INTRODUCTION

Every chapter in Crossing the Line: Finding America in the Borderlands is built on a combination of my personal experiences; ethnographic research, including first-hand observations, as well as interviews with featured story subjects and their collaborators; an extensive review of topic-specific and other related literature, including history texts and primary source materials, such as lawsuit filings, scholarly dissertations and other academic publications as well well as research papers; journalistic reportage and more recently released non-fiction reflections on the subject of forced displacement and worldwide human migration.

Approximately one hundred people contributed to this project in ways both large and small—but always important. After obtaining their permission to capture their stories and share their voices, I invited everyone to collaborate in fact-, quote-, and chronology-checking. Roughly 85% of them rose to the challenge. For all others, I engaged professional fact-checkers to aid me in verifying all accounts through resources and statements already in the public record. Our methodology was to authenticate all stories through a two-factor verification process.

That said, memory is slippery and historical documentation—and truth—tend to evolve with time and distance. If errors remain, they are mine alone. I invite you to reach out to me here if you believe some aspect of the book would benefit from correction or updating. We can make changes in future editions.