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No Wall They Can Build
Why do people cross the border without documents? How do they make the journey? Whose interests does the border serve–and what has it done to North America?
Every year, thousands of people risk their loves to cross the desert between Mexico and the United States. Drawing on nearly a decade of solidarity work along the border, this book uncovers the true goals and costs of US border policy–and what to do about it.
Every year, thousands of people risk their loves to cross the desert between Mexico and the United States. Drawing on nearly a decade of solidarity work along the border, this book uncovers the true goals and costs of US border policy–and what to do about it.
208 pages, Unknown Binding
Published January 1, 2017
16 people are currently reading
342 people want to read
About the author
CrimethInc.
28 books267 followersFrom the official website:
Crimethought is not any ideology or value system or lifestyle, but rather a way of challenging all ideologies and value systems and lifestyles—and, for the advanced agent, a way of making all ideologies, value systems, and lifestyles challenging.
Crimethought is not any ideology or value system or lifestyle, but rather a way of challenging all ideologies and value systems and lifestyles—and, for the advanced agent, a way of making all ideologies, value systems, and lifestyles challenging.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 35 reviews
October 14, 2017
An excellent introduction to the history and politics of the US-Mexico border. Tear-jerking at times, drawing from the histories of many other struggles for insights on how to proceed, and just well written and easy read. Very enjoyable.
May 18, 2020
Good, clear information paired with stories from the border. Not too dense buy packed with content that helps to lay out the complexities of the Southern US border. A good introduction to this issue that feels more authentic than the surface-level and/or biased info in mainstream media. I mean, of course this is biased too, but it's a bias from personal experience and based on the human needs of others.
May 24, 2020
The border is not just a wall. It's not just a line on a map. It's not any particular physical location. It's a power structure, a system of control. The border is everywhere that people live in fear of deportation, everywhere migrants are denied the rights according to citizens, everywhere human beings are segregated into included and excluded.
The border does not divide one world from another. There is only one world, and the border is tearing it apart.
This book is an essentially perfect complement to another, essential, work I just finished – Justin Akers Chacón and Mike Davis’s No One Is Illegal: Fighting Racism and State Violence on the U.S.-Mexico Border. That book, which I cannot recommend strongly enough, is a much more systematic and sweeping look at the history of our southern border vis a vis our immigration and labor policies – this book, written anonymously as part of the anarchist Crimethinc Inc. collective, does some of the same but with an immediate human context.
This book is written by an anonymous solidarity worker formerly of the desert aid group No More Deaths. The book is written in a series of short sections laying out some of the history of our border policy, the way it functions in service of U.S. capitalism at the expense of workers north and south, and the way our immigration policies are designed not to stop illegal migration – but to channel it all into the most dangerous, secluded pathways regardless of the human cost so as to create a segregated class of hyper-exploited workers that can be used to drive down everyone’s wages while keeping the underclass in a state of constant, permanent fear. A crucial theme in both works is the way the U.S. neoliberal trade policy and interventionism in Latin America is the primary driver of the migration the right wing then howls about for their own xenophobic, anti-labor fascistic purposes.
The interesting part here, and why I think it serves as such a useful companion to No One is Illegal, is that it also intersperses at the ends of these individual chapters the author’s personal experience as a solidarity worker in the desert and the horrible human cost he has witnessed and heard directly from the mouths of the people most affected. Some of the stories he tells are heartbreaking. Furthermore, his descriptions of his experience of the brutality, corruption, directly antagonist work of the Border Patrol and ICE really emphasize the degree to which they truly are our own, homegrown American gestapo jackbooted feet marching solely in service to the dictates of big capital and trampling all the desperate victims from Central and South America underfoot.
Reviewing the book, I do have to keep in mind how coupled it is with me with No One is Illegal. That work was so massively comprehensive that the more policy focused parts of this work do suffer, but only in comparison. There is more than enough data and detail and citation in this book to equip you with a nuanced understanding of the sheer futility and horror of the functional nature of our southern border. I also have some disagreements with the author in his final analysis of the way forward – what a revolutionary change in our policy might look like and how to get there. But, really, I assure you – these are quibbles. These two works are simply essential.
I’ve been very serious about studying migration since I wrote a piece in my undergraduate fiction course, “La Bestia,” about the horrors faced by Latin American immigrants riding on top of huge cargo trains for sometimes hundreds of kilometers north. Years later, I find myself living here now in the midst of a naked American fascism, with a Mexican-American son. We must educate ourselves about the way that capital has victimized the human beings our borders, and regime changes, and imperial neoliberalism have crossed. The only way to tear down the wall is to first join our hands together over the scar to erase it altogether.
The border divides the whole world into gated communities and prisons, one within the other in concentric circles of privilege and control. At one end of the continuum, there are billionaires who can fly anywhere in private jets; at the other end, inmates in solitary confinement. As long as there is a border between you and those less fortunate than you, you can be sure there will be a border above you, too, keeping you from the things you need.
And who will tear down that second border with you, if not the people separated from you by the first.
The border does not divide one world from another. There is only one world, and the border is tearing it apart.
This book is an essentially perfect complement to another, essential, work I just finished – Justin Akers Chacón and Mike Davis’s No One Is Illegal: Fighting Racism and State Violence on the U.S.-Mexico Border. That book, which I cannot recommend strongly enough, is a much more systematic and sweeping look at the history of our southern border vis a vis our immigration and labor policies – this book, written anonymously as part of the anarchist Crimethinc Inc. collective, does some of the same but with an immediate human context.
This book is written by an anonymous solidarity worker formerly of the desert aid group No More Deaths. The book is written in a series of short sections laying out some of the history of our border policy, the way it functions in service of U.S. capitalism at the expense of workers north and south, and the way our immigration policies are designed not to stop illegal migration – but to channel it all into the most dangerous, secluded pathways regardless of the human cost so as to create a segregated class of hyper-exploited workers that can be used to drive down everyone’s wages while keeping the underclass in a state of constant, permanent fear. A crucial theme in both works is the way the U.S. neoliberal trade policy and interventionism in Latin America is the primary driver of the migration the right wing then howls about for their own xenophobic, anti-labor fascistic purposes.
The interesting part here, and why I think it serves as such a useful companion to No One is Illegal, is that it also intersperses at the ends of these individual chapters the author’s personal experience as a solidarity worker in the desert and the horrible human cost he has witnessed and heard directly from the mouths of the people most affected. Some of the stories he tells are heartbreaking. Furthermore, his descriptions of his experience of the brutality, corruption, directly antagonist work of the Border Patrol and ICE really emphasize the degree to which they truly are our own, homegrown American gestapo jackbooted feet marching solely in service to the dictates of big capital and trampling all the desperate victims from Central and South America underfoot.
Reviewing the book, I do have to keep in mind how coupled it is with me with No One is Illegal. That work was so massively comprehensive that the more policy focused parts of this work do suffer, but only in comparison. There is more than enough data and detail and citation in this book to equip you with a nuanced understanding of the sheer futility and horror of the functional nature of our southern border. I also have some disagreements with the author in his final analysis of the way forward – what a revolutionary change in our policy might look like and how to get there. But, really, I assure you – these are quibbles. These two works are simply essential.
I’ve been very serious about studying migration since I wrote a piece in my undergraduate fiction course, “La Bestia,” about the horrors faced by Latin American immigrants riding on top of huge cargo trains for sometimes hundreds of kilometers north. Years later, I find myself living here now in the midst of a naked American fascism, with a Mexican-American son. We must educate ourselves about the way that capital has victimized the human beings our borders, and regime changes, and imperial neoliberalism have crossed. The only way to tear down the wall is to first join our hands together over the scar to erase it altogether.
The border divides the whole world into gated communities and prisons, one within the other in concentric circles of privilege and control. At one end of the continuum, there are billionaires who can fly anywhere in private jets; at the other end, inmates in solitary confinement. As long as there is a border between you and those less fortunate than you, you can be sure there will be a border above you, too, keeping you from the things you need.
And who will tear down that second border with you, if not the people separated from you by the first.
August 10, 2020
Some quotes that I want to remember:
"The border is not just a wall. It's not just a line on a map. It's not any particular physical location. It's a power structure, a system of control. The border is everywhere that people live in fear of deportation, everywhere migrants are denied the rights according to citizens, everywhere human beings are segregated into included and excluded.
The border does not divide one world from another. There is only one world, and the border is tearing it apart."
"I offer these words as ammunition to anyone who cares to intervene when other people are treated like pieces of meat."
"The suffering that takes place every day on the border is not an accident. It is not a mistake and it is not the result of a misunderstanding. It is the predictable and intentional result of policies implemented at every level of the government on both sides of the border. These policies have rational objectives and directly benefit identifiable sectors of the population in both countries. It may be evil, but it's not stupid."
"This is where the privilege politics that are so prevalent in the American activist milieu fall fatally short. People who are motivated by guilt and shame rather than by love and rage will eventually disengage; people who are not fighting for their own lives will eventually give up. Always."
"The border divides the whole world into gated communities and prisons, one within the other in concentric circles of privilege and control. At one end of the continuum, there are billionaires who can fly anywhere in private jets; at the other end, inmates in solitary confinement. As long as there is a border between you and those less fortunate than you, you can be sure there will be a border above you, too, keeping you from the things you need.
And who will tear down that second border with you, if not the people separated from you by the first."
"The border is not just a wall. It's not just a line on a map. It's not any particular physical location. It's a power structure, a system of control. The border is everywhere that people live in fear of deportation, everywhere migrants are denied the rights according to citizens, everywhere human beings are segregated into included and excluded.
The border does not divide one world from another. There is only one world, and the border is tearing it apart."
"I offer these words as ammunition to anyone who cares to intervene when other people are treated like pieces of meat."
"The suffering that takes place every day on the border is not an accident. It is not a mistake and it is not the result of a misunderstanding. It is the predictable and intentional result of policies implemented at every level of the government on both sides of the border. These policies have rational objectives and directly benefit identifiable sectors of the population in both countries. It may be evil, but it's not stupid."
"This is where the privilege politics that are so prevalent in the American activist milieu fall fatally short. People who are motivated by guilt and shame rather than by love and rage will eventually disengage; people who are not fighting for their own lives will eventually give up. Always."
"The border divides the whole world into gated communities and prisons, one within the other in concentric circles of privilege and control. At one end of the continuum, there are billionaires who can fly anywhere in private jets; at the other end, inmates in solitary confinement. As long as there is a border between you and those less fortunate than you, you can be sure there will be a border above you, too, keeping you from the things you need.
And who will tear down that second border with you, if not the people separated from you by the first."
June 14, 2019
This book packs in an impressive amount of information for only a couple hundred pages. Written by a immigrant solidarity worker with No More Deaths, the author uses their direct interactions with migrants, border patrol, and others to offer a gripping account of why so many risk their lives to cross the border between Mexico and U.S. The author details the different types of struggles faced by people attempting to make the journey from Mexico as well as Central America. Any summary I give won’t due this book justice. This is not a book of fluff or in-group signaling. CrimethInc has done an important job publishing this, and I would recommend it to anyone even briefly interested in the plight of those at border.
March 26, 2018
Written by a direct aid worker in the border zone. This book destroys the myth that the border and it's attendant military is meant to stop people from crossing.
November 9, 2023
D’un auteur anonyme, travailleur solidaire pour un organisme aidant les migrants à la frontière. Le livre se veut une analyse contextuelle du flux migratoire entre le Mexique, l’Amérique centrale et les États-Unis. Plusieurs récit d’expérience passé et de prise de position sur la migration à travers une lunette libertaire. Bel effort pour l’écriture inclusive. Bon livre mais un peu redondant. J’aurais aimer mieux une brochure condensé de type propagande comme Crimethinc sait si bien le faire.
February 4, 2025
As someone who is not knowledgeable at all on the topic, this book was FANTASTIC. My biggest gripe in the beginning, that the informative text portions were too informal and showed too much personality of the author, became the book’s biggest boon in the end. Just a wonderful introduction to the “issue” of immigration in Central and Northern America that transforms somewhere along the way into musings about how immigration is intrinsically tied to revolution and transformation.
March 9, 2025
anonymously written by no more deaths worker/organizer. slightly outdated. good overview of harrowing journey to the US many Central Americans (and Mexicans to a less degree) take para la Norte and the many dangers on the border. many good discussion of social/economic conditions of Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras. great analysis of Mexican and centam black markets and how they’re intertwined with the US.
August 9, 2019
I first encountered Crimethinc in a book called “The Utopia of Rules”, where David Graeber suggests his reader to:
“Consider the following statement from the Crimethinc collective, probably the most inspiring young anarchist propagandists operating in the Situationist tradition today:
‘We must make our freedom by cutting holes in the fabric of this reality, by forging new realities which will, in turn, fashion us. Putting yourself in new situations constantly is the only way to ensure that you make your decisions unencumbered by the inertia of habit, custom, law, or prejudice—and it is up to you to create these situations. Freedom only exists in the moment of revolution. And those moments are not as rare as you think. Change, revolutionary change, is going on constantly and everywhere—and everyone plays a part in it, consciously or not.’
What is this but an elegant statement of the logic of direct action: the defiant insistence on acting as if one is already free?”
I suspect this book, however, is maybe a little different than the colourful manifestos and pamphlets Crimethinc are maybe more well known for putting out. This was written by a former desert aid worker assisting migrants (mostly with food and water) in the desert trying to cross the US border — often ‘illegally’. The writer of the book worked with an organization called ‘No More Deaths’, which was started as a collaborative effort by Jewish, Presbyterian and Catholic communities who wanted to do something about the large droves of people dying in the desert. ‘No More Deaths’ has since been in the news earlier this year after one of their workers (Scott Warner) was arrested for ‘illegally harbouring migrants’ (that is, providing food and water — and allegedly shelter — to them in the desert).
I became familiar with the Sanctuary movement by way of Toronto’s Romero House and Mary Jo Leddy. Even in Toronto, churches have helped to illegally harbour migrants who face deportation back to extremely dangerous circumstances back in their home countries. I recently met a documentary filmmaker (Arturo Perez Torres) who is from Mexico, and made a documentary (Wetback: The Undocumented Documentary) on the migration occurring across the Mexico-US border. He mentioned that most of the safe houses that exist along the migratory path are backed by the Catholic church — mostly because it's an institution that has enough cultural power that police will leave the people in them alone. It's really strange, but true.
As this is one of the rare occasions today that faith communities openly engage in illegal activity, in direct defiance of the state, this is one of the more obvious sites of cooperation between communities of faith and anarchist collectives. For anarchists, I think border and migration issues are an obvious pole of radical work because anarchists are for the abolition of borders and the state powers that enforce them.
Anyways, I listened to the audiobook version of this book that was produced by the Crimethinc Ex-Worker’s Collective podcast, and I thought it was very well put together. I enjoyed the music a lot, and the readers were great. The book provided an excellent sketch of the handful of Central American countries from which most of the migration is stemming from, and the different contemporary US interventions that have only exacerbated the long legacy of Spanish colonialism in the area. Part of these interventions involve the symbiotic relationship crime and drug cartels share with various state actors — often themselves taking on the role of the state in many areas.
I really appreciated the analysis of capital and labour in this book. I think there was a strong case that the many people dying in the desert was actually a very deliberate policy approach taken by the US Government. Where Central Americans risk their life savings and their lives trying to cross over the border, with nothing left for them anywhere else, they make the ideal subservient workers that American capital could not function without. It is a chilling deployment of sunk cost psychology. This pool of cheap and dependable labour also drives down wages more broadly. Obviously this is not the fault of people fleeing violence seeking a better life in the US. It is and has always been the fault of the capital-owning class.
The personal stories of different people the desert aid worker encountered during their time working — that was definitely one of the best things about this book. It’s easy to lose yourself in sweeping historical narrative, statistics, and anarchist talking points. But to realize that such rich and complex human lives are at stake, to realize that so many people trying to cross the border illegally today have actually lived in the US for decades, have a spouse and children in the US, and they are simply trying to get back to them. To hear so many of these stories is heartbreaking, but there are also these remarkable stories of perseverance and energy that enlivens me with hope.
Finally, there was an interesting section on revolution that I would like to return to soon and dig through more thoroughly. Though there were some things in it that I disagree with (it did sometimes come across as a little sectarian against communists). One interesting sentence I noticed in it was:
“Frederick Douglass made a run for it [revolution], William Lloyd Garrison argued for it, Harriet Tubman lived for it, and John Brown died for it, though they all called it God.”
I am fascinated by certain sorts of millenarian impulses, but of course they can be extremely dangerous at times. Hobsbawm’s work on ‘primitive rebels’, the work of Karen E. Fields on Central African millenarian movements, Juliet Barker’s “1381”, Christopher Hill’s “The World Turned Upside Down”, etc. I think the revolutionary impulse is an old and ancient one, and apocalyptic political movements in the past (not excluding that of Jesus) had visions of the world undergoing radical transformation. As the migration issue will only grow in the coming decades of global warming, I think some very radical transformations need to occur if we want to avoid large-scale culling of populations of poor and vulnerable people trying to find their way to a better life. We can already see these deaths dotting the American deserts, only increasing as time goes on. As the book’s early chapter reminds its readers, how many of these migrants have indigenous ancestors who lived off the land millennia before any Europeans arrived. And now to be turned away by the world’s richest and most powerful colonial project, to be told they cannot come to the land that they have lived on for thousands of years. How absurd.
“Consider the following statement from the Crimethinc collective, probably the most inspiring young anarchist propagandists operating in the Situationist tradition today:
‘We must make our freedom by cutting holes in the fabric of this reality, by forging new realities which will, in turn, fashion us. Putting yourself in new situations constantly is the only way to ensure that you make your decisions unencumbered by the inertia of habit, custom, law, or prejudice—and it is up to you to create these situations. Freedom only exists in the moment of revolution. And those moments are not as rare as you think. Change, revolutionary change, is going on constantly and everywhere—and everyone plays a part in it, consciously or not.’
What is this but an elegant statement of the logic of direct action: the defiant insistence on acting as if one is already free?”
I suspect this book, however, is maybe a little different than the colourful manifestos and pamphlets Crimethinc are maybe more well known for putting out. This was written by a former desert aid worker assisting migrants (mostly with food and water) in the desert trying to cross the US border — often ‘illegally’. The writer of the book worked with an organization called ‘No More Deaths’, which was started as a collaborative effort by Jewish, Presbyterian and Catholic communities who wanted to do something about the large droves of people dying in the desert. ‘No More Deaths’ has since been in the news earlier this year after one of their workers (Scott Warner) was arrested for ‘illegally harbouring migrants’ (that is, providing food and water — and allegedly shelter — to them in the desert).
I became familiar with the Sanctuary movement by way of Toronto’s Romero House and Mary Jo Leddy. Even in Toronto, churches have helped to illegally harbour migrants who face deportation back to extremely dangerous circumstances back in their home countries. I recently met a documentary filmmaker (Arturo Perez Torres) who is from Mexico, and made a documentary (Wetback: The Undocumented Documentary) on the migration occurring across the Mexico-US border. He mentioned that most of the safe houses that exist along the migratory path are backed by the Catholic church — mostly because it's an institution that has enough cultural power that police will leave the people in them alone. It's really strange, but true.
As this is one of the rare occasions today that faith communities openly engage in illegal activity, in direct defiance of the state, this is one of the more obvious sites of cooperation between communities of faith and anarchist collectives. For anarchists, I think border and migration issues are an obvious pole of radical work because anarchists are for the abolition of borders and the state powers that enforce them.
Anyways, I listened to the audiobook version of this book that was produced by the Crimethinc Ex-Worker’s Collective podcast, and I thought it was very well put together. I enjoyed the music a lot, and the readers were great. The book provided an excellent sketch of the handful of Central American countries from which most of the migration is stemming from, and the different contemporary US interventions that have only exacerbated the long legacy of Spanish colonialism in the area. Part of these interventions involve the symbiotic relationship crime and drug cartels share with various state actors — often themselves taking on the role of the state in many areas.
I really appreciated the analysis of capital and labour in this book. I think there was a strong case that the many people dying in the desert was actually a very deliberate policy approach taken by the US Government. Where Central Americans risk their life savings and their lives trying to cross over the border, with nothing left for them anywhere else, they make the ideal subservient workers that American capital could not function without. It is a chilling deployment of sunk cost psychology. This pool of cheap and dependable labour also drives down wages more broadly. Obviously this is not the fault of people fleeing violence seeking a better life in the US. It is and has always been the fault of the capital-owning class.
The personal stories of different people the desert aid worker encountered during their time working — that was definitely one of the best things about this book. It’s easy to lose yourself in sweeping historical narrative, statistics, and anarchist talking points. But to realize that such rich and complex human lives are at stake, to realize that so many people trying to cross the border illegally today have actually lived in the US for decades, have a spouse and children in the US, and they are simply trying to get back to them. To hear so many of these stories is heartbreaking, but there are also these remarkable stories of perseverance and energy that enlivens me with hope.
Finally, there was an interesting section on revolution that I would like to return to soon and dig through more thoroughly. Though there were some things in it that I disagree with (it did sometimes come across as a little sectarian against communists). One interesting sentence I noticed in it was:
“Frederick Douglass made a run for it [revolution], William Lloyd Garrison argued for it, Harriet Tubman lived for it, and John Brown died for it, though they all called it God.”
I am fascinated by certain sorts of millenarian impulses, but of course they can be extremely dangerous at times. Hobsbawm’s work on ‘primitive rebels’, the work of Karen E. Fields on Central African millenarian movements, Juliet Barker’s “1381”, Christopher Hill’s “The World Turned Upside Down”, etc. I think the revolutionary impulse is an old and ancient one, and apocalyptic political movements in the past (not excluding that of Jesus) had visions of the world undergoing radical transformation. As the migration issue will only grow in the coming decades of global warming, I think some very radical transformations need to occur if we want to avoid large-scale culling of populations of poor and vulnerable people trying to find their way to a better life. We can already see these deaths dotting the American deserts, only increasing as time goes on. As the book’s early chapter reminds its readers, how many of these migrants have indigenous ancestors who lived off the land millennia before any Europeans arrived. And now to be turned away by the world’s richest and most powerful colonial project, to be told they cannot come to the land that they have lived on for thousands of years. How absurd.
February 4, 2019
This is a gritty book grounded in the real life experiences of a desert solidarity worker. The analysis and insight of the politics and history of the border are astute without being academic or lost in identity politics. This is a hard-hitting book talking about who really profits from the border and what its goals are. Never is the analysis simple or one-sided; the cartels get blame alongside the U.S. government. And never is it divorced from actual people who have suffered and died along the border. Particularly helpful were the sections distinguishing the differing conditions at different places along the border.
November 25, 2020
This is probably the single best book about the interlocking systems of control and exploitation known as the border that I could imagine, and crimethinc did the world an unfathomable solid by pulling this title together and putting it out just as Donald Trump started yammering on about building the wall. However, it must be stressed that this book is still just as relevant under a Biden administration or any administration (a lot of it deals with the experience under the Obama Administration). Very accessible and profoundly subversive. You should buy 5 or 10 copies of this and give them to all your friends. There's a discount if you buy them in bulk. I'm not kidding you guys.
January 4, 2018
Best book I am reading about migration. Why, how and who is crossing the border without documents to become illegal in the US. Love, that the author claims that he speaks for himself and l feel I have enough room to build my own opinion. This morning, I read a short German newspaper article about the expulsion of the indigenous population on the Mexican/Guatemala border. Without the book, I would have overread it.
November 26, 2021
While sometimes crimethinc literature can be cringe-inducing and the deserved object of scorn from the left, this book is by no means that. By mixing in astute analysis of the border and migration in the southern US with personal stories of providing aid to migrants in the desert and haunting pictures and art, this book is one of the best guides to understanding everything about borders and migration in the US. Good reading for those who haven't thought much about the topic and those who have.
April 2, 2023
Re-read, 04/2023: This remains an excellent analysis, but I’m sure it’s in need of updating by now.
This is a fantastic analysis of the border and why it exists, told from the perspective of a former desert aid worker. Well informed, insanely well researched, presented in a simple, easily understood format. Highly recommended.
This is a fantastic analysis of the border and why it exists, told from the perspective of a former desert aid worker. Well informed, insanely well researched, presented in a simple, easily understood format. Highly recommended.
June 20, 2020
No longer using this website, but I'm leaving up old reviews. Fuck Jeff Bezos. Find me on LibraryThing: https://www.librarything.com/profile/...
Heartbreaking and insightful. I wanna hash my thoughts out with my partner before I write more...
Heartbreaking and insightful. I wanna hash my thoughts out with my partner before I write more...
July 10, 2018
This is an excellent account of the migration crisis on the southern border of the US. The anonymous author, writing for the anarchist collective Crimethinc, has been part of the No More Deaths groups which works the deserts of Arizona and Texas, assisting migrants as best as they can under the law, leaving water, medical supplies, food, clothing, etc. The author details the rise of the drug cartels in Mexico and their impact on the migration chain, as well as the polices of the US government which impair solving the humanitarian catastrophe we currently face.
This edition was produced after the election of the fascist Trump as US President, therefore the title, but the author does not spare the Obama, GW Bush, and Clinton administrations from their folly and dangerous reaction to migration. There are many personal stories interwoven with the more technical/historical sections, and bring to life the humanity of these people that so many people like to forget.
As a true anarchist, the last section details the problem with borders, how white supremacy maintains the global migration problem, and finishes with a plea for involvement. I was struck by how this book places current anarchist thought into the perspective of the migration crisis, and how the author does not shy away from advocating community self-defense along with autonomous communities. The author details some of his/her actions on behalf of Mexican indigenous communities inspired by the Zapatistas, and how governments will ultimately fail the people they're supposed to serve.
If you're familiar with Crimethinc's publications, this one does not seem to be written by an overwrought teenager (I still love their books, though). The author identifies as a member of Gen X and has a lifetime of relevant experience with this subject. This is a highly recommended book and should be required reading for anyone involved in policy making on migration.
This edition was produced after the election of the fascist Trump as US President, therefore the title, but the author does not spare the Obama, GW Bush, and Clinton administrations from their folly and dangerous reaction to migration. There are many personal stories interwoven with the more technical/historical sections, and bring to life the humanity of these people that so many people like to forget.
As a true anarchist, the last section details the problem with borders, how white supremacy maintains the global migration problem, and finishes with a plea for involvement. I was struck by how this book places current anarchist thought into the perspective of the migration crisis, and how the author does not shy away from advocating community self-defense along with autonomous communities. The author details some of his/her actions on behalf of Mexican indigenous communities inspired by the Zapatistas, and how governments will ultimately fail the people they're supposed to serve.
If you're familiar with Crimethinc's publications, this one does not seem to be written by an overwrought teenager (I still love their books, though). The author identifies as a member of Gen X and has a lifetime of relevant experience with this subject. This is a highly recommended book and should be required reading for anyone involved in policy making on migration.
June 27, 2021
“Those who believe that immigration and border enforcement protect the jobs or wages of American workers are seriously misinterpreting the situation. Even if you limit the scope of your analysis to market-based behavior, it seems clear that if undocumented workers were not subjected to such extraordinary risks and pressures they would act like anybody else and obtain the highest price for their labor that the market would bear. In fact the same workers have proven themselves able time and again to struggle successfully for higher wages, despite having to overcome obstacles other workers do not face. But border and immigration enforcement drives down wages across the board-That’s the point of it.
The lie becomes even more believable when self described liberals, to be precise neoliberals, respond with a falsehood of their own: they are doing the jobs that American workers don’t want to do. Wrong. The United States contains millions of chronically unemployed and under employed unskilled and semi skilled workers with American citizenship. Many of them would be quite happy to perform any of the jobs now done by undocumented workers, if those jobs paid their actual value on the open market, say 15 an hour instead of the artificially low wages of six dollars an hour that are only possible because of immigration enforcement and unequal exchange.”
The lie becomes even more believable when self described liberals, to be precise neoliberals, respond with a falsehood of their own: they are doing the jobs that American workers don’t want to do. Wrong. The United States contains millions of chronically unemployed and under employed unskilled and semi skilled workers with American citizenship. Many of them would be quite happy to perform any of the jobs now done by undocumented workers, if those jobs paid their actual value on the open market, say 15 an hour instead of the artificially low wages of six dollars an hour that are only possible because of immigration enforcement and unequal exchange.”
September 19, 2018
I read this in about 3-4 sittings. It goes just in-depth enough to paint an affecting and distinct picture of Mexico and Central America and very clearly explains the political and territorial lines of demarcation that the US has played a role in drawing, and then conveniently erased from memory. A scholar might find this too simplistic, as it's mainly an account of an aid worker's experience and work at and below the border wall, and stories shared from conversations and experiences. But the book knows its audience, and as a person who was not familiar with finer details of the cartels and clashing powers, this was a helpful and memorable introduction. The book has character, and voice. People taking an opposing side will hate it. But it's not trying to win anyone over, it's just trying to shed light on things that have not entered the national discourse in any way except through the most shallow and reductive pundit points.
June 15, 2019
At times heartwarming, at times depressing and at others horrifying. This account of the important and life saving work of solidarity workers in No More Deaths is an eye opening and extremely informative record of how the US/Mexico border works, geographically, politically and economically, as well as provides important details on the power and cruelty of the cartels and Mexican and American governments and their collusion.
Highly recommended for anyone curious about the ongoing brutality and violence enacted on some of the poorest and most resourceful and hardy people on the planet.
Highly recommended for anyone curious about the ongoing brutality and violence enacted on some of the poorest and most resourceful and hardy people on the planet.
December 23, 2021
“The wall in the desert should be regarded as the symbol of my generation, as surely as the wall in Berlin was the symbol of the last one. Like the Berlin Wall, it will be torn down with hammers and bulldozers. I’ll be there if I’m still breathing.”
Incredibly comprehensive, powerfully written, devastatingly accurate description of the migrant struggle and who benefits from the creation of the artificial border and the deaths in the desert. This account is made all the more compelling and powerful by the intense and touching personal stories interwoven throughout. Everyone should read this book - I would read it again.
Incredibly comprehensive, powerfully written, devastatingly accurate description of the migrant struggle and who benefits from the creation of the artificial border and the deaths in the desert. This account is made all the more compelling and powerful by the intense and touching personal stories interwoven throughout. Everyone should read this book - I would read it again.
September 17, 2022
this is a very informative book. i listened to it on audiobook and i really liked the sound track. this book is devastating and it captures the point and it’s facts perfectly. i am really happy i read this book, i know a lot more about the borders now. i highly recommend this to anyone interested in the topic of borders, specifically the mexican borders. i really liked the storytelling of this book. many short stories to make a larger picture, a common theme.
November 7, 2022
Incredibly informative from a fresh perspective, extremely pointed, and does it’s best to provide solutions…or at the very least contemplate how to unroot this very deep global tragedy. Our anonymous author fills the pages with balanced human stories, genuine anger, and rare moments of the beauty of everything that lives on Earth. A must read for understanding a crisis that (as the author notes) only hits headlines when it’s “convenient”
May 20, 2023
A beautifully written, brief/to the point, and overall well-crafted introduction to the political struggle taking place between Central America and Southwestern USA. A systematic deconstruction of the causes, effects, historical context, and anything else you would need to know. A mix of dry overview and gripping narratives from the author's own experience helping people survive the crossing between Mexico and the United States in the Sonoran Desert of Arizona.
January 14, 2020
This was intense and incredibly eye opening to the happenings in a part of the world I used to border. This book has honestly initiated a radical change in me that has thrown me much further left of my previously centric ideology. It makes me want to head back to Arizona and give aid in the desert.
May 30, 2021
The best part of this book was how the author provided other written works to reference for all the events and topics he was not an expert on. You would think a book like this would be political, but it isn't. It is an angry and knowledgeable review of a messed up system. Extremely informative and well written.
March 28, 2020
Masterpiece. Accessible. The first political book I have read from start to finish. Deeply alive and dynamic. A revolutionary inspiring practical text grounded in deep understandings of the present. Humble and complex.
April 16, 2023
such an important read at a historic time in the ongoing migrant crisis. Written by an anonymous solitary worker who brings to light many important facts whilst highlighting personal moments of hardship and joy found working in the desert.
NO ONE IS ILLEGAL ON STOLEN LAND!!!!!
NO ONE IS ILLEGAL ON STOLEN LAND!!!!!
January 3, 2024
Incredible book written by a solidarity worker on the US southern border. He shares experiences from his work as well as an in-depth analysis of the factors that have forced people to migrate north for decades. Note: Book is written before the pandemic so it’s missing a bit of the current context
June 22, 2024
Highly readable. Condenses everything you need to know about the US-Mexico border, as well as the concepts of walls, borders, and the systems that profit from them. If it weren’t so bloody expensive to ship to my door, I would buy a ton of these to hand out to everyone I know.
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