Border Hacker: A Tale of Treachery, Trafficking, and Two Friends on the Run

Anthropologist Vonk and undocumented Guatemalan immigrant Kirschner deliver a harrowing account of exploitation along the migrant route from Central America to the U.S. In 2015, Vonk joined a caravan organized by associates of the humanitarian activist Fr. Alejandro Solalinde. The plan was to travel 300 miles from the Guatemala border to Ixtepec, Oaxaca, through some of the most heavily patrolled areas in Mexico, to call attention to a secret “quasi-army” that was “catching and deporting as many Central American migrants as possible... at the behest of the United States.” During the journey, Vonk met Kirschner, who grew up on Long Island and was deported to Guatemala after he got in a traffic accident and the other driver reported him to the police. The two form a fast friendship, though inconsistencies in Kirschner’s story begin to make Vonk suspicious. After the caravan ends, Kirschner reveals to Vonk that he is a computer hacker; he also alleges that activists and politicians associated with Father Solalinde conspired to keep him from reaching the U.S. in order to exploit his hacking skills. Combining Vonk’s in-depth reportage on U.S. border policy, predatory shelter operators, and the links between cartels, kidnappers, and the police with Kirschner’s first-person testimony, the two unspool a riveting and disturbing story. Readers will be aghast. Agent: Amelia Atlas, ICM Partners. (Apr.)