
BORDER WARS
INSIDE TRUMP'S ASSAULT ON IMMIGRATION
JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVIS
& MICHAEL D. SHEAR
As his campaign rhetoric in the 2018 midterms demonstrated, no issue matters more to Donald Trump than immigration. And no issue—with the possible exception of his opposition to Robert Mueller’s investigation of his 2016 campaign—better defines his administration.
Julie Hirschfeld Davis and Michael D. Shear have covered the Trump administration from its earliest days. In Border Wars, they take readers inside the White House to document how Trump and his allies blocked asylum-seekers and refugees, separated families, threatened deportation and sought to erode the longstanding bipartisan consensus that immigration and immigrants make positive contributions to America.
As the authors reveal, Trump has used immigration to stoke fears (“the caravan”), attack Democrats and the courts, and distract from negative news and political difficulties. Even as illegal immigration has fallen in recent years, Trump has elevated it in the imaginations of many Americans into a national crisis. Moreover, his comments about legal immigrants—Nigerians in their “huts,” Haitians infected with AIDS, and people from “@#$%hole countries”—have been incendiary.
Border Wars identifies the players behind Trump’s anti-immigration policies, showing how they planned, stumbled, and fought their way toward major immigration changes that have further polarized the nation. This definitive, behind-the-scenes account is filled with previously unreported stories that reveal how Trump’s decision-making is driven by gut instinct and marked by disorganization, paranoia, and a constantly feuding staff.
The Reveals
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How Stephen Miller created his own secret immigration think tank inside the West Wing to churn out measures to restrict and penalize immigrants, but ultimately turned against his ideological allies when they found his ideas too extreme
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How President Trump, in a rage against migrants, came within 24 hours of shutting down the entire border with Mexico, and the mad scramble by his top aides to stop him — an effort that touched off a purge inside the Department of Homeland Security
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The president’s fixation with finding ways to physically punish migrants who try to cross illegally into the United States by constructing a wall that would shock, cut and burn them. And his musings about a moat with alligators and snakes.
Our Bios

Julie Hirschfeld Davis is a congressional correspondent at The New York Times. She has covered politics and policy from Washington for 22 years, and has worked at Bloomberg News, the Associated Press, the Baltimore Sun, and Congressional Quarterly. She won the 2009 Everett McKinley Dirksen Award for Distinguished Reporting of Congress.
Michael D. Shear is a White House correspondent at The New York Times. A veteran political correspondent in Washington, he spent eighteen years writing about local, state and national politics at The Washington Post, where he was also part of the Pulitzer Prize-winning team that covered the Virginia Tech shootings in 2007.
Credit: Matt Mendelsohn
Events
- Tue, Nov 195015 Connecticut Ave NWNov 19, 2019, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM EST5015 Connecticut Ave NW, 5015 Connecticut Ave NW, Washington, DC 20008, USABorder Wars describes how Trump planned, stumbled, and fought his way toward changes that have polarized the nation and how his decision-making is marked by gut instinct, disorganization, paranoia, and a constantly feuding staff.
- Mon, Nov 04Schultz Cultural Arts HallNov 04, 2019, 7:30 PM PSTSchultz Cultural Arts Hall, 3921 Fabian Way, Palo Alto, CA 94303, USABorder Wars identifies the players behind Trump's anti-immigration policies, showing how they planned, stumbled and fought their way toward major immigration changes that have polarized the nation.
- Sun, Nov 03The Forum (West Entrance)Nov 03, 2019, 7:30 PMThe Forum (West Entrance), 1119 8th Ave, Seattle, WA 98101, USAHow Trump and his allies blocked asylum-seekers and refugees, separated families, threatened deportation, and sought to erode the longstanding bipartisan consensus that immigration and immigrants make positive contributions to America.
- Wed, Oct 30Marian Miner Cook AthenaeumOct 30, 2019, 6:30 PM PDTMarian Miner Cook Athenaeum, 385 E 8th St, Claremont, CA 91711, USABorder Wars describes how Trump planned, stumbled, and fought his way toward changes that have polarized the nation and how his decision-making is marked by gut instinct, disorganization, paranoia, and a constantly feuding staff.
- Sun, Oct 27American Jewish UniversityOct 27, 2019, 4:00 PMAmerican Jewish University, 15600 Mulholland Dr, Los Angeles, CA 90077, USABorder Wars identifies the players behind Trump's anti-immigration policies, showing how they planned, stumbled and fought their way toward major immigration changes that have polarized the nation.
- Sat, Oct 26Texas Book Festival, C-SPAN TentOct 26, 2019, 12:00 PM CDTTexas Book Festival, C-SPAN Tent, Austin, TX, USAThis definitive, behind-the-scenes account is filled with previously unreported stories that reveal how Trump’s decision-making is driven by gut instinct and marked by disorganization, paranoia, and a constantly feuding staff.
- Mon, Oct 14Edlis Neeson TheaterOct 14, 2019, 7:00 PMEdlis Neeson Theater, 220 E Chicago Ave, Chicago, IL 60611, USAWith renewed emphasis on borders and what they mean, how are refugees changing our understanding of the nation, of borders, and of ourselves? This Talk will explore the converging worlds of human rights, global security, and high-stakes diplomacy.
CONTACT
For any media inquiries, please contact Larry Hughes
at Simon & Schuster
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