How immigration became a weapon to drive U.S. democracy into crisis

By Sarah Towle

History is repeating itself in the United States. The horrors and headlines we are confronted with daily regarding the wretched excesses of the Trump regime’s deportation agenda did not emerge out of nowhere. They’re the end point of a project built on rotten foundations by politicians of both parties over the course of decades.

That’s the fundamental theme of my book, “Crossing the Line: Finding America in the Borderlands ," which my publisher just relaunched as second edition because, in her words, “It is now more urgent than ever.”

The idea for “Crossing the Line” came over me in a rush. It was early 2020. I was in the U.S. borderlands, bearing witness to the human costs of a presidential administration that wore immigration cruelty like a badge of honor.

I thought