"The author’s vignettes of his interactions with a diverse cast of characters are insightful and engrossing." —Publishers Weekly
"The author bolsters his astute reportage with interviews with migrants desperate for American opportunities, controversial border control crusaders, politicians and law enforcement agents. He also provides a fascinating tour of Tucson’s Border Patrol offices and their complex surveillance of various ports of entry." —Kirkus Reviews
"Colorado journalist Peter Eichstaedt, who has spent more than 20 years reporting on conflicts across the globe, turns his sharp eyes on the United States-Mexico border with an expertly reported, exquisitely human on-the-ground look at our country's complex immigration issues." —5280 Magazine
"This is a provocative and engaging book—a useful read for anyone seeking to understand current challenges and opportunities along our southern border." —New York Journal of Books
“In this provocative and engaging book, Peter Eichstaedt has given us an insightful and fascinating on-the-ground account of how the US-Mexico divide has turned into an increasingly militarized frontier of fear.” —Peter Andreas, author of Smuggler Nation: How Illicit Trade Made America and Border Games: Policing the U.S.-Mexico Divide
“Peter Eichstaedt brings the wise perspective of an experienced international journalist, long-time resident of the Southwest, and critical humanist to this fine account of the U.S.-Mexico border, a complex region much neglected or misunderstood by U.S. politicians and opinion makers.” — Howard Campbell, professor of anthropology, University of Texas–El Paso
"In The Dangerous Divide, Peter Eichstaedt brilliantly illuminates the strange world of the U.S.-Mexican border, a world inhabited by ruthless drug traffickers and gunrunners; desperate yet hopeful migrants; politicians of all stripes and views; multiple layers of law enforcement; bigots, paranoiacs, and nativists; and, of course, lots of ordinary folks. By exploring these people’s realities, Eichstaedt demonstrates how a long legacy of often-willful misunderstanding has made two neighboring nations into perennial strangers, and rendered rational solutions elusive. A must-read for anyone hoping to understand the significance of our southern border." —Timothy J. Henderson, distinguished research professor and department chair, Department of History, Auburn University Montgomery
"Having narrated conflict from Afghanistan to Somalia to the Congo, Peter Eichstaedt brings a global perspective to the challenges and opportunities along the US-Mexico border. A thoughtful and balanced read." - David J. Danelo, field research director, Foreign Policy Research Institute, and author, The Border: Exploring the U.S.-Mexican Divide
2014-03-09
An impassioned, heavy-handed testimony on the state of the U.S.-Mexican border wars. A staunch human rights advocate, veteran journalist Eichstaedt (Above the Din of War: Afghans Speak About Their Lives, Their Country, and Their Future—and Why America Should Listen, 2013, etc.) traveled to the Southwest borderlands to report on the drug and immigration troubles marking Mexico as "terra incognita." There, he met humanitarian groups like the Tucson Samaritans, who are responsible for randomly dropping food and water rations for illegal immigrants crossing the desert. These migrants, the author notes, fall prey to the systematic and corporeal processes of U.S. Border Patrol, a government body employing technologically advanced territorial surveillance including aerostat drones and night-vision telescoped Humvees, all of which Eichstaedt perceives as excessive and wasteful. A section on the Columbus, N.M., gun-smuggling scandal involving town officials further demonstrates the area's historic potential for violence and corruption. Often a circuitous route, Mexican citizens who choose to abandon their country find themselves at the mercy of greedy "coyotes" (paid border guides/human smugglers), vicious "desert bandits" and drug cartel assassins. The author bolsters his astute reportage with interviews with migrants desperate for American opportunities, controversial border control crusaders, politicians and law enforcement agents. He also provides a fascinating tour of Tucson's Border Patrol offices and their complex surveillance of various ports of entry. As philanthropic as his perspective edge may be throughout the text, Eichstaedt rarely mentions that undocumented border breaches remain fundamentally unlawful. A dogmatic final chapter further criticizes modern border-protection tactics and statistical assumptions while promoting a "sweeping guest worker visa program" and an appeal for the reconsideration of current immigration policies. Earnestly reported material skewed (however compassionately) to place the plight of autonomous emigrants above American territorial laws.
