Margaret Regan, a superb journalist who has reported for the past ten years on what happens to families and individuals who daily risk their lives crossing the desert to find work in the US, has written a compelling and important book. The ups and downs, the deaths and triumphs, the practical details of each crossing, the suspense before decisions on where to cross, whether to trust a “coyote,” all become personal when the people themselves are interviewed.

Circumstances vary. One migrant worker from Honduras, who had been caught in Seattle and deported, was trying again. Some people had given up and were working at the border in maquilas or, if they were lucky, in coffee co-ops.

Regan writes about the increasing militarization of the borderlands; the economics of border life; how NAFTA results in increasing migration; what happens in border detention centers.  She discusses religions and moral questions, and has ideas on immigration reform. Ted Robbins, the Southwest correspondent for NPR says, "There may be no better way to understand the muddle that is U.S. immigration policy than by reading these portraits of people who cross the border in hopes of a better life. . . The Death of Josseline is an excellent way to understand—on a human level—the ebb and flow of human labor across political boundaries." (2010. Available from Beacon Press.)