Synopses & Reviews
She was a little girl with a big nameJosseline Jamileth Hernández Quinteros. Just five feet tall and a hundred pounds, she had an adult-sized responsibility: the fourteen-year-old was to shepherd her ten-year-old brother all the way from Honduras to their mother in Los Angeles. But Josseline fell ill in a remote Arizona desert, just north of the Mexico line, and her smuggler and the rest of her group abandoned her. She died alone in the wilderness in February 2008.
For nearly a decade, Margaret Regan has reported on the chaos along the Arizona-Mexico border, ground zero for immigration since 2000. Undocumented migrants like Josseline cross into the state in overwhelming numbers, pushed into its dangerous deserts by a U.S. border policy that seals off safer urban crossings. In peak years, Border Patrol agents in Arizonas Tucson Sector catch more than a thousand migrants a day. And Arizona has the highest number of migrant deaths; Josseline was just one of thousands to perish in its deserts and mountains.
Set against the dramatic landscape of the untamed Westa rocky wilderness of mesquites and cacti, where summer temperatures hit 115Regans book tells stories of the people caught up in this international tragedy. Traveling to both sides of the border, she visits migrants stranded in Mexican shelters and rides shotgun with the Border Patrol, hiking with them in the scorching Arizona desert. She camps in the back country with "No More Deaths" activists and speaks to angry ranchers and vigilantes.
Regan writes firsthand of the desperation that compels people to cross, of the environmental damage wrought by the new border wall, and of the unidentified bodies piled up in a Tucson morgue. She documents the increasing militarization of the borderlands, a place where Black Hawk helicopters clatter overhead and U.S. citizens are randomly stopped on the roads. As one Border Patrol agent explains, "When it comes to the border, theres an asterisk on the Constitution."
Regans on-the-ground reportage puts her in the heart of Americas complicated story of immigration. Her extraordinary ability to witness guarantees that the stories and characters you encounter here will stay with you, long after you finish the book.
Synopsis
Dispatches from Arizona—the front line of a massive human migration—including the voices of migrants, Border Patrol, ranchers, activists, and others
With a sweeping perspective and vivid on-the-ground reportage, Margaret Regan tells the stories of the escalating chaos along the U.S.-Mexico border. A varied cast of characters emerges as she rides shotgun with the Border Patrol, interviews deported Mexicans and angry Arizona ranchers, visits migrant shelters in Mexico, and camps out in the thorny wilderness with “No More Deaths” activists. Using Arizona as a microcosm, Regan explores a host of urgent issues: the border militarization that threatens the rights of U.S. citizens, the environmental damage wrought by the new border wall, the desperation that compels migrants to come north, and the human tragedy of the unidentified dead in Arizona’s morgues.
From the Trade Paperback edition.
Synopsis
Dispatches from Arizona—the front line of a massive human migration—including the voices of migrants, Border Patrol, ranchers, activists, and others
For the last decade, Margaret Regan has reported on the escalating chaos along the Arizona-Mexico border, ground zero for immigration since 2000. Undocumented migrants cross into Arizona in overwhelming numbers, a state whose anti-immigrant laws are the most stringent in the nation. And Arizona has the highest number of migrant deaths. Fourteen-year-old Josseline, a young girl from El Salvador who was left to die alone on the migrant trail, was just one of thousands to perish in its deserts and mountains.
With a sweeping perspective and vivid on-the-ground reportage, Regan tells the stories of the people caught up in this international tragedy. Traveling back and forth across the border, she visits migrants stranded in Mexican shelters and rides shotgun with Border Patrol agents in Arizona, hiking with them for hours in the scorching desert; she camps out in the thorny wilderness with No More Deaths activists and meets with angry ranchers and vigilantes. Using Arizona as a microcosm, Regan explores a host of urgent issues: the border militarization that threatens the rights of U.S. citizens, the environmental damage wrought by the border wall, the desperation that compels migrants to come north, and the human tragedy of the unidentified dead in Arizona’s morgues.
From the Trade Paperback edition.
About the Author
Margaret Regan has won a dozen regional and national journalism awards for her border reporting for the
Tucson Weekly and other publications. She lives with her family in Tucson, sixty-four miles from the Mexico border.