What do you think?
Rate this book
Crossing the Line: Finding America in the Borderlands
“We all deserve a narrative with clarity, and Towle’s has delivered. Spectacular!”
— Ken Burns, renowned filmmaker
For anyone who wants to understand the reality of our dysfunctional immigration system beyond slogans, Crossing the Line is an absolute must-read.” — Scott Allen, former editor, Boston Globe Spotlight Investigative Team
It was family separation and “kids in cages” that first drove Sarah Towle to the US southern border. On discovering the many-headed hydra that is the US immigration system, she refused to look away. Crossing the Line: Finding America in the Borderlands charts her journey from outrage to activism to abolition as she exposes, layer by broken layer, the now global deterrence-to-detention-to-deportation complex that is set up to fail everyone — save the profiteers and demagogues who benefit from it.
Sarah deftly weaves oral storytelling, history, and memoir together to illustrate how US policy has led the charge in flouting post-WWII global commitments to protecting human rights. Yet within the web of criminalization and cruelty, Sarah finds hope in the extraordinary acts of ordinary heroes who prove, every day, that there is a better way. By amplifying their voices and celebrating their efforts, Sarah reveals that we can welcome with dignity those most in need of safety and compassion. In unmasking the real root causes of the “crisis” in human migration, she urges us to act before we travel much further down our current course—one which history will not soon forgive, or forget.
— Ken Burns, renowned filmmaker
For anyone who wants to understand the reality of our dysfunctional immigration system beyond slogans, Crossing the Line is an absolute must-read.” — Scott Allen, former editor, Boston Globe Spotlight Investigative Team
It was family separation and “kids in cages” that first drove Sarah Towle to the US southern border. On discovering the many-headed hydra that is the US immigration system, she refused to look away. Crossing the Line: Finding America in the Borderlands charts her journey from outrage to activism to abolition as she exposes, layer by broken layer, the now global deterrence-to-detention-to-deportation complex that is set up to fail everyone — save the profiteers and demagogues who benefit from it.
Sarah deftly weaves oral storytelling, history, and memoir together to illustrate how US policy has led the charge in flouting post-WWII global commitments to protecting human rights. Yet within the web of criminalization and cruelty, Sarah finds hope in the extraordinary acts of ordinary heroes who prove, every day, that there is a better way. By amplifying their voices and celebrating their efforts, Sarah reveals that we can welcome with dignity those most in need of safety and compassion. In unmasking the real root causes of the “crisis” in human migration, she urges us to act before we travel much further down our current course—one which history will not soon forgive, or forget.
- GenresNonfictionPolitics
424 pages, Paperback
Published June 18, 2024
16 people are currently reading
1817 people want to read
About the author
Sarah B. Towle
1 book9 followersSarah Towle is an educator, researcher, and writer; a human rights defender, nature lover, and choral soprano. She resides in an ephemeral borderlands, buffeted and buoyed by a diversity of languages, cultures, landscapes, and creeds. She has taught English language literacy, cross-cultural communication and conflict resolution skills, and the writing craft for three decades across four continents in myriad classroom contexts, including under the trees in refugee settings. An award-winning children’s author, Sarah has earned accolades for her interactive tales for educational tourism. “Crossing the Line: Finding America in the Borderlands” is her debut full-length book.
Sarah is the proud mother of a powerful, confident adult woman. She is grateful to have found her soulmate, who triples as her editor and personal chef. She and her family share a home in London with their rescue hound, Gryffindog, who keeps everyone laughing and gets Sarah away from her desk and walking every day. In addition to getting “Crossing the Line” across the line, Sarah publishes opinions, stories, and audio-tales regularly on Substack: Tales of Humanity. Find her podcast, From the Borderlands, wherever you listen. Learn out more about Sarah at sarahtowle.com.
Sarah is the proud mother of a powerful, confident adult woman. She is grateful to have found her soulmate, who triples as her editor and personal chef. She and her family share a home in London with their rescue hound, Gryffindog, who keeps everyone laughing and gets Sarah away from her desk and walking every day. In addition to getting “Crossing the Line” across the line, Sarah publishes opinions, stories, and audio-tales regularly on Substack: Tales of Humanity. Find her podcast, From the Borderlands, wherever you listen. Learn out more about Sarah at sarahtowle.com.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
June 1, 2024
Even though the book’s subject matter is difficult to read, the author’s writing is so well crafted she makes the material very readable.
It is hard to learn that our government and those who work for it are responsible for the human rights violations that take place at our borders, in our immigration courts, and “detention facilities” which are really prisons. I have visited and have seen the handcuffs.
Hard to read when our politicians turn their backs and not enough of them stand up to stop this.
This is a book that tells the personal stories of the individuals who come to our country asking for refuge. People come escaping war, gangs, or to save their children from forced prostitution. Sarah Towels tells us their stories as well as the personal stories and histories of the activists and the lawyers, and all the other heroes, that bear witness and try to represent what America claims we stand for. She brings us into the world of the network built across the country trying to stand up for our values, and her writing does so skillfully.
This book is a call to action: that action can be as simple as a letter to your legislators, or conversations with friends and family. I urge you to read this book and take action. As Elie Wiesel has said: “I believe firmly and profoundly that whoever listens to a witness becomes a witness, so those who hear us, those who read us must continue to bear witness for us. "
It is hard to learn that our government and those who work for it are responsible for the human rights violations that take place at our borders, in our immigration courts, and “detention facilities” which are really prisons. I have visited and have seen the handcuffs.
Hard to read when our politicians turn their backs and not enough of them stand up to stop this.
This is a book that tells the personal stories of the individuals who come to our country asking for refuge. People come escaping war, gangs, or to save their children from forced prostitution. Sarah Towels tells us their stories as well as the personal stories and histories of the activists and the lawyers, and all the other heroes, that bear witness and try to represent what America claims we stand for. She brings us into the world of the network built across the country trying to stand up for our values, and her writing does so skillfully.
This book is a call to action: that action can be as simple as a letter to your legislators, or conversations with friends and family. I urge you to read this book and take action. As Elie Wiesel has said: “I believe firmly and profoundly that whoever listens to a witness becomes a witness, so those who hear us, those who read us must continue to bear witness for us. "
April 15, 2024
Sarah Towle does a remarkable job in taking her readers beyond the slogans and rhetoric to a world of human beings that would be familiar to most of us -- mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, uncles and aunts who want nothing more (or less) than a better life, as well as the everyday Americans who try to live the values that the cynics and demagogues treat with disdain. Not just that, it's beautifully written, with every chapter revealing a high stakes drama that will keep you rapt. Read it.
June 8, 2024
I've made multiple trips to the border to offer aid with several humanitarian groups. I've spent time with many of the people and in many of the places mentioned in this book. I've read many other books on border issues. All this being said, I didn't expect the impact Sarah Towle's book had on me. I was moved to tears by the personal stories and was angered by Border Patrol's cruelty to those people literally running for their lives. I expect you'll be moved to action if you're brave enough to read it. Highly recommended!
May 25, 2024
Well written, in both form and substance. Easy to move quickly through the pages filled with information and emotion, on a subject every US citizen needs to know and understand.
December 28, 2024
No book has made me cry harder, made me want to scream at the current system, and opened my eyes even wider to a system I believe needs to change immediately. This has been researched and so humanly written that if your mind is not changed after reading this, then you have no heart. I am frightened of the future, not going to lie. I am hoping enough people will rally against the current state of things.
December 2, 2024
I don’t usually review resources dedicated to uncovering and solving big social problems without an obvious business context—but I’m making an exception for this historical and current analysis of the incredibly cruel US immigration “system”—which is not at all systematic in its functionality, only in its cruelty and racism.
And while it may not be obvious, business is definitely a factor in this cruelty. The private prison/detention system is a huge beneficiary, building massive profits out of the exploitation and even torture of those who fled for their lives. The human traffickers and smugglers who help bring people and products across the border are running businesses, albeit illegal ones. Also, the roots of the border crisis have a lot to do with US policies going back a century and more that prioritized profits for giant agribusiness companies growing such crops as coffee and bananas. The term “banana republic” actually came out of that long-running exploitation—and so did the dual crisis of drugs ravaging the US while US-made guns ravage Latin America.
Towle explores both, as well as the devil’s partnerships between those private entities and some of the most repressive agencies within our federal and state governments—some of which have their own roots in the slave abduction rings that operated before the Civil War—and the way both have abused those in their custody to the point where torture is the only word to call it. Both the agencies and the profiteers are aided and abetted by a shadowy network of right-wing organizations organized by a man named John Tanton (p. 140)—a name I hadn’t encountered before reading this book, although his impact has been felt in repressive laws, repressive judicial appointments, and much more.
These tangled webs may help explain why oppression and arbitrary (often illegal) treatment of low-income immigrants of color are a curse in our society whether a Democrat or Republican is in the White House.
Towle is a good writer and researcher. She tracks down long spirals of causes, long histories of completely unnecessary cruelty and barbarism directed at those who came to the US seeking protection. All-too-often, they find the opposite. And she makes the point over and over (p. 105, for instance) that attempting to deter migrants from entering doesn’t work, and won’t work as long as they are fleeing direct threats to their own and their loved ones’ lives.
As I do, she would love to see policy based on what we say we believe in as a country. It was the US that in the aftermath of WWII pushed hard to get other countries to accept asylees and refugees.
Personal note: I have been involved in immigration justice activism since the spring of 2019 and I met many of the activists Towle profiles when I participated in an eight-day witness delegation to the US-Mexico border in early 2020.
And while it may not be obvious, business is definitely a factor in this cruelty. The private prison/detention system is a huge beneficiary, building massive profits out of the exploitation and even torture of those who fled for their lives. The human traffickers and smugglers who help bring people and products across the border are running businesses, albeit illegal ones. Also, the roots of the border crisis have a lot to do with US policies going back a century and more that prioritized profits for giant agribusiness companies growing such crops as coffee and bananas. The term “banana republic” actually came out of that long-running exploitation—and so did the dual crisis of drugs ravaging the US while US-made guns ravage Latin America.
Towle explores both, as well as the devil’s partnerships between those private entities and some of the most repressive agencies within our federal and state governments—some of which have their own roots in the slave abduction rings that operated before the Civil War—and the way both have abused those in their custody to the point where torture is the only word to call it. Both the agencies and the profiteers are aided and abetted by a shadowy network of right-wing organizations organized by a man named John Tanton (p. 140)—a name I hadn’t encountered before reading this book, although his impact has been felt in repressive laws, repressive judicial appointments, and much more.
These tangled webs may help explain why oppression and arbitrary (often illegal) treatment of low-income immigrants of color are a curse in our society whether a Democrat or Republican is in the White House.
Towle is a good writer and researcher. She tracks down long spirals of causes, long histories of completely unnecessary cruelty and barbarism directed at those who came to the US seeking protection. All-too-often, they find the opposite. And she makes the point over and over (p. 105, for instance) that attempting to deter migrants from entering doesn’t work, and won’t work as long as they are fleeing direct threats to their own and their loved ones’ lives.
As I do, she would love to see policy based on what we say we believe in as a country. It was the US that in the aftermath of WWII pushed hard to get other countries to accept asylees and refugees.
Personal note: I have been involved in immigration justice activism since the spring of 2019 and I met many of the activists Towle profiles when I participated in an eight-day witness delegation to the US-Mexico border in early 2020.
July 3, 2024
Written like a good novel that builds engagement on every page, Sarah Towle has researched the many services and trials experienced by migrants hoping to enter the United States through the southern border. She explores the history of American corporations in Central America and the devastating consequences to the people there. She provides over one hundred years of history concerning the undeserved prejudice toward migrants. U.S. national legislation is laid out plainly so we can understand the blatant racism and classism. This book is written with clear compassion toward the poor people who seek safety in this country and who are often abused by authorities after long journeys to the border cities. Ms. Towle describes the work on of the many ordinary citizens who attempt to address the plight of migrants.
It is a "Must Read" for anyone interested in learning the intricacies of U.S. immigration in general. Even people who are familiar with the issues will learn something that may shock them. I recommend it to the general public and as supplemental material in many college courses. It is an eyeopener.
It is a "Must Read" for anyone interested in learning the intricacies of U.S. immigration in general. Even people who are familiar with the issues will learn something that may shock them. I recommend it to the general public and as supplemental material in many college courses. It is an eyeopener.
June 20, 2024
I am an attorney and activist. I've served, witnessed, learned, protested for years the entire length of our southern border, on both sides of the border. I've been inside immigration prisons. I know many of the leading activists, attorneys, scholars and humanitarians in the immigration field. I know many featured in Sarah Towle's book. Sarah's book is searingly accurate, deeply informative and powerfully moving. If you want to understand the realities of our immigration policies, there is no better book than this one. Sarah weaves history, today's events, the voices of migrants and leaders in the field, to provide readers a way to understand both the big picture and the suffering of individual people caught in our terrible system. She gives us a path forward, grounded in dignity and care, that accords with our nation's best self and the rule of law. Read this book and you will understand this issue well enough to vote wisely, contribute to solutions and spread the word among your community.
March 25, 2024
Crossing the Line is a poignant journey from outrage to activism, exposing the harsh realities of the immigration system in the U.S. Towle's storytelling is meticulous, weaving oral histories, memoir, and historical context all seamlessly. And the book is a compelling call to action and reminds us of the urgent need for compassion and change.
May 21, 2024
Finding America in the Borderlands offers a laser-focused lens through which the world should see the United States of America in terms of how it has handled immigrants over the years. The immigrants from various parts of the world who’ve found themselves at the US borders seeking asylum also have their voices heard here. As Towle reveals here, the world has not yet run out of kind-hearted ladies and gentlemen. She focuses the spotlight on the good deeds of ordinary people who advocated for immigrants' rights, provided necessary support, and raised their voices around the world to expose the dangers at the border.
To help readers understand the deteriorating situation in which most immigrants have found themselves, Towle delves deeper into previous American regimes, exposing a system with a weak structure that can be easily manipulated to benefit some while dehumanizing others—a system that deprives America of its greatness.
With the effect of immigration being felt globally, this should be everyone’s must-read.
To help readers understand the deteriorating situation in which most immigrants have found themselves, Towle delves deeper into previous American regimes, exposing a system with a weak structure that can be easily manipulated to benefit some while dehumanizing others—a system that deprives America of its greatness.
With the effect of immigration being felt globally, this should be everyone’s must-read.
June 26, 2024
This book brings the lives of asylum seekers--and everyday Americans who fight for immigrant rights, including those who became accidental activists in 2018 under Trump's family separation policy--to life. So many courageous people and their stories are deftly packed into this engrossing book about our inhumane immigration system. The background history on how we got here is clearly and succinctly told. One major takeaway for me is how utterly corrupt and profit-driven our prison i.e. detention system is--non-criminals locked away, sometimes for years! Every tax-paying US citizen should be outraged at the way our money is spent on militarizing the border and lining the pockets of corporations benefitting from our system. Read this book!
September 16, 2024
I wish everyone would read this book. Sarah Towle writes with authority and compassion, with searing examples of the U.S.’s relentlessly cruel immigration system that puts politics and profits over humanity. I was frankly shocked to read of many of the practices inflicted on safety seekers by Border Patrol and ICE agents today, like five-point shackles, death flights, and a device of torture and coercion known as The Wrap. Why aren’t more people talking about this?
The author challenges us to act, rather than sit idly by. Once you know, you know. We can and must do more.
“Being born in the US makes you lucky, but it doesn’t make you better. Humans are humans. Our hearts all beat the same blood. We all suffer the same pain.”
The author challenges us to act, rather than sit idly by. Once you know, you know. We can and must do more.
“Being born in the US makes you lucky, but it doesn’t make you better. Humans are humans. Our hearts all beat the same blood. We all suffer the same pain.”
October 11, 2024
This is book is disheartening and sad, yet very much needs to be said. Sarah does a great job of telling the stories of those on the border. I like how she also does not make this about politics, in that it is both a republican AND democrat issue that neither side is doing anything about. She focuses on the stories and the people hurt by the politics and the governments (both state and federal) and the private corporations that fund/have a stake in the system.
Thank you for being a voice for those people Sarah!
Thank you for being a voice for those people Sarah!
December 18, 2024
A gripping, essential exposé of inhumane US immigration policies and their impact.
As a human rights advocate on the ground along the US/Mexico border, my kudos to Sarah Towle for so eloquently conveying the increasingly harsh, inhumane and fatal conditions for asylum-seeking immigrants, and for her excellent analysis of the factors underlying our cynical and cruel immigration policies. The valuable contributions of immigrants to our economy and communities are overshadowed by misinformation and lies by those who profit from their subjugation.
March 29, 2024
Sarah Towle has beautifully illustrated the harsh realities of the U.S. immigration system, seamlessly exposing how the system is failing everyone. Crossing the Line is a must-read if you are interested in learning more about the system and its implications. Definitely recommend as a strong call to action to change the current system and advocate with compassion.
October 7, 2025
Sarah combines history, stories, and personal encounters to humanize the immigrant and push beyond the stereotypes and talking points to delve deeper into America's immigration policies and consequences. Her writing style keeps the reader's attention. This is essential and timely reading for anyone wishing to better understand one of the defining topics of our times.
October 21, 2025
Sarah's book is not only an exposé of a chaotic immigration system, it is a tribute to the relentless persistence of those traveling through and living in the borderlands. Sarah's gift of story telling helps us weave our way through a harsh and inhumane system of border policies that dehumanize and criminalize people. A must read.
June 23, 2024
This is the most important book I've read in ages. Towle has a fantastic ability to put a human face and story on what is too often just another buried headline, and wake us all up to the true moral outrage at our border. It also clips along like a novel, beautifully written.
August 5, 2024
With the elections coming up, I wanted a clear picture of one of the main issues being discussed. Sarah Towle’s Crossing the line: Finding America in the Borderlands gives such clarity. It really deserves the five star review. The most valuable part to me was the”Call to Action” at the end.
August 6, 2024
It’s the best book I’ve read ! We have truly crossed the line as a country and have much work to do to stop our inhumane treatment of people in need and to assist in healing those we have harmed. This a must read book!
February 17, 2025
Crossing the Line:Finding America in the Borderlines by Sarah Towle truly set a fire in me to bring to light the atrocities going on at our borders and in our immigration prisons! I have been recommending this book to everyone. Thank you, Sarah, for writing such an eye-opening book!
June 11, 2024
This book punches a hole in the well-established American myth. It is painful but very worthwhile reading.
December 30, 2024
I had no idea. This was such a difficult read, but necessary and eye-opening.
The author’s political bias comes through too strongly for my taste. The issue has been made increasingly political, however a less biased approach to the writing would have possibly reached more people.
None of that makes the information less valid or critical, and as voting citizens, it is important to know the atrocities our government is committing.
The author’s political bias comes through too strongly for my taste. The issue has been made increasingly political, however a less biased approach to the writing would have possibly reached more people.
None of that makes the information less valid or critical, and as voting citizens, it is important to know the atrocities our government is committing.
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews