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Midnight on the Line: The Secret Life of the U.S.-Mexico Border
A probing, ground-level investigation of illegal immigration and the people on both sides of the battle to secure the U.S.–Mexico border With illegal immigration burning as a contentious issue in American politics, Reuters reporter Tim Gaynor went into the underbelly of the border and to the heart of illegal along the 45-mile trek down the illegal alien "superhighway." Through scorpion-strewn trails with Mexican migrants and drug smugglers, he met up with a legendary group of Native American trackers called the Shadow Wolves, and traveled through the extensive network of tunnels, including the "Great Tunnel" from Tijuana to Otay Mesa, California. Along the way, Gaynor also meets Minutemen and exposes corruption among the Border Patrol agents who exchange sex or money for helping smugglers.
The issue of illegal immigration has a complexity beyond any of the political rhetoric. Combining top-notch investigative journalism with a narrative style that delves into the human condition, Gaynor reveals the day-to-day realities on both sides of "the line."
The issue of illegal immigration has a complexity beyond any of the political rhetoric. Combining top-notch investigative journalism with a narrative style that delves into the human condition, Gaynor reveals the day-to-day realities on both sides of "the line."
320 pages, Hardcover
First published March 1, 2009
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
November 11, 2017
Excellent book about the border and the author experiences the trek across the border and explores the border patrol, tunnels etc. As jacket notes, author “takes readers into the underbelly of the border and to the heart of illegal immigration in America.”
April 6, 2010
This is all pretty focused on law enforcement on the border - Which I guess is okay if that's all you want, and I'd imagine that a lot of people want just that. Proof that they're being kept safe, that those bad brown guys from down south are being rounded up, just like in "Cops." But, there's way too much respect and attention paid to cops in this world and this issue. Do we need another book that so glowingly portrays them? What's more, the book basically reads like the Public Information Officer from the Border Patrol wrote it. It's pretty much by-the-numbers, party line boilerplate.
And the boilerplate isn't even very well crafted. Gaynor's just not that good of a writer, at least of the sort of storyish, loose form he's going for. I'm sure he does fine with short news pieces for Reuters. But his prose here is really overwrought and contrived, full of really strained metaphors and extraneous adjectives popping out everywhere. For instance, when describing what migrants in the desert at night look like when viewed in a thermal-imaging camera, he writes, "White faces dancing against a black background, like the disembodied visages in a haunting and playful Black Light Theatre company production in Prague." Huh? What? I've even been to Prague, spent about a week there, never heard of the Black Light Theatre. Do you think average middlebrow Americans reading this book will get this allusion? C'mon, Tim, metaphors are intended to help you describe something by comparing it to something MORE familiar to you than the actual thing, not less familiar.
Some of his phrasing is just really cumbersome and redundant too. Like this sentence: "The extent of that involvement became clear in a case that broke in North Carolina several years before the September 11 attacks, back in 1995."
So, let's think about this sentence in detail: once you've said 1995, do you really need to say it was several years before 9/11? Of course not. But, my guess is that to keep the chapter on terrorism sizzling and alive, Gaynor felt the need to continually re-mention that day of infamy. He might as well just chant: "Terrorists, terrorist, middle east, 9/11, terrorism, Lebanese, terrorism, 9/11, Muslims, 9/11, 9/11, border, middle east, lebanese, hajib, 9/11, hizballah." Puh-lease....
Or speaking about motivation for phrasing, check this out: When describing a terrorism suspect who slipped into the U.S. in the trunk of a car crossing from Mexico, Gaynor writes "It was a stunning and tantalizing detail." What??! "tantalizing" - to who? To your editors? To right wing xenophobes buying your book? To people who want have a vested interest in a juicy story about smugglers helping terrorists sneak into our country?
In the afterword, Gaynor is up front about the fact that he is specifically focusing on law enforcement. But just being honest about his focus doesn't mean it's responsible journalism. The border and immigration issue is too complicated and big to simply tout the cops as if they're comic book superheros in a vacuum. "This is textbook. It's as good as it gets," says one Border Patrol Predator drone pilot interviewed - and that's pretty much the mood for the entire book: textbook. Propaganda. (In the section on Native American border patrol trackers, he says the group is "stealthy, fast, intuitive, and utterly relentless." Utterly? Really?) Yes, look at our valiant officials keeping us safe, even from corruption, let's never try stepping out of the line to look at the systematic detainee abuse by those officials, at the privatization of detention centers on the border, at the cold-blooded murder of migrants by agents, at the larger picture of free trade policy that creates these economic migrants, at the horribly broken drug policy that keeps the narcotraffickers rich and powerful. Nothing but textbook. I know this isn't as good as it gets.
I do have to say that I will give this book 2 stars instead of 1, because I did learn a lot about the inner workings of how ports of entry work, how drone patrol operations happen, and other such enforcement ephemera. But I feel as though most of this I could have got from the Homeland Security Department website. Journalists have a responsibility to dig deeper.
And the boilerplate isn't even very well crafted. Gaynor's just not that good of a writer, at least of the sort of storyish, loose form he's going for. I'm sure he does fine with short news pieces for Reuters. But his prose here is really overwrought and contrived, full of really strained metaphors and extraneous adjectives popping out everywhere. For instance, when describing what migrants in the desert at night look like when viewed in a thermal-imaging camera, he writes, "White faces dancing against a black background, like the disembodied visages in a haunting and playful Black Light Theatre company production in Prague." Huh? What? I've even been to Prague, spent about a week there, never heard of the Black Light Theatre. Do you think average middlebrow Americans reading this book will get this allusion? C'mon, Tim, metaphors are intended to help you describe something by comparing it to something MORE familiar to you than the actual thing, not less familiar.
Some of his phrasing is just really cumbersome and redundant too. Like this sentence: "The extent of that involvement became clear in a case that broke in North Carolina several years before the September 11 attacks, back in 1995."
So, let's think about this sentence in detail: once you've said 1995, do you really need to say it was several years before 9/11? Of course not. But, my guess is that to keep the chapter on terrorism sizzling and alive, Gaynor felt the need to continually re-mention that day of infamy. He might as well just chant: "Terrorists, terrorist, middle east, 9/11, terrorism, Lebanese, terrorism, 9/11, Muslims, 9/11, 9/11, border, middle east, lebanese, hajib, 9/11, hizballah." Puh-lease....
Or speaking about motivation for phrasing, check this out: When describing a terrorism suspect who slipped into the U.S. in the trunk of a car crossing from Mexico, Gaynor writes "It was a stunning and tantalizing detail." What??! "tantalizing" - to who? To your editors? To right wing xenophobes buying your book? To people who want have a vested interest in a juicy story about smugglers helping terrorists sneak into our country?
In the afterword, Gaynor is up front about the fact that he is specifically focusing on law enforcement. But just being honest about his focus doesn't mean it's responsible journalism. The border and immigration issue is too complicated and big to simply tout the cops as if they're comic book superheros in a vacuum. "This is textbook. It's as good as it gets," says one Border Patrol Predator drone pilot interviewed - and that's pretty much the mood for the entire book: textbook. Propaganda. (In the section on Native American border patrol trackers, he says the group is "stealthy, fast, intuitive, and utterly relentless." Utterly? Really?) Yes, look at our valiant officials keeping us safe, even from corruption, let's never try stepping out of the line to look at the systematic detainee abuse by those officials, at the privatization of detention centers on the border, at the cold-blooded murder of migrants by agents, at the larger picture of free trade policy that creates these economic migrants, at the horribly broken drug policy that keeps the narcotraffickers rich and powerful. Nothing but textbook. I know this isn't as good as it gets.
I do have to say that I will give this book 2 stars instead of 1, because I did learn a lot about the inner workings of how ports of entry work, how drone patrol operations happen, and other such enforcement ephemera. But I feel as though most of this I could have got from the Homeland Security Department website. Journalists have a responsibility to dig deeper.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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April 17, 2016I think everyone agrees that the main cause for our immigration problems today is the desperation of poor Mexicans who want to take care of their families. That 19s why they are willing to risk their lives to take death defying journeys through the Sonoran desert heat. That 19s why they are willing to gamble their life savings with a coyote who promises them to sneak them over the border. That 19s why if you build a fence, they will either go over it or under it. When the border patrol beefs up security in one spot, they move to another. Like T.C. Boyle says in Tortilla Curtain, you can 19t really fight the rules of nature. Poor, desperate immigrants are like the coyotes he describes in his novel: 1CThey are cunning, versatile, hungry and unstoppable. 1D
But I just read another book that 19 s a secondary (or remote) cause for our immigration problems. Tim Gaynor in Midnight on the Line: the Secret Life of the U.S.-Mexico Border emphasizes the phenomenon of illegal immigration is a big money-maker for organized crime. He breaks down and analyzes the business. He interviews and studies the coyotes and the narcos to learn how they beat the border patrol out in the desert and also at the ports of entry.
For me, illegal immigration begins with the desperation of desperate poor people, but the process is facilitated and maintained by human smugglers. They are clever. They are organized. They are efficient. After all, they are businessmen.
Gaynor takes us into the 120 degree temperatures of the desert. He takes us into the tunnels that crisscross the border. But my favorite chapter details crossing the border at the Tijuana port of entry. The smugglers are organized. They got spotters who work as ambulantes 13 street vendors - in the line who act as lookouts. They can spot a lane that looks better than another. They can report the location of the security dogs. When they see something, they talk into the vase of flowers or piggy bank they may be holding. Inside, there is a hidden microphone that transmits messages to the coyotes.
I like how the coyotes go through the trouble to train the immigants they transport. From the way the author put it, they give these intensive workshops before crossing. They teach the immigrants how to act, what to say. My favorite part of the book describes how a pollo teaches a pregnant woman how to hold her card between her thumb and index finger. If she concentrates on squeezing it so it bends slightly, he tells her, the pressure will stop her hands from trembling.
And this lady kept on practicing for days what the pollo told her, but when it came time for her to cross she was so frightend she couldn 19t remember anything of what he told her. Instead she came up with her own method to distract herself from her fear: 1CI just rubbed my belly and thought of the child inside me, and how I was going to find a job and care for her, 1D she said.
And it worked.
February 15, 2010
Tim Gaynor, a former Ben Kingsley impersonator...nah, it's just that jacket photo.
Gaynor puts together a pretty gripping series of views of life on the border. The tunnel in real-life perhaps not as seductive as the one in Weeds, is surely as amazing. Gaynor also comes across being surprisingly supportive (well a surprise to me) of the Minutemen. I felt the interview with the alleged Hezbollah henchman Boughader had a lot more that fell outside the lines (of the text, if not the Mexican-US border).
Tales of corruption in the security ranks reminded me that at a former company, the chief suspects in some after-hours crimes ended up coming from the security staff. Who watches the Watchmen indeed? But border agents are paid much better than the guys at some rinky-dink tech company, sitting in a camera room and making occasional badges. Interesting how the two stories recounted wove some romance into the betrayals. Coyote pretty, coyote ugly.
Speaking of badges? Do we need stinking badges? Some way for people to cross borders and be kept track of more readily? And as this text alludes, the real issue may be less the people than the product being pushed across. It's one thing for us living north of the border and west of desperation, if you really thought the hopes and future of your family hinged upon being more proximal to prosperity, I think you'd take that gamble on a car ride. Is not the American gene in large part about leaving behind what you have, for the opportunity of what you could have?
Of course, I still think you want to get a visa/green card through official channels.
An enjoyable, quickly-paced read, for a perhaps insolvable problem.
Gaynor puts together a pretty gripping series of views of life on the border. The tunnel in real-life perhaps not as seductive as the one in Weeds, is surely as amazing. Gaynor also comes across being surprisingly supportive (well a surprise to me) of the Minutemen. I felt the interview with the alleged Hezbollah henchman Boughader had a lot more that fell outside the lines (of the text, if not the Mexican-US border).
Tales of corruption in the security ranks reminded me that at a former company, the chief suspects in some after-hours crimes ended up coming from the security staff. Who watches the Watchmen indeed? But border agents are paid much better than the guys at some rinky-dink tech company, sitting in a camera room and making occasional badges. Interesting how the two stories recounted wove some romance into the betrayals. Coyote pretty, coyote ugly.
Speaking of badges? Do we need stinking badges? Some way for people to cross borders and be kept track of more readily? And as this text alludes, the real issue may be less the people than the product being pushed across. It's one thing for us living north of the border and west of desperation, if you really thought the hopes and future of your family hinged upon being more proximal to prosperity, I think you'd take that gamble on a car ride. Is not the American gene in large part about leaving behind what you have, for the opportunity of what you could have?
Of course, I still think you want to get a visa/green card through official channels.
An enjoyable, quickly-paced read, for a perhaps insolvable problem.
January 18, 2016
Tim Gaynor is a British journalist for Reuters, based in Phoenix. His beat is immigration issues on the US-Mexican border.
His book Midnight on the Line is an in-depth look at the border issues as they came to a boil before the current (July 2010) Arizona enforced laws that have half the country up in arms.
From the beginning chapter, where Gaynor pulls a George Plimptonesque move by personally started in the Mexican border town of Altar, and together with his photographer Tomas Bravo, walked across the border and into America to personally experience the hardships that the illegals and smugglers suffer as they start for the `promised land' to the issues at the Tijuana border with California and how the cartels are influencing and bribing border guards Gaynor caste his journalistic vision on how and why the border is an insurmountable problem.
Without offering solutions or alternatives Gaynor's approach is that of the eagle-eyed journalist giving us the straight skinny on a variety of issues from discussion on the men and women whose jobs keep them on the line to the Predator drones in the air, the potential threat of terrorism and drug smugglers tunneling under our borders. While nothing he offers is ground-breaking it is top notch investigative reporting.
His book Midnight on the Line is an in-depth look at the border issues as they came to a boil before the current (July 2010) Arizona enforced laws that have half the country up in arms.
From the beginning chapter, where Gaynor pulls a George Plimptonesque move by personally started in the Mexican border town of Altar, and together with his photographer Tomas Bravo, walked across the border and into America to personally experience the hardships that the illegals and smugglers suffer as they start for the `promised land' to the issues at the Tijuana border with California and how the cartels are influencing and bribing border guards Gaynor caste his journalistic vision on how and why the border is an insurmountable problem.
Without offering solutions or alternatives Gaynor's approach is that of the eagle-eyed journalist giving us the straight skinny on a variety of issues from discussion on the men and women whose jobs keep them on the line to the Predator drones in the air, the potential threat of terrorism and drug smugglers tunneling under our borders. While nothing he offers is ground-breaking it is top notch investigative reporting.
July 4, 2010
Tim Gaynor is a British journalist for Reuters, based in Phoenix. His beat is immigration issues on the US-Mexican border.
His book Midnight on the Line is an in-depth look at the border issues as they came to a boil before the current (July 2010) Arizona enforced laws that have half the country up in arms.
From the beginning chapter, where Gaynor pulls a George Plimptonesque move by personally started in the Mexican border town of Altar, and together with his photographer Tomas Bravo, walked across the border and into America to personally experience the hardships that the illegals and smugglers suffer as they start for the `promised land' to the issues at the Tijuana border with California and how the cartels are influencing and bribing border guards Gaynor caste his journalistic vision on how and why the border is an insurmountable problem.
Without offering solutions or alternatives Gaynor's approach is that of the eagle-eyed journalist giving us the straight skinny on a variety of issues from discussion on the men and women whose jobs keep them on the line to the Predator drones in the air, the potential threat of terrorism and drug smugglers tunneling under our borders. While nothing he offers is ground-breaking it is top notch investigative reporting.
His book Midnight on the Line is an in-depth look at the border issues as they came to a boil before the current (July 2010) Arizona enforced laws that have half the country up in arms.
From the beginning chapter, where Gaynor pulls a George Plimptonesque move by personally started in the Mexican border town of Altar, and together with his photographer Tomas Bravo, walked across the border and into America to personally experience the hardships that the illegals and smugglers suffer as they start for the `promised land' to the issues at the Tijuana border with California and how the cartels are influencing and bribing border guards Gaynor caste his journalistic vision on how and why the border is an insurmountable problem.
Without offering solutions or alternatives Gaynor's approach is that of the eagle-eyed journalist giving us the straight skinny on a variety of issues from discussion on the men and women whose jobs keep them on the line to the Predator drones in the air, the potential threat of terrorism and drug smugglers tunneling under our borders. While nothing he offers is ground-breaking it is top notch investigative reporting.
July 23, 2009
If you want to really understand why our borders are challenged, read this! Tim Gaynor goes about the difficult task of researching all the many reasons our borders are insecure. It's an eye-opening realization for many who have easily arrived at the notion that our borders are insecure because our government allows it. Gaynor does his own frontlines research and gets to know both the story of those charged with security and those who benefit from its vulnerabilities. Your respect for the role of Border Security will be renewed by realizing how closely they come in contact with the oppressed and the oppressors. After you read this, you will not have any doubt why people are so desperate to cross our borders or why enforcement is so difficult. Gaynor is careful to get to know his research subjects and takes time to tell their stories. If the chapters are a little long, the work is thorough.--Louanne
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April 15, 2011
Midnight on the Line is a very good look at the problems associated with the U.S. Mexico border and the ways that the U.S. is attempting to interdict the smuggling of various cargo across the border. This book also looks at how those on the other side of the fence attempt to make it across. And to cover all bases the author also looks at the corruption that occurs among those entrusted with enforcing the laws of the border. I particularily thought the authors attempt to cross the border along the same path as the illegals was very funny. I thought this would make for an interesting part of the book and instead found myself cracking up. I will not spoil it here for those who will be reading this book however it was very amusing. This is a recent book and also looks at the problems we will be facing in the future in our enforcement issues at the border.
August 17, 2009
A good, seemingly unbiased look at all aspects of security at the Mexico-US border. Although the writing is a little over the top at times (paraphrase: "I took some chewing tobacco from the agent. So this is the taste of the Old West."), the story is engaging and well-organized. If you have any interest in the border situation, this book is well worthwhile.
November 15, 2011
I saw this book in the non-fiction section of the library and the title intrigued me. Immigration is always a hot issue, and I was glad to see that this author does not take sides. Instead he looks at border crossing from both sides of the border. He actually crossed the border from Mexico using the same path as every day immigrants. He also spent time with Customs and Border Patrol members.
May 15, 2009
Very interesting in terms of law enforcement along the border. I learned a lot.
June 17, 2009
Interesting, but couldn't hold my attention to it right now.
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