The first comprehensive, in-depth book on the Trump
administration's assault on asylum protections
Arnovis couldn't
stay in El Salvador. If he didn't leave, a local gangster promised
that his family would dress in mourning--that he would wake up with
flies in his mouth. "It was like a bomb exploded in my life,"
Arnovis said.
The Dispossessed
tells the story of a twenty-four-year-old Salvadoran man, Arnovis,
whose family's search for safety shows how the United States--in
concert with other Western nations--has gutted asylum protections for
the world's most vulnerable. Crisscrossing the border and Central
America, John Washington traces one man's quest for asylum. Arnovis
is separated from his daughter by US Border Patrol agents and
struggles to find security after being repeatedly deported to a
gang-ruled community in El Salvador, traumatic experiences relayed by
Washington with vivid intensity.
Adding historical,
literary, and current political context to the discussion of
migration today, Washington tells the history of asylum law and
practice through ages to the present day. Packed with information and
reflection, The Dispossessed is more than a human portrait of
those who cross borders--it is an urgent and persuasive case for
sharing the country we call home.
