The Closing of the American Border: Terrorism, Immigration, and Security Since 9/11 [Hardcover]

Edward Alden (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 16, 2008

On September 10, 2001, the United States was the most open country in the world. But in the aftermath of the worst terrorist attacks on American soil, the U.S. government began to close its borders in an effort to fight terrorism. The Bush administration's goal was to build new lines of defense without stifling the flow of people and ideas from abroad that has helped build the world's most dynamic economy. Unfortunately, it didn't work out that way.

Based on extensive interviews with the administration officials who were charged with securing the border after 9/11, and with many innocent people whose lives have been upended by the new security regulations, The Closing of the American Border is a striking and compelling assessment of the dangers faced by a nation that cuts itself off from the rest of the world.

--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Former Washington bureau chief of the Financial Times, Alden provides a thoughtful and balanced assessment of border security and immigration policies before and after the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, demonstrating how more stringent security can damage the U.S. economy by discouraging trade, tourism and an influx of bright minds and diligent workers. The author's vignettes make what could be a dry read engaging and urgent. Alden's policy prescriptions are book-ended with the story of Dr. Faiz Bhora, a leading heart surgeon from Pakistan who had trouble returning to the States to resume his work because of visa problems and was eventually caught in the post-9/11 Justice Department crackdown on visa applications by citizens of Muslim countries. Alden points out that the Department of Homeland Security concedes that most of its counterterrorism funds are being poured into securing and controlling the border with Mexico and makes a persuasive case that immigration enforcement and counterterrorism are two different things, and for either to be effective they need to be separated. (Sept.)
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Review

“A thought-provoking study that will leave you looking at our borders in a new light.” (The San Antonio Express-News )

“Alden’s book reads like a case study in good intentions and bad effects.” (The Wall Street Journal )

“Compellingly argued and meticulously researched.” (Clive Crook, The Financial Times )

“In this revealing and richly researched account, Alden describes how the Bush administration came to rely on the blunt instrument of immigration enforcement to carry out its counterterrorism strategy after 9/11.” (Julia Preston, Foreign Affairs )

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: Harper; First Edition edition (September 16, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0061558397
• ISBN-13: 978-0061558399
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 6.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #358,212 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Edward Alden was born in New York, raised in Vancouver, British Columbia and currently lives outside Washington, D.C. with his wife and two children, where he is a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. He is the former Washington bureau chief for the Financial Times, and has also worked as a reporter at the Vancouver Sun and Inside U.S. Trade. His book "The Closing of the American Border" was named as a finalist for the J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize. The judges wrote: "Exceptional journalism is required to take immigration -- a neglected sideshow in the nation's globe-girding response to the September 11 attacks -- and make the topic as evocative of America's misplaced values as the Iraq War and the tolerance for torture." Most recently, he has directed and co-authored the "Independent Task Force on U.S. Immigration Policy," which the Miami Herald said is a must-read for every member of Congress.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This book taught me a lot about DHS -- and I work there!, January 28, 2009

By 

Stewart Baker - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Closing of the American Border: Terrorism, Immigration, and Security Since 9/11 (Hardcover)

Ted Alden has written the best available book on the early history of DHS. I joined the department in 2005, toward the end of the period he covers, and I was interviewed for the book; even so, the book gave me new insight into the events that shaped the Department. It is superbly written, with a clear eye for anecdotes that crystallize the policy issues that Alden explores. I don't agree with the author about some of the policy issues, but I still recommended the book to all the officials who came after me at the Department. If you want to understand what DHS is doing today, this is the place to start.

Stewart Baker, former Assistant Secretary for Policy, DHS

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars required reading, December 27, 2008

By 

Scott G. Borgerson (New York, NY) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Closing of the American Border: Terrorism, Immigration, and Security Since 9/11 (Hardcover)

Edward Alden's timely new book, The Closing of the American Border, is a must read for the incoming Obama administration and any American interested in homeland security (as well as foreigners wanting to better understand often contradictory US immigration policies). Exhaustively researched and brilliantly penned, this page-turner provides a thorough account of the country's border policies since 9/11. This important book is the unofficial history of how overnight border security transitioned from an almost afterthought to a bureaucratic tug of war, sometimes carried out in the oval office, between "the cops" and "the technocrats" struggling to balance protecting the country with civil liberties in a new age of counter-terrorism.

Unlike many serious policy books, The Closing of the American Border is actually a terrific read, written with a combination of serious analysis and gut wrenching anecdotes of detained immigrants whose only crime was their place of birth, unlucky timing, and desire to invest their considerable talents in the United States. The book tells harrowing stories of lives destroyed after being snared in blunt security initiatives aimed at foiling the next major attack. Admittedly, while it is impossible to prove a counterfactual why there hasn't been another terrorist incident, the book details how the closing of the American border has come with considerable cost to America's image abroad and economic competitiveness at home. Immigrants, whose sweat literally and figuratively built America, have run up against an administrative buzz saw from a government still reeling from Al Queda's surprise attack. As the book chronicles, Bush administration officials in a politically charged and risk adverse environment have been at almost every corner willing to sacrifice efficiency and open borders for tighter, if imperfect, border security. The personal stories of individual disaster the book relays put human faces on what often just seem like steely, impersonal policy decisions. The book reads like a combination of the Warren Report and a reality TV series turned horror show.

New DHS officials, incoming National Security Council staff, and citizens interested in the perennial tensions between freedom and security should carefully read The Closing of the American Border and keep it close to their desks. This book provides critical strategic lessons gleaned from seven years of hindsight for Americans and their leaders. The policy choices remain difficult ones, and as this book makes clear, there is still much work to be done.

Dr. Scott Borgerson, a former US Coast Guard officer, is the visiting fellow for ocean governance at the Council on Foreign Relations.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars FT and WSJ were right to give this book great reviews, October 7, 2008

By 

DC reader (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Closing of the American Border: Terrorism, Immigration, and Security Since 9/11 (Hardcover)

I decided to pick up this book after reading very positive write-ups in both the Wall Street Journal and Financial Times, and while I don't always agree with either paper on the books they recommend, I must say this one was even better than the printed reviews. The newspaper accounts give the impression that this is merely an important book about an important policy issue...which it is. But it's also an incredibly compelling narrative about infighting within the Bush administration over how to respond to 9/11...and make sure it doesn't happen again. Alden interviews almost all the major players -- Colin Powell, Tom Ridge, Michael Chertoff -- and lots of less-senior officials who give a really insider account of the battles within the government in the months and years following the attack. Sort of like a classic Woodward book, except on homeland security rather than wars overseas. Can't recommend it more!