Crossing the line finding America in the borderlands Finding America in the borderlands Towle, Sarah creator author. text bibliography History cau 2024 2024 monographic eng print xxi, 391 pages ; 23 cm To refugees, asylum seekers, and immigrants from around the world, America has long stood as a haven of peace, prosperity, and freedom. Over the last two decades, however, the U.S. has been at the forefront of a new global paradigm that prioritizes national security above human rights, per Towle's narrative. Focusing on what she calls the "Border Industrial Complex," the author outlines the ways in which the U.S. and Europe have forged a system of "global apartheid" through draconian visa requirements, passport controls, border walls, and other anti-immigration policies. The book offers readers an astute analysis that provides a well-researched overview of the current immigration system as well as historical context for the ways in which racism and xenophobia have shaped American policy in the past. Bipartisan in her critiques, Towle traces the modern roots of America's anti-immigration ethos from Reagan through Clinton to the post-9/11 Bush administration, though she also holds the Obama and Biden administrations to account for their subsequent complicity. The book stands out by centering the lived experiences of the victims of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), particularly the subagency known as Enforcement and Removals Operations ("aka ICE Air, 'the deportation machine'"). Working with the Texas A&M University School of Law Immigrant Rights Clinic and the Cameroon Advocacy Network and privileged with white skin that allowed her to "cross borders with relative ease," Towle shares her firsthand experiences at the U.S.-Mexican border, where she met freedom-seekers whose home countries spanned from Central America to Cameroon. The author's observation that merely seeing and documenting the experiences of victims is a "subversive act" powerfully underscores the stories of mothers ripped away from their children, men detained indefinitely without due process during the Covid-19 pandemic that "turned prisons into death traps," and asylum-seekers returned to the violent battlefields of war-torn countries Sarah Towle. Includes bibliographical references. n-us--- n-mx--- Border crossing United States Mexican-American Border Region Emigration and immigration Social aspects Mexican-American Border Region Political aspects Mexican-American Border Region Social conditions Immigrants United States Social conditions 21st century United States Emigration and immigration Government policy United States Emigration and immigration History 21st century Deportation United States 21st century Illegal immigration Government policy United States Passage de frontière États-Unis Région frontalière mexicano-américaine Émigration et immigration Aspect social Région frontalière mexicano-américaine Aspect politique Région frontalière mexicano-américaine Conditions sociales États-Unis Émigration et immigration Politique gouvernementale États-Unis Émigration et immigration Histoire 21e siècle Immigration clandestine Politique gouvernementale États-Unis Emigration and immigration Emigration and immigration Government policy Illegal immigration Deportation Immigrants Social conditions Border crossing United States North America Mexican-American Border Region Social aspects 2000-2099 fast F787 .T68 2024 325.73 9781647425791 1647425794 9781647425807 POD YDX 230128 20250622023915.9 in00005648433 eng