We Built the Wall: How the U.S. Keeps Out Asylum Seekers from Mexico, Central America and Beyond

by Eileen Truax, Diane Stockwell (Translator)

A Mexican-American lawyer exposes corruption in the US asylum procedure and despotism in the Mexican governmentFrom a storefront law office in the US border city of El Paso, Texas, one man set out to tear down the great wall of indifference raised between the US and Mexico. Carlos Spector has filed hundreds of political asylum cases on behalf of human rights defenders, journalists, and political dissidents. Though his legal activism has only inched the process forward—98 percent of refugees from Mexico are still denied asylum—his myriad legal cases and the resultant media fallout has increasingly put US immigration policy, the corrupt state of Mexico, and the political basis of immigration, asylum, and deportation decisions on the spot.

We Built the Wall is an immersive, engrossing look at the new front in the immigration wars. It follows the gripping stories of people like Saúl Reyes, forced to flee his home after a drug cartel murdered several members of his family, and Delmy Calderón, a forty-two-year-old woman leading an eight-woman hunger strike in an El Paso detention center. Truax tracks the heart-wrenching trials of refugees like Yamil, the husband and father who chose a prison cell over deportation to Mexico, and Rocío Hernández, a nineteen-year-old who spent nearly her entire life in Texas and is now forced to live in a city where narcotraffickers operate with absolute impunity.

Genres: Nonfiction, Politics, Latinx

208 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 26, 2018

About the author

Eileen Truax is an awarded journalist with over 20 years of experience in Mexico and the United States.

Born in Mexico City, she moved to Los Angeles in 2004. She has covered immigration, politics and US-Mexico issues for different media both in Mexico and the US, such as La Opinión, Hoy Los Ángeles, Reforma and El Universal newspapers, and Proceso, Gatopardo and Newsweek en Español magazines, among others.

Her first book is “Dreamers, la lucha de una generación por su sueño americano” (Spanish, Oceáno, 2013), "Dreamers, an immigrant generation's fight for their American Dream" (English, Beacon Press, 2015). The book shed light on the situation faced by those young undocumented immigrants brought to the US by their parents when they were very young, and the daily struggle of this generation for their own American Dream.

Her first novel, "Fecha de Caducidad" (Spanish, Alfaguara, 2015), is a love triangle story co-authored with Beatriz Rivas and Armando-Vega Gil.

Eileen is also co-author of "72 Migrantes" (Almadía, 2011) and "Tú y yo coincidimos en la noche terrible" (Nuestra Aparente Rendición, 2012), and she's part of Cuadernos. Colectivo de Cronistas Iberoamericanos.

Currently, Eileen is working on her second non-fiction book about the exiled victims of violence from Mexico looking for asylum in the US.

***


Eileen Truax es periodista con más de veinte años de experiencia en México y Estados Unidos.

Nació en la Ciudad de México y vive en Los Ángeles desde 2004, en donde ha cubierto los temas de inmigración, política y relación México-Estados Unidos para diversos medios en ambos países, como los diarios La Opinión, Hoy Los Ángeles, Reforma y El Universal, y las revistas Proceso, Gatopardo y Newsweek en Español, entre otras.

Su primer libro es “Dreamers, la lucha de una generación por su sueño americano” (Español, Oceáno, 2013; "Dreamers, an immigrant generation's fight for their American Dream", Inglés, Beacon Press, 2015). Este libro arroja luz sobre la situación que enfrentan los jóvenes inmigrantes indocumentados que fueron llevados a Estados Unidos por sus padres cuando eran pequeños, y la lucha diaria de esta generación por lograr su propio sueño americano.

Su primera novela, "Fecha de Caducidad" (Alfaguara, 2015), es la historia de un triángulo amoroso escrita en coautoría con Beatriz Rivas y Armando-Vega Gil.

Eileen también ha sido coautora de "72 Migrantes" (Almadía, 2011) y "Tú y yo coincidimos en la noche terrible" (Nuestra Aparente Rendición, 2012), y es integrante de Cuadernos. Colectivo de Cronistas Iberoamericanos.

Actualmente Eileen trabaja en su segundo libro de no ficción, una historia sobre mexicanos exiliados por la violencia en su país buscando asilo en Estados Unidos.

Reviews

[Darcia Helle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Immigration is an emotionally charged and divisive topic here in the US. But the debates are too often devoid of facts and instead based solely on conjecture and subjective opinion. If you're going to object to or defend immigration, then you really should know what you're talking about. I'd like to put this book into everyone's hands and tell them to read it before our national discussions go any further.

This book is relatively short, focusing on the issue of asylum as an immigration option. We learn how and why Mexicans in particular are forced to take this route as their only legal entry into the US. In discussing asylum, the author also shows us why so many Mexicans are in the US illegally. We look at our country's part in this issue, and we see the humanity behind the "illegals".

The writing style is narrative and engaging. This isn't at all a dry academic kind of read, but is one that might make you look differently at the plight of immigrants.

*I received a copy of this book from the publisher, via Amazon Vine, in exchange for my honest review.*

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Eileen Truax's WE BUILT THE WALL is a timely, historical perspective on how the US has handled the issue of immigration among those fleeing Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador and Mexico.

She does a good job of offering the details that show the US has been focused on keeping vulnerable citizens from these countries out of ours, long before plans to build a "big, beautiful wall," were announced.

For instance, Truax points out that:
. in 2016 there were over 500,000 asylum cases pending, with a total of 277 immigration judges to hear them in the entire US;
. the Corrections Corporation of America (now called CoreCivic) along with GEO Industries, operates most of the prisons and detention centers that are subcontracted in the US. CoreCivic gets about $1.7 billion annually for its services;
. The US government spends over $2 billion each year detaining undocumented immigrants;
. for each day a person is held in detention the company operating the prison receives $164, and up to $298 a day for families held in family detention centers;
. In 2010, well before the current situation at the border we share with Mexico, the Department of Homeland Security held 363,000 immigrants in detention centers. Sixty percent of these individuals were held in detention centers operated by CoreCivic and GEO Group.
. CoreCivic has 15,000 employees. In 2013, the company reported a profit of more than $700 million. $300 million coming from government contracts;
. The Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act of 2017 requires ICE to hold a minimum number of detainees each year at each detention center to guarantee CoreCivic and GEO Industries sufficient profit;
. The National Immigrant Justice Center has recommended that ICE use monitoring bracelets ($17 a day) versus detention ($164 a day), but thus far, ICE has ignored this recommendation.
. since 2017 an additional 15,000 ICE agents have been hired, but only 50 additional immigration judges.

After offering several stories of individuals and families who tried to come into the US as undocumented immigrants, seeking asylum, Truax states, towards the end of her book: "Citizens of countries including El Salvador, Guatemala and Mexico cannot enter the visa lottery. If they are not sponsored by an employer, or a family member does not petition for them, these people have no other way to come to the United States legally."

It's a complex story that makes a sad statement. Truax's book makes the point that the US government doesn't seem to care about individuals seeking asylum, and is making it increasingly difficult for them to do so. Meanwhile, US taxpayers are funding an unkind, and in some cases, lethal system that continues to detain human beings who are seeking asylum.

[kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting, very well written book about immigration, specifically from Mexico and countries in Central America (Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador). The author interviews immigrants living on both sides of the border and in detention centers, as well as the lawyers and organizations that help them.

Reading this book helped me understand what a complex issue immigration is. To those who simply tell immigrants to "go home," this book details how going home is nearly impossible, with violence, police corruption, extortion, and threats by criminal gangs making the lives of ordinary people there a living hell. Applying for legal immigration is also not likely, with a very complicated set of criteria and directives involved (you must have a U.S. sponsor or an employer that will sponsor you, etc.) that make the process inaccessible to poor people. Therefore, it is understandable that many come illegally, and when caught, attempt to apply for political asylum (usually not likely).

This book discusses how much of America's political asylum policies are still deeply attached to Cold War politics. Cubans who come to the US usually get asylum, due to the fact that their country is not a democracy. Mexicans, however, cannot. This policy has gone unchallenged for many years, and often upholds a certain status quo that leaves Mexicans and Central Americans at the bottom.

I won't give away the whole book here, but this is a concise book detailing the politics of immigration that I would definitely recommend.

[Tom Mathews · Rating 3 out of 5]

The title of this book is disingenuous. It is not about the oft-discussed wall that President Donald Trump wants to erect on our southern border. With the exception of a brief epilogue, none of the events described within occurred during the his administration. If you you want to read a book about that project or if you are seeking evidence to use against him, you had better look elsewhere.

What the book is about is the process of applying for asylum in the United States, the difficulties asylum seekers encounter when during the process and, most of all, the events propel these people to abandon all that they know to flee to a place that they know little about. Truaux, a Mexican-born journalist who moved to Los Angeles where she works for a Spanish language newspaper, tapped into her familiarity with the immigration process to interview many asylum seekers and immigration attorneys, recording their often harrowing stories. Without exception the subjects of these stories fled their homelands in fear of their lives, threatened by political opponents, narcotraffickers, and other criminal gangs. Many had family members murdered. Others were offered the standard narco choice between ‘plata o plomo’ (silver or lead) and chose to flee instead. One had his feet chopped off because he didn’t have the money to pay off a gang of extortionists.

The growing violence in Mexico and Central America has changed the dynamics of undocumented immigration across our southern border. In the not-so-distant past immigrants were largely driven by the desire to find employment that enabled them to send money home and eventually return themselves. Now the immigrants are more likely to be entire families, leaving not because they want to but because they are in fear of their lives.

While this book contains a great deal of valuable information that most Americans are unaware of, the writing style makes it less-than-engaging. I also feel that the author may not be an impartial reporter of the facts. For this reason, the best I can give this book is a qualified recommendation.

[jestertheclown · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent and very informative book - it’s a shame so few people have read it. I feel like this book is fundamental in helping people develop empathy for immigrants from south and central america, more so than ever in todays climate.

I learned a lot about it the specificities of immigration to the US, most of which are lost upon the general public (including me). There’s wasn’t so much a central thesis to the book, it was more the telling of stories and outlining the plights of immigrants, but I think it was very much worth the read.

[David Allison · Rating 4 out of 5]

A strong look at the deeply politicised horrors of asylum and immigration policy in the US.

Makes sense of how we got here and gives some sense of how far we have to go until we're anywhere near having a system that's fit for human need.

[Greg Whitcher · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great update on some aspects of the border crisis. Not a deep dive but would be a perfect introduction to the topic. Good blend of background, anecdotal and narrative content. Mostly focused on the El Paso-Juarez area.

[Hannah · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Such an important book. And of course the people who need to read it the most won't.

[Litzi · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book saddened me to the extreme. A must read for people interested in immigration policy and reform.

[JC Sevart · Rating 4 out of 5]

A pretty interesting breakdown of the many many flaws of the American immigration system. I like the number of individual people's stories she recounts to drive the point home.

[Jim MacKinnon · Rating 5 out of 5]

A gripping look at lives caught up in the immigration politics of the U.S./Mexico border.