About the Book.
It was family separation and “kids in cages” that drove Sarah Towle to the U.S. southern border. On discovering the many-headed hydra that is the U.S. immigration system—and the heroic determination of those caught under its knee—she could never look away again. Crossing the Line: Finding America in the Borderlands 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 U.S. 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.
Abou the Author.
Sarah Towle is an international educator, researcher, and award-winning author; a human rights defender, nature lover, and choral soprano. She resides in an ephemeral borderlands, buffeted and buoyed by a diversity of languages, cultures, landscapes, and creeds. She has taught English language literacy, cross-cultural communication, conflict resolution skills, and the writing craft for three decades on four continents across the age span and in myriad contexts, including under the trees in refugee settings. Crossing the Line: Finding America in the Borderlands, a Nonfiction Authors Association Gold Medal recipient, launched in June 2024 to rave reviews from filmmaker Ken Burns, Pulitzer-Prize-winning author Toluse Olorunnipa, former Boston Globe Spotlight editor Scott Allen, and Kirkus Reviews, which called it "A powerful exposé of the human costs of America's immigration policies.” Sarah publishes regularly on Substack@Tales of Humanity. Her op-eds have appeared in the Boston Globe, Common Dreams, and Al Jazeera. Find her podcast, From the Borderlands, wherever you listen. To learn more about both book and author, please visit www.sarahtowle.com.
About the Moderator.
Samah Mcgona Sisay is a Staff Attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights, where she specializes in international human rights and challenging inhumane immigration policies and abusive police practices. Prior to coming to the Center for Constitutional Rights, Samah worked as an Equal Justice Works Fellow at African Services Committee. During her two-year fellowship, Samah provided legal representation on immigration matters to undocumented Black immigrant women, both transgender and cisgender, impacted by gender violence. Samah was born in Liberia and immigrated to the United States with her family at a young age during the country’s civil war. This experience informs her work as an attorney and propelled her to become the first person in her family to attend and graduate college. Samah earned a B.A. in International Affairs at the George Washington University and is a 2018 graduate of New York University School of Law, where she was an Arthur Garfield Hays Civil Liberties Fellow. During law school, Samah served as a student advocate for two years in the Immigrant Rights Clinic representing individuals in deportation proceedings. Samah was also awarded an International Law and Human Rights (ILHR) fellowship to work for Defence for Children International in Freetown, Sierra Leone, where she monitored the juvenile court and detention centers and advocated for the release of juvenile survivors of sexual violence.