Towle, an educator and activist, confronts America’s immigration system in this debut nonfiction book.
“Whatever the answer” to America’s immigration crisis, writes the author, “a dream deferred—dried up like a raisin in the sun—is indeed justice denied.” To refugees, asylum seekers, and immigrants from around the world, America has long stood as a haven of peace, prosperity, and freedom. Over the last two decades, however, the U.S. has been at the forefront of a new global paradigm that prioritizes national security above human rights, per Towle’s eye-opening narrative. Focusing on what she calls the “Border Industrial Complex,” the author outlines the ways in which the U.S. and Europe have forged a system of “global apartheid” through draconian visa requirements, passport controls, border walls, and other anti-immigration policies. The book offers readers an astute analysis that provides a well-researched overview of the current immigration system as well as historical context for the ways in which racism and xenophobia have shaped American policy in the past. Bipartisan in her critiques, Towle traces the modern roots of America’s anti-immigration ethos from Reagan through Clinton to the post-9/11 Bush administration, though she also holds the Obama and Biden administrations to account for their subsequent complicity. The book stands out by centering the lived experiences of the victims of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), particularly the subagency known as Enforcement and Removals Operations (“aka ICE Air, ‘the deportation machine’”). Working with the Texas A&M University School of Law Immigrant Rights Clinic and the Cameroon Advocacy Network and privileged with white skin that allowed her to “cross borders with relative ease,” Towle shares her firsthand experiences at the U.S.-Mexican border, where she met freedom-seekers whose home countries spanned from Central America to Cameroon. The author’s observation that merely seeing and documenting the experiences of victims is a “subversive act” powerfully underscores the stories of mothers ripped away from their children, men detained indefinitely without due process during the Covid-19 pandemic that “turned prisons into death traps,” and asylum-seekers returned to the violent battlefields of war-torn countries. A powerful exposé of the human costs of America’s immigration policies.
More praise for crossing the line…
“. . . an expertly written, deeply human exposé of the border crisis in the southwestern United States, leaving the reader well-informed . . . from multiple perspectives. It enlightens as much as it devastates . . . With the effect of immigration being felt globally, this should be everyone’s must-read.”
Nonfiction Authors Association Gold Award Review
“Simultaneously a searing indictment of inhumane immigration policies and a moving testament to the resilience of the human spirit, Sarah Towle’s Crossing the Line is public-interest storytelling at its finest. A brilliant, engaging, and essential read for anyone seeking a true understanding of America’s borderlands.”
Toluse Olorunnipa
Pulitzer-Prize-winning Author of
His Name is George Floyd: One Man’s Life and the Struggle for Racial Justice
“Crossing the Line is a well-researched yet accessible exposé of border policies that harm migrants and undermine the promise of America. From the ‘family separation’ policies of the Trump administration to the massive growth of immigrant detention, Towle’s ability to weave together first-hand stories of accidental activists—including priests, attorneys, and concerned locals—with the broader policy context is on display in an ambitious book infused with a profound commitment to humanity and justice. Every concerned citizen should read this book.”
Austin Kocher
Research Assistant Professor,
Syracuse University
“Inspiring and transporting from the opening passage. A journey of historical context expertly weaved into the human experience, allows the reader to relate to the current border climate on so many levels. I did not want to stop reading. Abrazos.”
Elizabeth “Lizee” Cavazos
Angry Tías & Abuelas
of the Rio Grande Valley
“Powerful and true.
An important historical account.”
Juan David Liendo-Lucio
Team Brownsville
“What grace-filled and beautiful writing. Thank you for capturing our community’s story!”
Dylan Corbett
Executive Director,
Hope Border Institute, El Paso, TX
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Regional Assistant Coordinator,
Migrants & Refugees Section, The Vatican
“With Crossing the Line Sarah Towle exposes the relentlessly cruel US immigration system, while restoring the human faces to an issue that is so often lost in a blizzard of polarizing ideology and hate. She makes it clear that what is unfolding now is not just Trump-era politics—it’s rooted in more than a century of American exploitation of our southern neighbors. For anyone who wants to understand the reality of our dysfunctional immigration system beyond slogans, Crossing the Line is an absolute must-read.”
Scott Allen
Former Editor, Boston Globe
Spotlight Investigative Team
“With a propulsive narrative and an engaging style, Crossing the Line is an important contribution to our understanding of the borderlands, and by extension, America itself.”
Reece Jones
Author of White Borders
“A beautiful book, awesomely reported. What an accomplishment and contribution to this issue. Sarah has written this book with great empathy. The focus remains squarely on rehumanizing those most harmed by US immigration policies. The chronology makes the meta-story even more riveting and appalling.”
Heidi Ostertag
Executive Producer of
Oh Mercy–Searching for Hope in the Promised Land by Worldwide Documentaries
“Thanks for lifting up these voices and not relenting. Congratulations on a compelling read.”
Luz V. Lopez
Senior Supervising Attorney, Southern Poverty Law Center, Immigrant Justice Project
“Sometimes you ache for the unvarnished truth. Sarah Towle tells it in this book – the whole truth, good, bad, and ugly. She speaks for the silent hordes seeking “the lamp beside the golden door” to be opened for them, giving access to the wonder that is America.”
Merry Hancock
Cameroon Advocacy Network
“Sarah Towle has obliterated today's dead-end arguments about immigration and transformed them into riveting, human stories. We forget that ideas—good and bad—have always crossed our borderlines; only human beings need a piece of paper. We all deserve a narrative with clarity, and Towle’s has delivered. Spectacular!”
Ken Burns
Filmmaker
“In Crossing the Line, Sarah Towle achieves something few writers can: she catalogs years of the US government's nightmarish cruelty towards migrants without tipping into despair. It’s an inspiring account of many tireless, and seemingly fearless, immigration advocates standing up for justice and humanity. Towle’s personal tale, too, is a smart and moving grappling with the moral calamity that is the US immigration enforcement regime. I challenge any reader to pick up this book and not be shaken, disturbed, and ultimately committed to a better and more just world. Towle beautifully renders moments of humanity in a fundamentally inhumane system.”
John Washington
Author of A Case for Open Borders
"A powerful work. Sweeping and majestic and a striking, flowing synthesis to tell the overall story that needs to be told.”
Camilo Perez-Bustillo
Author of Human Rights, Hegemony, and Utopia in Latin America
“The personal stories bring the historical narrative to life.”
Anne Marie Murphy
Author of A Perfect Fit
“Absolutely BRILLIANT. A masterpiece!
It feels so lonely at times, like no one understands. But Sarah sees us here in the borderlands, flying the tattered flag of what this country's ideals are.... It all touched me deeply.”
Madeleine Sandefur
Angry Tías & Abuelas
of the Rio Grande Valley