Publishers Weekly
Marine veteran Danelo's picturesque reportage from both sides of the 1,952-mile line separating the United States and Mexico-the world's most traversed national frontier-reveals how the fraught political debate around immigration and border security masks a very complex set of issues, geographies, economic and emotional ties, histories and subcultures. Inserting himself squarely into the narrative, Danelo builds his account on firsthand impressions gathered while traveling along and across the border, splicing his strong first-person testimonials with analysis of the U.S. Border Patrol and the evolving presence of the military, and extensive interviews with law enforcement agents, coyotes, migrant workers, truckers and politicians. Danelo's Spanish is limited, as are his excursions into Mexico, making his narrative lean to the U.S. and English-speaking side of the equation. He also insists the military has a role to play in securing the border, an argument some may see as colored by his expected sympathies, given his background. Still, his overall assessment moves considerably beyond the simplistic war-zone rhetoric in the media, offering well-grounded if cautious hope for the future. Photos. (Aug.)
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