The U.S.-Mexico border has become a symbol in the increasingly overheated debate about immigration. From a distance the border looks like a dividing line. In fact, it’s a binational region, and for millions of Americans and Mexicans it is home. Border residents share an economy, environment, history, and culture. But with a stalled immigration policy and a raging drug war, the people who live in the borderlands also bear the brunt of the violence and political friction.
Tyche Hendricks, author of The Wind Doesn’t Need a Passport: Stories from the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands, brings a fresh perspective to one of the most debated and least understood places. Reporting from emergency rooms and factory floors, farm kitchens and jail cells, Hendricks met American and Mexican ranchers, physicians, police, and naturalists whose lives intersect at the border. She argues that a better understanding of the region—and the way the United States and Mexico are connected there—is essential if policymakers are to reach lasting solutions that benefit both countries.
Join us for a conversation featuring Tyche Hendricks and Ambassador Arturo Sarukhan about the dynamics at play in the borderlands today and their implications for immigration policy and the future of U.S.-Mexico relations.
Copies of The Wind Doesn’t Need a Passport: Stories from the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands will be available for purchase at the event.
Welcoming remarks:
Cathy Feingold, Director of International Affairs, AFL-CIO
Angela Kelley, Vice President for Immigration Policy and Advocacy, Center for American Progress
Introductory Remarks:
Ambassador Arturo Sarukhan, Ambassador of Mexico to the United States
Keynote Speaker:
Tyche Hendricks, Author of The Wind Doesn’t Need a Passport: Stories from the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands, Editor, KQED Public Radio, San Francisco and Lecturer, University of California at Berkeley, Graduate School of Journalism