Harnessing the emotional truth, narrative power, and moral vision of Morrison, Kingsolver, and Zinn, Sarah Towle’s urgent and evocative journey of discovery reveals how the US immigration system evolved into a weapon to drive democracy into crisis.

2024 Nonfiction Book Award Gold Medal Winner
2024 CIBA Nellie Bly Award First Place Winner for Journalistic Nonfiction
2025 RFK Human Rights Book Award Nominee
A SocialJusticeBook.org featured book for “Teaching About Immigration”

It was family separation and “kids in cages” that drove Sarah Towle to the US southern border. On discovering the many-headed hydra that is the US immigration system—and the heroic determination of those caught under its knee—she could never look away again. Crossing the Line charts Sarah’s journey from outrage to activism to abolition as she exposes, layer by “broken” layer, the global deterrence to detention to deportation complex that is failing everyone—save the profiteers and demagogues who benefit from it.

Deftly weaving together oral storytelling, history, and memoir, Sarah illustrates how the US has led the retreat from post-WWII commitments to protecting human rights. Yet within the web of normalized cruelty, she finds hope and inspiration in the extraordinary acts of ordinary people who prove, every day, there is a better way. By amplifying their voices and celebrating their efforts, Sarah reveals that we can welcome with dignity those most in need of safety and compassion. In unmasking the real root causes of the so-called “crisis” in human migration, she urges us to act before we travel much farther down our current course—one which history will not soon forgive, or forget.