Everyone Who Is Gone Is Here by Jonathan Blitzer
An epic, heartbreaking, and deeply reported history of the disastrous humanitarian crisis at the southern border told through the lives of the migrants forced to risk everything and the policymakers who determine their fate, by New Yorker staff writer Jonathan Blitzer
Everyone who makes the journey faces an impossible choice. Each year hundreds of thousands of people arrive at the US-Mexico border from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras, or, in many cases, much further away. They flee persecution, crime, or hunger, and often have attempted to cross before. They may have already been deported but the United States remains their only hope for safety and prosperity. They will take their chances.
This vast and unremitting crisis did not spring up overnight. Indeed, as Blitzer dramatizes with forensic, unprecedented reporting, it is the result of decades of misguided policy and sweeping corruption. Brilliantly weaving the stories of Central Americans whose lives have been devastated by chronic political conflict and violence with those of American activists, government officials, and the politicians responsible for the country’s tragically tangled immigration policy, Blitzer reveals the full, layered picture for the first time.
Everyone Who Is Gone Is Here is an odyssey of struggle and resilience that delves into the heart of American life itself. This vital story has shaped the nation’s turbulent politics and culture in countless ways—and will almost certainly determine its future.
An epic, heartbreaking, and deeply reported history of the disastrous humanitarian crisis at the southern border told through the lives of the migrants forced to risk everything and the policymakers who determine their fate, by New Yorker staff writer Jonathan Blitzer
Everyone who makes the journey faces an impossible choice. Each year hundreds of thousands of people arrive at the US-Mexico border from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras, or, in many cases, much further away. They flee persecution, crime, or hunger, and often have attempted to cross before. They may have already been deported but the United States remains their only hope for safety and prosperity. They will take their chances.
This vast and unremitting crisis did not spring up overnight. Indeed, as Blitzer dramatizes with forensic, unprecedented reporting, it is the result of decades of misguided policy and sweeping corruption. Brilliantly weaving the stories of Central Americans whose lives have been devastated by chronic political conflict and violence with those of American activists, government officials, and the politicians responsible for the country’s tragically tangled immigration policy, Blitzer reveals the full, layered picture for the first time.
Everyone Who Is Gone Is Here is an odyssey of struggle and resilience that delves into the heart of American life itself. This vital story has shaped the nation’s turbulent politics and culture in countless ways—and will almost certainly determine its future.
An epic, heartbreaking, and deeply reported history of the disastrous humanitarian crisis at the southern border told through the lives of the migrants forced to risk everything and the policymakers who determine their fate, by New Yorker staff writer Jonathan Blitzer
Everyone who makes the journey faces an impossible choice. Each year hundreds of thousands of people arrive at the US-Mexico border from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras, or, in many cases, much further away. They flee persecution, crime, or hunger, and often have attempted to cross before. They may have already been deported but the United States remains their only hope for safety and prosperity. They will take their chances.
This vast and unremitting crisis did not spring up overnight. Indeed, as Blitzer dramatizes with forensic, unprecedented reporting, it is the result of decades of misguided policy and sweeping corruption. Brilliantly weaving the stories of Central Americans whose lives have been devastated by chronic political conflict and violence with those of American activists, government officials, and the politicians responsible for the country’s tragically tangled immigration policy, Blitzer reveals the full, layered picture for the first time.
Everyone Who Is Gone Is Here is an odyssey of struggle and resilience that delves into the heart of American life itself. This vital story has shaped the nation’s turbulent politics and culture in countless ways—and will almost certainly determine its future.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jonathan Blitzer is a staff writer at The New Yorker. He has won a National Award for Education Reporting as well as an Edward R. Murrow Award, and was a 2021 Emerson Fellow at New America. He lives with his family in New York City.
