Constant Reader discussion

Welcome to the discussion of Everyone Who Is Gone Is Here: The United States, Central America, and the Making of a Crisis, our non-fiction selection for the first half of 2025. I’m kicking it off just a bit early, because I don’t think I’ll be able to get online tomorrow.

While it’s not generally a big consideration for nonfiction books (and I don’t think this one is an exception), bear in mind that this discussion will cover the whole book. So if you’re not yet finished, it may reveal things you haven’t come to yet. Tl;dr: Spoiler alert!

About the Author

I was excited to find this book, especially because Jonathan Blitzer is particularly well positioned to write it. As a staff writer at The New Yorker who has spent over a decade covering immigration, politics, and Latin America, Blitzer has cultivated sources and understanding that few journalists can match. His reporting has taken him repeatedly to Central America, the US-Mexico border, and into immigrant communities across the United States, giving him access to stories that often remain hidden from public view.

One thing that sets Blitzer apart as a writer is his ability to weave together the macro and micro—to show how US foreign policy decisions in Washington connect directly to a teenager’s decision to leave Guatemala, or how a change in asylum law affects families already living in American suburbs. His background covering both policy and human stories positions him perfectly to tackle the sprawling, interconnected crisis he examines in this book.

The Book and Its Context

Everyone Who Is Gone Is Here arrives at a moment when immigration remains one of the most contentious issues in American politics, yet public understanding of its root causes remains frustratingly shallow. Blitzer clearly demonstrates that the current crisis didn’t emerge overnight, but rather represents the culmination of decades of policy decisions, economic pressures, and violence that have made life untenable for millions in Central America. Rather than treating immigration as an abstract policy debate, he grounds it in the lived experiences of people caught between impossible choices.

Refusing to offer simple explanations or solutions, Blitzer documents how American drug policy, trade agreements, and foreign interventions have created conditions that drive migration, while also showing how well-intentioned policies—like temporary protected status or efforts to keep families together—can have unintended consequences. His reporting reveals the human cost of treating immigration primarily as a border security issue rather than addressing the deeper structural problems that create displacement. He succeeds particularly well in showing how immigration policy affects not just new arrivals but established communities, documenting how enforcement priorities ripple through American neighborhoods where immigrants have lived for years or decades. Blitzer captures the psychological toll of uncertainty and the ways families adapt to living in legal limbo.

Some Questions

What surprised you most about the connections Blitzer draws between US policy decisions and migration patterns? Blitzer seems especially good at illuminating the unexpected effects of seemingly benevolent policies. Did any of those stand out for you?

Blitzer spends considerable time showing how immigration enforcement affects not just recent immigrants but people who’ve been in the US for years, as well as entire communities, beyond just undocumented individuals and their immediate families. What did you make of these broader impacts, and how should they factor into policy discussions?

What did the book reveal about the role of local communities and institutions in immigration that you hadn’t considered before? How do you see these dynamics playing out in your own area?

After reading Blitzer’s reporting, what aspects of immigration policy do you think are most misunderstood in public debates? What would you want more people to know?

I have to note what I thought was one significant limitation of the book—its focus on the Northern Triangle (Guatemala/Honduras/El Salvador). While deeply reported and compelling, this narrow geographic scope obscures the reality that migration to the United States comes from far more diverse sources. Recent years have seen substantial increases in migration from Venezuela, Cuba, Haiti, and increasingly from countries outside the Western Hemisphere entirely, including significant numbers from China, India, and various African nations. It also obscures the fact that these diverse migration flows have equally diverse root causes, require different policy responses, and affect American communities in distinct ways. South-American migration stems from political repression and economic collapse rather than the gang violence and poverty that drive much Central-American migration. Asian and African migration is often drastically affected by the specifics of visa categories, as well as quite different linguistic & cultural integration challenges. By focusing so heavily on one region, I think Blitzer risks reinforcing the misconception that there's a singular "immigration crisis" with uniform causes and solutions.

Spoko, I'm glad you nominated this book. I got slowed down early on because the torture of Juan and other Salvadorans by the government was so horribly graphic that I couldn't read the book before bed (nightmares, you know). But I was also inspired by the people who tried to help the migrants. I am not religious any more, but I really admired the bishops, priests, and nuns who stood by the poor people in this area and tried to help them. Many were murdered by the goons employed by the local governments.

It was discouraging to learn more about the U.S. government's foreign policy in Central America, which helped create the crisis, as well as the futile attempts in Congress to change our immigration policy.

Immigration is a subject dear to my heart. During the 8 years before I retired in 2012 I taught English as a second language in a public high school. Among others, I taught students from El Salvador, Guatemala and Mexico. I also taught "legal" refugees from Sudan and Myanmar. Trump's immigration strategy makes me sick. I often wonder what will happen to the kids I taught. They were brought here by their parents - it was not their choice.

At any rate, I have about 100 pages to go in the book and will be back to comment more specifically about the book when I am finished.

Ann D wrote: “I am not religious any more, but I really admired the bishops, priests, and nuns who stood by the poor people in this area and tried to help them.”

I had this same response. I remember when I was still churchgoing (long after I had stopped believing, for what that’s worth), one of the things that kept me attached to the church was knowing about these men & women and the heroism they displayed. It didn’t keep me tied to the church, but I haven’t lost that admiration.

I'm running behind in reading this (9%) but am enjoying it and learning a lot. A lot of the thoughts mentioned here are also applicable to me with churchgoing. Now, some of the biggest immigration supporters are what I call "churchies" who follow Trump. I would think they should provide facilities to help their fellowmen but they are ruthless against immigration, based on lies about the criminal majority that Trump goes on and on about.

I finished the book and I am glad that I read it. Thanks, Spoko. I rated it 5 stars because it was very well written and because the information was presented in a compelling way.

I learned a lot about the U.S. involvement with the repressive governments in Central America. It was a sordid story. Our government not only gave military aid, but also provided training to the police and military. It chose to ignore the connection between the military/police and the death squads that tortured and murdered so many innocent people in El Salvador and Guatemala The CIA was especially complicit.

U.S. support was promulgated on the need to support American businesses and also fight against Communism, even though the Communists were not a strong force in either of these countries.

Blitzer tells much of the immigration story through reporting the experiences of Central Americans - Juan Romagoza, Eddie, Keldy, Lucrecia. They tried to deal with with the chaos in their countries, and, in all but Lucrecia’s case, fled to the United States. This literary technique made the immigration crisis very personal and real. Spoko, I understand your disappointment that the book did not deal with other groups of immigrants, but I think Blitzer had to narrow things down to emphasize the human factors behind the immigration crisis.

Blitzer’s coverage of immigration policy in the U.S. was much broader. I found out that the whole amnesty process was a mess from the start when it was authorized by the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986. There were never enough officials to support it and it was not applied fairly. Temporary Protected Status is also not a new thing. It has been applied to different groups to allow them to work legally, but it has to be renewed every 18 months. Now Trump wants to end it.

Stephen Miller has been the leader of the most deplorable aspects of Trump’s immigration policy in both terms. He promoted separating parents and children coming in illegally because this would discourage others from coming. During COVID he described immigrants as “vectors of disease.” Trump, of course, rode the anti-immigrant train to the White House.

I know that illegal immigration is a very complicated issue. I agree that we must secure our borders. Biden did not handle the huge influx of immigrants well. There have been attempts in Congress to come up with bipartisan immigration reforms. Nothing can pass because some politicians want to continue to use anti-immigration to rile up their base. Trump derailed the last compromise in 2024.

Bad immigrants get all the publicity, and some of the stories are manufactured. People need to recognize that the vast majority are hard working and responsible. In my state (Nebraska) almost all of the roofers are Hispanics. Immigrants, legal and illegal make up most of the workers in meat processing. A large number of landscapers, tree removal specialists, and restaurant workers are immigrants.

In Omaha, masked ICE workers grabbed a Guatemalan restaurant worker during his shift and dragged him out of the restaurant in front of the customers. This did not go over well.

It will be interesting to see what happens. A lot of businesses depend on immigrant labor.

I am coming to this very late - I just got the book from the library today, and hope to begin it soon (though not before bed, thanks for the warning!).

I am an immigration lawyer, and we have a significant number of clients from Guatemala and Honduras (just a few from El Salvador). When the numbers of persons caught entering illegally through the Southern border rose during the second Obama administration, a rising influx of young people from the Northern Triangle was a major factor. In the intervening years, the numbers of Venezuelans and Ecuadorians began to increase. As well as people from many other countries, of course.

Thank you so much for nominating this and thus bringing it to the top of my TBR pile. I will check in again as i go along!

Mary Ellen, I am very happy to see that you are reading this book and will participate in the discussion! With your background, I know you will have a lot to contribute.