The book offers a step-by-step blueprint of radical proposals for the U.S.-Mexican border that go far beyond traditional initiatives to ease restrictions on immigration. The book argues that the border with Mexico should be completely open for Mexicans wishing to travel north. Up Against the Wall provides the background to understanding how the border has become a fraud, resulting in nothing more than the criminalization of Mexican and other migrants, the bloating of the mismanaged U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the deterioration of living standards along the frontier, and the enrichment of American employers. Placing the border in a historical perspective, Laufer shows how circumstances have deteriorated to the present Trump-exacerbated crisis, and why the region and the migration through it cannot be ignored. Over the last several years he has interviewed dozens of authorities and men and women in the street while reporting from Mexico, along the border, and in the United States. He demonstrates that the security of America's southern border is a fallacy; offers vivid examples to illustrate how the chain of misery and lawbreaking for migrants heading north is initiated by U.S. employers, traces many of the border problems to the Guatemalan-Mexican border, and explores the abuses of the Border Patrol and the growing presence of vigilantes on the American side. Up Against the Wall is sure to provoke a lively debate over the future of Mexican immigration and global migration crises.

Preface, Bienvenidos, Amigos; Foreword, by Former President of Mexico Vicente Fox; Chapter 1, Up Against the Wall, (Expletive); Chapter 2, Illegal Alien or Clever New American; Chapter 3, Still Life on the Border; Chapter 4, On Guard; Chapter 5, Death along for the Ride; Chapter 6, A Weary Lawyer's View; Chapter 7, What Is a Border?; Chapter 8, Failed Borders; Chapter 9, U.S. Annexation of Half of Mexico; Chapter 10, Early Border Control; Chapter 11, The Historical Failure of Border Control; Chapter 12, The Vigilante Movement; Chapter 13, Americans Party South, Mexicans Struggle North; Chapter 14, The Porous, Shifting Border; Chapter 15, Illegal Americans; Chapter 16, On the Kentucky-Mexican Border; Chapter 17, Deportation Made Easier; Chapter 18, One Farmer Working by the Rules; Chapter 19, Who Wants the Border Closed?; Chapter 20, Burden or Benefit?; Chapter 21, The Long Road North from Chiapas and Chihuahua; Chapter 22, No Amigos in the White House; Epilogue, A Practical Blueprint for Normalizing the U.S.-Mexico Border; Index.