The Dangerous Divide: Peril and Promise on the US-Mexico Border

by Peter Eichstaedt

Since the attacks of 9/11, the United States has steadily ramped up security along the US-Mexico border, transforming America's legendary Southwest into a frontier of fear. Veteran journalist Peter Eichstaedt roams this fabled region from Tucson, Arizona, to El Paso, Texas, bringing readers face-to-face with the victims, power players, and personalities that have riveted US attention on border security. By exploring the illicit paths of guns, money, drugs, and people as they flow back and forth across the US-Mexico border, Eichstaedt sheds light on the policies that contribute significantly to violence, abuse, and death—what most see as only Mexico's problems.

He shares the eye-opening stories of migrants, desperate for work or to be reunited with family, who risk arrest and deportation by attempting to cross multiple times; accompanies the border patrol on a nighttime ride as immigrants are caught, then follows them through the system as they are jailed and deported; talks to humanitarians who are technically breaking the law by transporting lost, dehydrated migrants; and spends time with a Mexican coffee-growing cooperative whose fair-pay ethos eliminates the need for its growers to look to the US for a decent wage.

Presenting humane alternatives to fear and steel fences and offering solutions to the immigration crisis, The Dangerous Divide explores America's tortured relations with Mexico, ultimately focusing on hopeful measures and providing a rational and workable way out of the border and immigration problem.

Genres: Immigration, Nonfiction

256 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2014

About the author

Peter Eichstaedt is an award-winning author who has worked in locations worldwide, including the Balkans, eastern Europe, Afghanistan, and Eastern and Central Africa. He is the author of ten books of fiction and nonfiction, including his most recent, a mystery thriller titled Enemy of the People. In it, a journalist exposes a conspiracy behind the kidnapping of the US president, who agrees to meet with his political adversaries in a swank resort in northern New Mexico.

Reviews

[Vinh Tran · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book, lots of great stories.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. Made you feel like you had some firsthand experience listening to perspectives from all sides. Agreed with some of his conclusions (expand worker visas), disagreed with others (legalizing drugs).

[Kathryn Reed · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good read: https://kathrynreed.com/a-great-read/...

[Peter Eichstaedt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Timely, considering the president's drive to build a 2,000 mile wall from the Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific. An excellent, clear-eyed view of the reality along the US-Mexico border and how to solve the migrant influx.

[Roxanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a Goodreads win review. I found this book to be interesting because I lived 3 hours from the Mexico border and a lot of problems come from the part of the people who come over that are in gangs, and violence. This is a very timely book for the state we are in now in 2017.

[Nancy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I won this in a Goodreads giveaway.
This is well written and very interesting. If more people educated themselves on this maybe they would realize the waste of time and money building a useless wall.