Separated at the Border - by Michael Walsten (Paperback)

About the Book

Book Synopsis

In Separated at the Border, a 24-year-old female freelance journalist and an ex-Army Ranger and journalism professor team up to fight abuse at a for-profit immigrant youth detention facility in the Florida Everglades. Along the way, the two are forced to take on a Miami-based human trafficking gang and a corrupt facility administrator while skirting the law and dodging a suspicious Broward County Sheriff's detective.

It tells the story of a young woman's quest for professional and personal fulfillment while searching for a solution to the plight of abused and incarcerated children.

Separated at the Border is an exceptional example of fast-paced, contemporary adult fiction. It's a story that is both inspiring and suspenseful.

Review Quotes

Walsten's gripping debut humanizes the Southern border crisis by focusing on two Honduran refugees: 15-year-old Antonio Vazquez and his seven-year-old sister, Isabella. With their father murdered by the MS-13 gang and their mother missing, the Vazquez siblings hope to start a new life in Houston with their aunt. But once they cross the border, the two are separated. Antonio ends up at Florida's Everglades Detention Facility, whose head, Rebecca Cross, has been selling some of the children sent to her to a Dominican gang that has expanded into human trafficking. That corruption comes to the attention of an idealistic fledgling journalist, Diamond Herrera, who's outraged at the federal government's family separation policy. When Diamond learns how Cross is treating her charges, she contacts her old journalism professor, Jason Taylor. Jason's skills as a former Army Ranger come in handy when Diamond persuades him that direct private action is needed to rescue children. Never mind the clich�d romance that develops between Diamond and Jason. Fans of timely topical thrillers will be pleased.

- Publishers Weekly