A Story of Asylum at the US-Mexican Border and Beyond

FEATURING JOHN WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump’s senior immigration adviser Stephen Miller has been waiting to use the idea of public health to curtail immigration for years. According to the New York Times, “the ideas about invoking public health and other emergency powers had been on a ‘wish list’ of about 50 ideas to curtail immigration that Mr. Miller crafted within the first six months of the administration.” Trump has suspended green card applications for several broad categories including family members of US citizens. He has also used the crisis to turn away asylum seekers at the US border.

Now a new book tells the story of one Central American asylum seeker and what motived him to make his way to the US.

John Washington, writer, translator, and activist. A regular contributor to The Nation magazine and The Intercept, he writes about immigration and border politics, as well as criminal justice, photography, and literature. His new book is called The Dispossessed: A Story of Asylum at the US-Mexican Border and Beyond.