Sweeping and insightful ... Writing with clarity and grace, while avoiding the mawkish tone sometimes associated with tales of the border, Blitzer makes a compelling case that the United States and Central America are knit as one ... Far from reading like a dry policy tome, Blitzer’s book makes its case by telling in vivid detail the stories of a cast of representative figures spread over five decades ... Sure to take its place as one of the definitive accounts of the U.S. and Central American immigration puzzle, a long and ongoing saga with no real solution in sight.
Painstaking ... Compellingly captures the lopsided nature of cross-party negotiations ... Blitzer shows all the ways our immigration system is in shambles. A series of misguided actions and their consequences brought us to this point. This book begins the reckoning we desperately need.
Timely and instructive ... Conflicts over immigration often arise from similarity rather than difference, and the strangers at our border have a familiar history that Blitzer tells in meticulous and vivid detail. It is our own.
Blitzer assiduously chronicles this dark history with a keen eye for individual lives; the personal is literally political ... Blitzer's research and reporting are extensive and impeccable ... Blitzer never shirks from his duty: to show us who we truly are. His is a vital, momentous book.
It offers a compelling reminder that the border issues confronting Biden have their origins in US foreign interventions of the past, and they have vexed administrations in Washington, both Democratic and Republican, for decades ... Blitzer, a writer for The New Yorker, is a tireless and empathic reporter. He follows the wanderings of four protagonists, drawing on deep interviews that reveal in telling detail their humanity and courage; he spoke to one of his subjects, Juan Romagoza, by phone every day for a year ... Interspersed in these sagas are detailed accounts of twists and turns in immigration policymaking in Washington. Blitzer illuminates inside debates, but he is often imprecise in his description of evolving immigration laws and vague about their specific effects on migratory flows. Indeed, Blitzer avoids drawing practical policy conclusions from his tale. Without offering spoilers, suffice it to say his heroes’ resilience by and large carries them through. But Blitzer declines explicitly to answer systemic questions ... What Blitzer does make clear is that the United States has failed to comprehend how aggressive foreign policies have immigration consequences at home. This book is an essential encyclopedia for understanding how that failure played out in Central America.
It’s a sorrowful yet urgent topic, and Blitzer navigates it with both journalistic rigor and compassion. A sobering, well-reported history in which no one emerges a winner.
