Border Reading 2022

As promised, here are my most recent book recommendations to help you learn about the southern U.S. border and immigration elsewhere. Each one is compelling and eye-opening. Happy reading!

Go Back to Where You Came From: And Other Helpful Recommendations on How to Become American, by Wajahat Ali

This is a hilarious, insightful book written by a second-generation Muslim Pakistani-American about his experiences in the U.S. You’ll laugh; you’ll cringe; you’ll question your assumptions.

The Naked Don’t Fear the Water: An Underground Journey with Afghan Refugees, by Matthieu Aikins

Aikins is a western journalist who traveled undercover as a refugee with his Afghan friend, fleeing Afghanistan for Europe. Learn with the author what it’s like to make this perilous journey.

The Line Becomes a River: Dispatches from the Border, by Francisco Cantú

Cantú joined the Border Patrol as an enthusiastic young man hoping to learn firsthand about international relations and border policy, which he studied in college. This is the story of his experiences, what he learned, and what he did about it.

Border Hacker: A Tale of Treachery, Trafficking, and Two Friends on the Run, by Levi Vonk with Axel Kirschner

This book follows the unlikely friendship between a white journalist and an Afro-Latino migrant traveling together through Mexico. Suspenseful and humanizing.

Stay tuned for more book recommendations for younger readers. And let me know in the comments what you thought of these books!

Catching Up

Thank you, dear readers, for sticking with me while I haven’t written for so long! I’ve been plenty busy with a variety of immigration work, which I just haven’t been writing about. Here’s a quick summary. If you want to read in more detail about anything in particular, just leave me a comment.

This is a sampling of what I’ve been up to in the past several months, often with the help of my friend Phyllis:

• Welcoming and walking alongside newly-arrived families from Afghanistan, Honduras, and Colombia
• Celebrating news from a Bhutanese friend that he’s now a grandfather
• Celebrating with a friend from Burundi that he and his wife are now U.S. citizens
• Teaching an Immigration 101 workshop
• Working with Mobile Clothes, receiving donations, organizing and sorting donations, filling and delivering orders, applying for grants, and shopping for supplies
• Representing ASC COS at two public events: “Becoming Americans,” a film and speaking engagement by a Vietnamese refugee and immigrant raising funds for Ukrainian refugees, and the Youth Documentary Academy premiere of several films made by young documentarians, including an immigrant and a refugee who made films about their experiences
• Continuing work with ASC COS, where we’ve recently welcomed a new member church, and we’ve hired our first employee, a part-time dispatcher!
• Volunteering at an asylum application clinic for Afghans
• Helping friends apply for work permits
• Participating in a virtual Migrant Trail Border Encuentro, learning from several people who live and work on the border
• Visiting the zoo at least four times with immigrant families
• Celebrating birthdays
• Visiting several local parks with immigrant families
• Helping find housing for a family and helping them move twice, including gathering and delivering furniture and houseware donations, connecting utilities, and filling out change of address forms
• Delivering a sewing machine
• Attending the CIRC (Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition) annual assembly

I’m sure there’s more, but you get the idea. As I mentioned, thanks for hanging in there through my radio silence, and please stay tuned—I have a couple of posts in the works focusing on book recommendations. Feel free to leave a comment if you’re interested in more details about any of the above.