Everyone Who Is Gone Is Here: The United States, Central America, and the Making of a Crisis

by Jonathan Blitzer

“[A] profound reflection on one of the great paradoxes of American life—and a tribute to the astonishing indomitability of the human spirit.” — Patrick Radden Keefe
 
“[A] searing, gut-wrenching, and masterfully reported account.” — Jill Lepore

An epic, heartbreaking, and deeply reported history of the disastrous humanitarian crisis at the southern border told through the lives of the migrants forced to risk everything and the policymakers who determine their fate, by New Yorker staff writer Jonathan Blitzer

Everyone who makes the journey faces an impossible choice. Hundreds of thousands of people who arrive every year at the US-Mexico border travel far from their homes. An overwhelming share of them come from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras, although many migrants come from farther away. Some are fleeing persecution, others crime or hunger. Very often it will not be their first attempt to cross. They may have already been deported from the United States, but it remains their only hope for safety and prosperity. Their homes have become uninhabitable. They will take their chances.

This vast and unremitting crisis did not spring up overnight. Indeed, as Blitzer dramatizes with forensic, unprecedented reporting, it is the result of decades of misguided policy and sweeping corruption. Brilliantly weaving the stories of Central Americans whose lives have been devastated by chronic political conflict and violence with those of American activists, government officials, and the politicians responsible for the country’s tragically tangled immigration policy, Blitzer reveals the full, layered picture for the first time.

Everyone Who Is Gone Is Here is an odyssey of struggle and resilience. With astonishing nuance and detail, Blitzer tells an epic story about the people whose lives ebb and flow across the border, and in doing so, he delves into the heart of American life itself. This vital and remarkable story has shaped the nation’s turbulent politics and culture in countless ways—and will almost certainly determine its future.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Politics, Audiobook, Social Justice, Race, American History

544 pages, Hardcover

First published January 30, 2024

About the author

Jonathan Blitzer is a staff writer at The New Yorker. He has won a National Award for Education Reporting as well as an Edward R. Murrow Award, and was a 2021 Emerson Fellow at New America. He lives with his family in New York City.

Reviews

[Traci Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the kind of book that wins Pulitzers. It is deeply researched and has great storytelling. It gives people who are normally ignored as individuals by media the full presidential treatment. It tells the story of humans, places, and policies. It is really good, but in all the detail it goes on too long.

[Alex Juarez · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve just finished and am at a loss for words. In just shy of 500 pages Blizter has crafted such a cohesive look at the last 40 years of the US relationship with immigration and Central America (mainly El Salvador with later sections focusing on Guatemala and Honduras.) I learned something on every page, I laughed, I cried, I gasped aloud.

Weaving together the personal narratives of people seeking asylum and those creating asylum legislation, Blitzer attempts to show the intricate and ever-evolving relationship between the United States and Central America. After every chapter (written so accessible for the amount of detail and politics they contain) I would call my Dad or friends to ask if they knew about different policies, facts, or movements.

This is a great read for anyone who is trying to educate themselves on a topic that is at the forefront of our news cycle especially in an election year.

Thank you so much Penguin Press for sending this my way and to the author for documenting this so concisely.

[The Conspiracy is Capitalism · Rating 4 out of 5]

US Immigration 101: Follow the Money/Weapons…

Preamble:
--With Trump’s 2024 campaign and top Democrats capitulating to echo “Build the Wall”, we need to dive deeper into the US’s contradictions with immigration (from “a nation of immigrants” to “illegal aliens” being the trending scapegoat).
--We can start with:
a) critical research:
--Target audience: mostly activists/academics; ex. Aviva Chomsky’s Undocumented: How Immigration Became Illegal, for serious structural analysis away from the noise of the political theatre’s short-term maneuvering and the media’s sensationalism.
b) mainstream journalism:
--Target audience: mostly liberals; ex. this 2024 book by a mainstream journalist (Blitzer, journalist for The New Yorker).
--Since elite liberals betrayed the cause, I opted to start with how (the best of) mainstream journalism communicates the topic to default liberals.

Highlights:

1) Personal Stories:
--The biggest advantage of mainstream journalism is popularizing topics through storytelling. Ben Goldacre (medical doctor/popular science writer), who prioritizes popularizing the abstract (i.e. big-picture statistics behind evidence-based medicine), faces the challenge of our emotional bias towards individual narratives:

This [individual’s] story always makes me cry a little bit. Two million people die of Aids every year. It never has the same effect.
[from “Empathy’s Failures” in I Think You'll Find It's a Bit More Complicated Than That]

--As Blitzer is a member of The New Yorker, we should clarify mainstream media and propaganda:
a) Reactionary critique opportunism:
--Reactionaries take advantage of mainstream biases by daring to call it out (ex. Trump’s “Fake News”), only to then cherry-pick and intensify the distortions.
b) Leftist critique:
--US mainstream media indeed has biases; however, it still has the most resources to fund skilled, full-time journalists to do the on-the-ground investigations.
--So, nuanced media literacy is foundational for understanding the world. One useful step is to consider the media’s target audience. Media targeting the public (ex. headlines, op-eds) especially on topics that threaten systemic power (i.e. current foreign policy/economics) tend to be the most sensationalized/manipulated.
--Media targeting exclusive audiences (esp. business class/military) indeed include rigorous research, since capitalists/generals need to know what is actually going on in the world. This is also why it’s so insightful reading internal documents, ex. what fossil fuel industry scientists and US military strategists think about climate change:
-Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming
-All Hell Breaking Loose: The Pentagon's Perspective on Climate Change
-For more on media literacy, obviously see Noam Chomsky:
-Necessary Illusions: Thought Control in Democratic Societies
-Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media
--A final note on media/target audience: how do we reach the many who won’t read this book?
i) For younger people, including Trump gym bros I talk to, Hasanabi's "You Are Wrong About Immigration..." 25-minute video responds to the common concerns (crime/jobs/economy/welfare/culture etc.)
ii) John Oliver’s 20-minute video on Mass Deportations.

2) Structural Analysis: Imperialism:
--This book does try to synthesize personal stories with structural analysis, a messy task; so, let’s walk through the structure, where we follow the money (capitalism) and the weapons (imperialism).
--How can former colonies improve living conditions for their masses if their colonial economies (who owns the land/factories; foreign trade relations; debts in foreign currencies) are preserved?
--The US empire floods the Global South with weapons/sanctions to keep these relations intact, driving emigration fleeing from violence/poverty. For those triggered by this description and accuse it of being “un-American”, I always start by quoting Smedley Butler (War is a Racket: The Antiwar Classic by America's Most Decorated Soldier):

I spent thirty-three years and four months in active military service as a member of this country's most agile military force, the Marine Corps. I served in all commissioned ranks from Second Lieutenant to Major-General. And during that period, I spent most of my time being a high class muscle-man for Big Business, for Wall Street and for the Bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism.

Thus I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. […] I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers in 1909-12. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for American sugar interests in 1916. […] During those years, I had, as the boys in the back room would say, a swell racket. I was rewarded with honors, medals, promotion. Looking back on it, I feel I might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three city districts. We Marines operated on three continents.

[-Common Sense, Vol. 4, No. 11 (November, 1935), p. 8; bold emphases added]

--This is the “deep state” that Trump opportunistically uses when it suits his target audience; US imperialism has expanded since Smedley Butler’s time. Blitzer’s book traces the border immigration (humanitarian) crisis to refugees fleeing the “Northern Triangle of Central America” (El Salvador/Guatemala/Honduras), since Mexican refugees have been more easily deported.
--US imperialism floods the world with weapons and funds anyone challenging US banks/corporations, creating a violence feedback loop of reactionary dictators/death squads and revolutionary guerilla movements:
-ex. The Jakarta Method: Washington's Anticommunist Crusade and the Mass Murder Program that Shaped Our World: another mainstream journalist (The Washington Post) Vincent Bevin popularizes US funding terror from Indonesia to Brazil.
-ex. The Management of Savagery: How America's National Security State Fueled the Rise of Al Qaeda, ISIS, and Donald Trump
-ex. The Last Colonial Massacre: Latin America in the Cold War: US intelligence supporting mass disappearances in Guatemala
-ex. The Washington Connection & Third World Fascism: by Chomsky/Herman
--Blitzer focuses the most on El Salvador (“Spanish for Vietnam”), where US-funded death squads terrorized guerillas/students/teacher unions/peasants. The poor and rebellious are the usual targets of reactionary terror, but another target (with institutional power) include the assassination of priests/nuns from “Liberation theology” of the Catholic Church (most famously Archbishop Óscar Romero, whose sermons provided mass communication of critiques/casualties). To quote Brazilian Archbishop Hélder Câmara:

When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint.
When I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a communist.

--It’s important to note that such extreme reactionary terror (indeed, fascism) has its vulnerabilities as it's difficult to achieve broad/deep/long-term social consent:
i) Despite some big business support (infamously, the United Fruit Company in esp. Guatemala, inspiring the term “banana republic”, later supporting a coup that radicalized Che Guevara), other foreign investors (particularly long-term development rather than just extraction) were hesitant from the constant terror.
ii) The US can flood the military with weapons, but enlisting soldiers required coercion thus lacked morale. Ex-soldiers often became addicts (also consider how the US empire treats its homeless veterans). Coups throughout the Global South were often committed not by radical revolutionaries but by relatively-conservative junior officers (i.e. colonel coups) who were sick of imperialist meddling corrupting their military generals and just wanted national sovereignty.
--Thus, “democratization” via civilian government may not address the colonial economy and just serve to legitimate military rule. This only started to change with formal truce with guerilla movements, including truth commissions and new civilian police force.
--We can now consider how some refugees would be hesitant formally applying for asylum and handing personal info to the US government which directly collaborates with their home regimes running death squads.

…see comments below for rest of the review….

[Clif Hostetler · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book provides a history of migration from Central America, the ways in which American foreign policy and deportation of gang members has made matters worse, and how American politics has been inflamed by migrants crossing the southern border. This history is made particularly real by profiling the lives various individuals who lived through the history being described.

The variety of people featured includes migrants, activists, and politicians. The following is a partial sampling of some of the individuals portrayed by this book’s narrative. The stories of these and other individuals are woven throughout the book's narrative.

Juan Romagoza Arce was a physician who was kidnapped and tortured by the military in El Salvador in the 1970s because he had treated rebels. He spent twenty-five years in USA involved with public health, but his maimed hands from the torture prevented practice as surgeon. He returned to El Salvador when political situation changed and was involved with Ministry of Health.

Keldy Mabel Gonzáles Brebe de Zúnig from Honduras had seen several of her brothers murdered and narrowly escaped assassination herself. She fled with her two sons in 2017 crossing into New Mexico and claiming asylum based on threats to her life. She ended up being one of the first of 5,600 cases where parents were separated from their children because of the Trump administration’s new policy. Border agents dragged her away from her sons, who cried and tried to clutch her clothing. She was deported and wasn’t reunited with her sons until four years later during the Biden administration. The story of Keldy brought tears to my eyes which normally causes me to assign five stars to my review. In this case it only raised it to four stars because the rest of the book is so long.

Eddie Anzora brought to USA at age three grew up in South Los Angeles where he picked up a criminal record for drug possession. As an adult he straightened out his life and got involved in business setting up his own recording studio. Meanwhile there was a warrant for his deportation issued, and he was eventually caught and deported to El Salvador where he needed to dodge gang members deported from L.A.

Janet Murguía is referenced in this book as the originator of the term “deporter-in-chief” to describe Barack Obama. I mention her here because she grew up in my neighborhood in Kansas City, Kansas. She went on to served in Bill Clinton’s administration and later became president of UnidosUS (formerly National Council of La Raza).

Cecilia Muñoz a former activist who reluctantly joined the Obama administration, and had to defend actions of the government with which she was uncomfortable.

Stephen Miller who became Trump’s most influential adviser on immigration.

One of the most depressing things about this book is that all the suffering experienced by migrants in the past is probably only the beginning. The stated goal of the incoming Trump administration is to enhance the scale of deportations in the future.

[Nathan Shuherk · Rating 4 out of 5]

Feels like a fairly essential read for anyone looking to learn about modern immigration history and politics. With it being such a big book, I think it could’ve used a bit more room to zoom out in its context (certainly including more abolitionist-style theory would’ve helped), but the writing about the intimate nature of our horrid politics was incredibly well told.

[Antigone · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jonathan Blitzer, a staff writer for The New Yorker, has written a dark and deeply-researched account of what compels the South American immigrant to journey to the United States. Through a selection of individuals from Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras (among others), he tracks the pilgrimage north to the Mexican border and the policies met upon arrival; policies that will dictate admission, rejection, or the seemingly endless wait so often demanded as the promised land decides whether or not it will consent to make the promise.

Under the magnifying glass here is the history of U.S. involvement in regime manipulation throughout those southern climes; the missteps made and corruptions overlooked that, while not responsible for the fiefdom nature of the resulting governments, certainly contributed to the conditions now found to be unendurable, if not outright life-threatening. Also examined is the history of America's immigration legislation and enforcement practice, spanning several presidential administrations, and the lackluster evolution of approach over those many political years. Additionally, there are sections that illuminate the experience of living in America without secure status, deportation, and the dangers to be found in Mexico as the wait ensues.

This is a comprehensive exploration of the immigration issue as it is currently faced by South Americans today. What it does not include, through the timing of the publication, are the ICE raids and this latest pro-active federal push to oust the undocumented. Nor does it include the balancing rebuttal of an opposing view. So, as an informative study of the immigrant experience, the book is exceptional. As a thorough examination of the problem? Nowhere near.

[Katie Bruell · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was such an important, all-encompassing, fascinating and heartbreaking book. This whole region is such a mess, in large part thanks to us. There are no good answers as to how to fix anything, but it's clear from this book how much damage has been done.

[Kate Ringer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading this book made me ashamed. First, I was ashamed of my country. I was ashamed of the billions of dollars that have been taken out of our economy and put into the hands of murderers and dictators, money that has been willfully used to promote genocide. When money wasn't enough, those same murderers were given weapons, military training, and amnesty and legal residency in the U.S. I was ashamed of the arrogance of my government in repeatedly treating other countries as experiments, as if their actions wouldn't have consequences lasting decades or maybe even centuries. I was ashamed of the mass deportations that have taken place throughout history and will surely happen again; I had wrongfully assumed that these deportations were rarely parents with children who were citizens or adults who had been raised in the U.S. as children, individuals who had spent decades living and working in the U.S., but I now know that thousands of people with this profile have been deported, sometimes never to see their families again. I was ashamed at how these deportations were conducted with no thought to the well-being of the nations they were sending these individuals to: COVID being spread in Guatemala due to the arrivals of infected deportees, MS-13 members with long criminal records being sent to El Salvador fresh after a civil war, where they could immediately gain control. I was ashamed of all of the rejected amnesty applications, too many people murdered because of a complete disregard of the humanity of immigrants. I was ashamed of the persistent idea in this country that the deterrence of immigration is a worthy political cause.

Later, I was ashamed of myself. I was ashamed of my complacency, of thinking that I could vote Democrat and relax. Over and over again, the Democratic party has supported and implemented conservative immigration policies, the only difference a difference in rhetoric. I was ashamed of my education, which left me ignorant of any history that didn't make the U.S. into the hero of the story.

Yesterday, Elijah and I got to hear Jonathan Blitzer speak at the Texas Book Festival. When the election came up, Blitzer distilled an incredibly important idea. Cities across the southern U.S. were in crisis because of the number of immigrants collecting at the border. When Biden's administration failed to respond to this crisis, leaving the responsibility to the states, Texas Governor Greg Abbott created a solution of his own - bussing immigrants to blue cities further north so that those cities could share the burden. This was a brilliant PR maneuver on Abbott's part, and Biden's response was again to do nothing, despite DHS devising a plan to assist cities. When the city of Denver received 5,000 Venezuelan immigrants via Abbott's busses, and no federal support, there was a huge public outcry and a rise in anti-immigrant sentiment, and the mayor of Denver responded by bussing those same immigrants to Salt Lake City. Now, even leaders on the left were overtly employing the tactics of the right. Blitzer's point was this: decade after decade, the U.S. has neglected to update its immigration policies, which is what has created the current immigration crisis. When Democrats, such as Biden, ignore the problem of the border because it's "bad politics," it opens the door for the stigmatization of immigrants by the right. Arguably, this is what lost Democrats the election - 30% of Harris voters support mass deportation.

[laurel [the suspected bibliophile] · Rating 4 out of 5]

A look at the US involvement in Central American politics, and how the crisis has developed and where it's going from there.

Whew. This was a heavy ass read.

I'm glad that I read Still Life With Bones before I read this, because it prepared me a bit for the genocide in Guatemala, but I had no idea about El Salvatore.

Anywho, a good read if you're interested in the policy, politics and practices of various central American governments and how the US's meddling has always always always made things worse, and how those policies (of genocide, of junta, of authoritarianism) might have made great bosom friends with US capitalists, but were devastatingly destructive for the people of those countries.

Blitzer also talks about the growing climate crisis, and how climate refuges are fleeing their homes for something better—and how Trump's (specifically Stephen Miller and Jeff Sessions) anti-immigrant policies created a human rights' violations of epic proportions, separating parents from their children for years and then losing those kids. And how Biden was blamed for it.

Something to think about and reread with this upcoming US presidency, and as the climate crisis spirals around us.

For further reading, this book pairs very nicely with Still Life with Bones: Genocide, Forensics, and What Remains and The Great Displacement: Climate Change and the Next American Migration.

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I heard part of an interview with the author on NPR and thought the book sounded compelling, so I picked it up. The "old" history of Central America pre-2000s I already knew. But man, it's awful. The more recent stuff really shows how US foreign policy and immigration are intertwined. There were a lot of hard parts to read... I think one of the worst was when the US spread COVID around Central America via deportation flights 🙁

[Penny · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely and completely recommend this book as a must read. I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to read an advanced copy, I have been blown away by this book!

Jonathan Blitzer so brilliantly and with great care shows the hows and whys that led to the US’s present immigration crisis. It’s such an in depth look with epic fact checking of history, great sources & such respect for the stories he presents to us.

Honestly, this book means so much to me as many of the stories mirror what so much of my family and friends have endured in migrating to the US from the Americas. This is so important and like Juan Romagoza says “una cucharita de justicia”, a spoonful of justice, is what I want for us too!

Please read this book! It’s so crucial in understanding where we are now!

#goodreadsgiveaway #goodreadsgiveaways

[Stephen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was let down by this book. It was poorly organized and at times bordered on historical-fiction. I appreciate the lengths the author went to in interview the migrants featured in the book but there are details included that no one could possibly remember which detracts from the overall picture. In the closing chapters, the author does acknowledge this by saying he had to ask the same question to Juan several times because he would give different answers each time. Removing the discrepancies instead of adding them would have helped reduce the length of this book which at times was a slog to get through. Regarding organization, there are historical events scattered throughout but the dates are not always followed in a linear path and do not make clear connections to the migrants stories.

The overall tone of the book seems to push all blame for the migrant crisis on decades of US policy. I agree that US policies have been awful for Central America but there were large gaps in the policy vs reaction. Perhaps my biggest frustration is that the book tries to frame the US as having an unfounded hardline stance on immigration. For example, Eddie is deported from California for being a gang associate and the book frames the US's deportation policy as a bad thing. When Eddie arrives back in his home country, the country is overrun with deported gang members who are extorting and killing the countries citizens. The book frames deporting Eddie who was a gang associate as unjust, however, the other gang members who were also deported were destroying their home country. I understand that migrants need to be humanized but there was a heavy bias that detracted from the overall messaging for me.

[Alex · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best work of non fiction this year

[Michael Anton · Rating 1 out of 5]

Pulls on heartstrings for an open border policy. Just promotes bringing in illegals instead of an effective immigration policy and integration. Typical virtue signaling.

[Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of Garrett M. Graff's 25 favorite books of 2025.

I can't find the words to describe the grief I feel at the way people who seek asylum are treated. The stories Jonathan Blitzer tells are truly harrowing, yet also inspiring. We need to find a way forward.

[Grant Durbahn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book overall. Longish review ahead because it is a work worthy of discussion.

We'll start with the good. I, like most Americans, am not really aware of the origin of the immigration crisis that has been a mainstay in American politics since ~2014. This book does a good job of explaining the origins of the evil governments of Central America in the 70s and 80s (major surprise to no one: American support holding up fascist dictators with death squads) causing the destabilization of the region. Once America started deporting people who fled from these evil governments to America back to their origin en masse, the systems in these countries collapse and we essentially have situation we have today. The sections of the book where the author is quoting government sources in both the United States and Central America while summarizing events is the strongest part of this book.

Now for the bad. This is written by a journalist and you can tell. The number of names and different people introduced in this book is astounding, and Blitzer expects you to remember and recall them all. The point of this is ostensibly to show the impact of the policies of the American government on individuals and to force you to empathize. The downside is that I was getting people confused as the deluge of names made different people indistinguishable from each other. Additionally, empathy is a finite resource. I simply didn't have it in me to care about very single one of the 150+ people that are in this book. The book really didn't need long sections about the activities of the activists working in the United States; I understand the Blitzer wants to recognize the people who helped him write this book but this book really could have been much much shorter. Finally, the characterization of several of the people in the book, both smaller and larger characters, made me say "stop the glazing" at times and was downright cringe in several spots.

Overall, don't want to take away from this achievement as I learned a lot and I truly think this is an essential book if you want to understand immigration at the Southern border today. You could probably put the book down after the Trump section though.

[Nick Cote · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book does three things very well:

1. Tracking the root causes of the humanitarian crisis, including the role that US (both foreign and domestic) policy played in creating the crisis
2. Treating the situation as a humanitarian crisis, not the “border” crisis it is derisively referred to in most news media and most politicians (including many members of the political “left”)
3. Bringing humanity to a broader social situation. The people who this book covers deserve our attention and empathy (and some whom the book profiles are truly remarkable and admirable)

[Andrea · Rating 5 out of 5]

Blitzer does not mess around. This book is intense and violent from the very start.

Deportations to El Salvador are in the news now, but the US's tangled relationship with El Salvador goes back a long, long time. Some reporting was familiar to me, a lot wasn't.

Truly, this is an emotionally hard book to read but Blitzer is a thorough investigator and the people he profiles are real and I'm glad to know their stories.

[Elizabeth☮ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Blitzer knows his subject matter. He shows the throughline of America's stance on various regimes and movements in Central America during the 1960's and beyond to the crisis we are witness to today.

The best part of the book is that he follows individual's stories impacted by military states, dwindling resources, gang violence and death threats. Humanizing the narrative of what some call an "invasion" is paramount.

One such individual is Juan, a man studying to be a doctor, when he is kidnapped and torturned by the military in El Salvador. Juan's hands are maimed to ensure he can never practice medicine - his passion and his calling. Juan ends up in the United States for twenty-five years before he returns home. He describes it as a cassette being put on pause. He had no intention of staying in the United States, but his presence here had purpose and he created a community. He built bridges between newly arrived Saladorans in the uncertain community of Baltimore where there were not just language barriers, but cultural barriers.

I guess my point is that it is important to know why people flee one area to another. The interesting part is how the government played God when determining who was allowed in and who wasn't. Most of those undocumented individuals from Central America were denied sanctuary and sent back to faminine and violence the likes America has not seen.

All in all, this one packed a real punch for me. It's one that will stay with me for a while. There is so much I learned when reading this one.

[MM Suarez · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Politicians have won elections by stoking fears of open borders and irreversible demographic change. Immigration, a White House official recently told me, has become a “democracy issue”: if liberal- democratic governments across the world fail to address the situation, it will continue to fuel the rise of populist authoritarianism."

I'll say this first, this book is dense, painful, long and also straight up the best I have read about Central America and the immigration crisis, told through the lives of the migrants forced to make unimaginable choices. It is also a meticulously researched history lesson that shows that for decades this "no win issue" has been ignored and passed on from administration to administration with barely an attempt at real solutions. It also shines a light on US actions and interference that have had a devastating, destabilizing effect on the entire region helping to get us to the current humanitarian crisis. I recommend this book to anyone who wants a deeper understanding of how we got to where we are today and why.

"Woe to our society if to be human becomes a heroic act." Elie Wiesel

[Dax · Rating 2 out of 5]

Two stars feels harsh, but much of this book was dry and a slog to get through. Blitzer does a very good job of humanizing the immigration crisis, but his writing felt bland. It is a helpful history of US immigration policy since the Carter administration, although it already feels stale since this book only briefly covers Biden's policies in a single short chapter. All in all, it's okay. Sometimes pretty good.

[Sarah McCarthy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ok this should be required reading for anyone working/commenting on immigration policy in the U.S. so well sourced and thorough and provided many different accounts. the author also did a great job of bringing the humanity of all his subjects to the forefront while teaching about the U.S. involvement in the northern triangle and the complexity of what we see today. Well worth the read

[Miguel · Rating 4 out of 5]

The issues of the infamous ‘Southern Border’ come to life through intimate portrayals of the lives of several who have been through the trials and tribulations both at their point of origin in Central America and their various journeys to the US. In all honesty I would rather have read more detail about the higher level political reasons in the US and the other American countries that have contributed to this hot button issue but the personal side of course lends itself to having a better affinity for those who are very personally affected by the vagaries of the US immigration system, such as it is.

[Chris Leuchtenburg · Rating 2 out of 5]

Stories, stories, stories. Many of the stories are moving but they go on forever and the analysis is thin. I gave up after reading about 100 pages. Perhaps half of which was the story of a tortured El Salvadoran doctor. A gruesome story for sure, but it didn't help me to understand the situation in Central America any better.

[Thomas Ray · Rating 5 out of 5]

Everyone Who Is Gone Is Here: The United States, Central America, and the Making of a Crisis, Jonathan Blitzer, 2024, 523 pages, Dewey 305.90691209728 B619e, ISBN 9781984880802

An outstanding book, based on hundreds of interviews in English and Spanish, 2016 through 2023. Puts a human face on the crisis, telling the stories of many individuals. pp. 465, 471.

VIOLENCE AND CORRUPTION

The U.S. is propping up a war machine in El Salvador. Honduras is a U.S. military installation. The U.S. propped up a dictator in Nicaragua. The U.S. overthrew Guatemala's government at the behest of a U.S. corporation. The Guatemalan military murdered nearly all labor leaders and moderate politicians. A U.S. State Department official praised the Guatemalan military for its "successful use of terror" in disappearing "real and alleged communists." pp. 79-82. El Salvador is Spanish for Vietnam. All this as of 1980. p. 43. U.S. authorities arrest refugees and return them to be murdered by the El Salvadoran army, waiting for them at the airport. p. 70.

The business elite and army rule El Salvador, keeping people poor and murdering protesters, including Archbishop Óscar Romero, nuns, and anyone else opposed to brutal rule by wealth. pp. 9-36. Seventy-five people from 25 families controlled 90% of El Salvador's wealth, by 1964. p. 14. The U.S. trains and arms El Salvador's death squads, army, National Guard, National Police, and Treasury Police. p. 15, 23-24, 31, 62. 300,000 Salvadorans lived in Los Angeles by 1980, having fled the civil war. Each one had narrowly escaped murder, unlike many of their friends, relatives, and spouses. p. 121. 75,000 civilians were dead, and almost a quarter of El Salvador's surviving population was living in the U.S., by 1991. pp. 191-192. The U.S. government refused to recognize their legitimate claims to asylum. p. 120. Only 14 Guatemalans were granted asylum, of nearly 100,000 who arrived in the U.S., 1983-1986. p. 200. In Guatemala, 200,000 civilians were killed; there were 669 massacres; 83% of the victims were Maya; 93% of the crimes were committed by members of the military. See /Guatemala: Never Again/ by the Archdiocese of Guatemala. p. 247. The man who murdered Archbishop Óscar Romero emigrated to Modesto, California, where he sold used cars. p. 251.

Millions of Central Americans are fleeing violence and corruption. p. 394.

Migrants have to pay bribes to corrupt police officers. p. 399. Criminal cartels /and/ police brutalize Central American migrants. p. 409.

BLOODY COFFEE

Much of El Salvador's farmland was still community-owned in the late 1870s; locals subsisted on it. With the rise of global coffee prices and need for exploitable labor, the government seized the land and auctioned it to plantation owners, who treated the hundreds of thousands of now-landless peasants as slaves, with a fiercely repressive national guard. A 1932 revolt of a few days brought weeks of slaughter: 30,000 were massacred, 2% of the population. p. 13-14.

LEFTIST GUERRILLAS

The government removed the elected reformers in 1968 and 1972. This taught people that only violence could change the government. p. 15-17.

WEATHER AND CLIMATE CHANGE

Guatemala's western highlands no longer have reliable rainfall. Drought and storms destroy crops. pp. 376-380.

Hurricane Mitch killed 11,000 Hondurans; 20% of Hondurans lost their homes; 70% of the country's crops were destroyed, in October 1998. p. 281.

"People say this caravan is about politics? Well, sure, if by politics you mean hunger." p. 392.

22% of the Salvadoran economy is remittances sent by relatives living in the U.S. p. 418.

TRAPPED

The 1996 U.S. immigration law trapped immigrants in the U.S.: An unauthorized migrant couldn't get on a path to legal status through marriage or sponsorship by a family member. If she had been in the U.S. without documentation for six months, she'd have to leave the U.S. for 3 full years before reapplying for entry; if she'd been here a year, she'd have to leave for 10 years. Many immigrants used to travel back and forth across the border, but now they were stuck. The unauthorized population increased from 5 million to 12 million as a result of the law. p. 229.

AMERICAN FEARS

American fear of the spread of leftism morphed into fear of the spread of people, in the decades since 1980. p. 5.

U.S. officials arrested one million migrants at the southern border in 2019. p. 3. Including 270,000 Guatemalans, 261,000 Hondurans, and 92,000 Salvadorans. p. 416. Twenty-four months was the average amount of time to resolve an asylum claim, almost all denied. p. 4. Obama's immigration enforcement budget was $18 billion: more than the funding for all other federal law enforcement agencies combined. p. 290.

VICIOUS

Trump separated more than 5,600 children from their parents, with no attempt to track where they each were sent. p. 442.




"Don't do the same thing twice. They'll know you're coming." --Cesar Chavez. p. 56.

"In our brothers and sisters we encounter God. It is toward them that our true pilgrimage should move." --Sergio Méndez de Arceo, bishop of Cuernavaca. p. 89.



ERRATA

p. 245: "Guatemala was as close as it had ever been to peace" in 1993, should specify, "since the CIA overthrew the Árbenz government in 1954."

p. 239: "Indigenous dialects" should be "indigenous languages."

p. 353: Tapachula, Mexico is /west/ of the Guatemalan border, not north.

p. 392: Arriaga, Mexico is at the /western/ tip of Chiapas, not northern.

[Danny Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a big, ambitious book that is very well researched and, most of the time, succeeds at its goal. It covers a lot of ground, multiple decades and locations, switching between the US and the northern triangle countries and gives us both narrative with engrossing characters, particularly Juan, but also lots of history and policy. There’s too many take aways to list and everyone already knows the immigration system is broken, but Jonathan Blitzer has the receipts.

[Diana · Rating 4 out of 5]

A friend recommended this book after I read Solito. It is a very good book but it was intense and at times difficult to read. It is impossible to understand why people risk everything to reach the US from Central America without understanding the countries’ histories, our role in those histories, and the dire circumstances of those countries today. This is an important, well-written book and I’m glad I read it.

[Xavier Patiño · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story of immigration into the United States is a tragic one. It’s full of heartbreak and pain. The governments of the US and Central America are responsible – the coups, political meddling, greed – bloody are the hands of those involved.

Emotional hammers are dropped in every chapter, where we hear the terrible stories of those who lived through torture and separation from their families. Many had to flee their country for fear of their lives from gang violence or government-sanctioned killing squads. The trek to the US border is treacherous, with dangers of robbery, rape and murder. Sometimes those the immigrants paid to guide them through the arid deserts of Mexico would abscond with their money, leaving the poor travelers on their own.

If they managed to miraculously make it to the border, then those with children had to deal with the trauma of being separated, the kids being sent to a different detention center, sometimes many miles away. Errors in the management would cause children to be labeled as “unaccompanied”, having them placed with family members that were already living in the US (if they are lucky) or with child services.

As a parent, I found these stories the hardest to listen to. I cannot imagine the fear and anger of having my children taken from me. The authorities would have to lock me up because I would be raising hell.

At the end I was left with more questions than answers. Blitzer doesn’t try to offer any solutions either. Immigration is a complex issue, and I have no idea where one would even try to begin to resolve it. I find the ideas of national borders as silly. We should be trying to do our best to help those in need, offer some kind of assistance. We have to do better.

[Jeff Colston · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very thought-provoking. This definitely built more empathy for the whole immigration situation. It is very messy and all a lot more interconnected than I realized previously. I do not envy the decision-makers!

I was also impressed with how engaged the local church was. In every part of this story you could find Christians stepping up to meet needs! At one point the author compared the current immigration crisis to the call to Christians to help during the Underground Railroad and the Holocaust, and I found that convicting. I don’t know if I had ever truly made that connection.

I also thought this was a pretty interesting quote from Obama: “You know what? I don’t really sleep at night, but let me tell you why. It’s not just that I worry about these kids from El Salvador. I also worry about kids in Sudan, and in Yemen, and in other parts of the world. And here’s my problem: we live in a world with nation states. I have borders. You may believe that it’s inherently unfair that a child born in El Salvador has a completely different set of opportunities available and a completely different set of dangers than a child born in the US. And that’s because it is IS unfair. I can’t fix that for you.”

[Lexie Jamieson · Rating 5 out of 5]

everyone needs to read this book. very in depth, decades-long, transnational telling of how the current immigration crisis was created by the US meddling in latin america governments in the 20th century. i studied lots of the political violence and government corruption aspect of guatemala, nicaragua, and el salvador isolated in college, but blitzer does a really fantastic job of weaving all the facts together to create a transnational understanding of what was happening across the whole region, as well as in the US.

blitzer writes about the creation of CBP and ICE, about each presidents’ immigration policies, the activists who fought against them, and the humanitarians who provided food, shelter, and resources to some of our nation’s most vulnerable. he highlights the stories of four individuals who were victims of state-sanctioned violence and torture in central america, of the policy separating families and children, and of the US cruel detention system. the way he humanizes them and gives power to their stories is emotional and gripping. As Juan Romagoza said, hopefully this book can serve as “una cucharita de justicia”.

reading this book now as ICE currently terrorizes our neighborhoods and rips people off the streets, intimidates children as they walk to school and continues separating children and families is heartbreaking and infuriating. if you are feeling rage by what’s happening right now, inform yourself of the history and the facts and read this book.