Border Crosser: One Gringo's Illicit Passage from Mexico into America

by Johnny Rico

Johnny Rico is back. After risking his life as an Afghanistan stop-loss soldier, an experience he described in the cult phenomenon Blood Makes the Grass Grow Green, he now dares to embed himself on both sides of America’s most dangerous domestic conflict–the war for and against illegal immigration–in an exhilarating new exercise in immersion journalism.

The gonzo author–part Hunter Thompson, part George Plimpton–explores a seemingly insoluble issue by getting his hands dirty and his boots on the ground. As a “typically spoiled American” who doesn’t speak a lick of Spanish, he takes it upon himself to try to cross the Mexican border into the United States illegally.

Eager to tell the story from all sides–or simply to get good material for his book–Rico also travels treacherously with the Border Patrol, meets extreme immigrant advocates who publish maps for illegals, visits a modern-day “underground railroad” in Texas, and hunts for miscreants with angry vigilantes.

In such hot spots as the Tecate Line, a forty-five-mile stretch of hills on California’s southern fringe, and Arizona’s Amnesty Trail, the single busiest part of the U.S. border, Rico encounters Los Zetas, the paramilitatry group that has taken over Mexico’s drug cartels, interviews the volunteer Minutemen, who believe in an imminent and apocalyptic Mexican invasion, and tries to recruit coyotes (human smugglers, usually fortified by meth and cocaine).

In his heedless and openly opportunistic style, Rico unearths more truths about this explosive subject than most traditional reporters could ever hope to. Border Crosser is another knockout from this new-generation journalist, at once a concerned citizen, courageous spy, and unparalleled author.


From the Hardcover edition.

Genres: Social Issues

288 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2009

Reviews

[Phobos · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was disappointed with this book. It's more about the author's journey than the journey of the people of Mexico who are trying to reach America. There aren't many stories about the Mexicans here, there are more about the racist Minutemen groups who patrol the border and stop Mexicans from entering. Rico did try (in a half-assed way) to infiltrate a group of Mexicans entering the US but instead the book became about his obsession than the real story about the Mexicans. For me, this wasn't very interesting, reading about a white journalist trying to enter America. It's never going to be the same as the Mexicans trying to do it. It's just a bit self-indulgent.

The true economics of the situation are largely ignored as well and far too much time is given to the Minutemen who Rico often sympathizes with.

Undercover journalism can be interesting but I didn't find this book to be all that good.

[Shana · Rating 2 out of 5]

Johnny Rico’s Border Crosser is somewhat anti-climactic. The premise of this book is that Rico was going to attempt to cross the U.S./Mexico border, as well as visit various groups such as the Minutemen, Border Patrol, and open border activists. I figured that’d take a good chunk of the book but that the rest would focus on his journey from Mexico into the U.S. I was wrong. Rico tries over and over (and over) to find an “appropriate” place to cross, but always manages to find a reason not to. I won’t tell you if he actually manages it or not, but I will tell you that it doesn’t end up really being the focus of the book. Perhaps the overall point is that if it’s that miserable and terrifying to cross the border, the Mexicans that come over must be pretty desperate. And that’s all I’m going to say.

[Susan Chamberlain · Rating 2 out of 5]

Having grown up on the Mexican Border, I really wanted to love this book. But Johnny Rico needs to give up his delusion of being a gonzo journalist, a title that really only ever applied to the late Hunter Thompson. Told without that literary pretention, this would be an interesting narrative about those who cross the border illegally, how and why they do it, and how the people of the USA respond.

[Chuck · Rating 3 out of 5]

While worth reading for the unique insight and info, the book is not well written. Still, I recommend you slog through it.

[Jaged · Rating 1 out of 5]

Waste of time!

Con man posing as a journalist to sell a fake story. Don’t waste your money. Guess I got suckered so no one else will.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

John Rico writes a documentary that is a bit of a tease. He explores all the sides of the immigration issue. He lives with the Minutemen, rides with the Border Patrol and border police, and wants to make an illegal border crossing but never seems to make it. Some good characters are met along the way, but the border crossing never really happens and left me not sure if most of that angle was just BS.

[jenn · Rating 1 out of 5]

I couldn't finish this book. Johnny Rico presents himself as a liberal, but I found him to be just as racist and judgmental as the Minute Men he was following during the first parts of the story. His repeated insistence on using the term "illegal" was frustrating as well, and his portrait of the women who maintain the water tanks in the Arizona desert was condescending at best.

[Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author's goal in this book was to illegally cross the border from Mexico to the USA as a gringo. He met with vigilante border watchers, migrant sympathizers, and law enforcement. This was a good book that I would recommend to those, like me, who like books about the underbelly of America.

[Ashley · Rating 1 out of 5]

first part was good but the middle was boring and he never even really crossed the border