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

An unlikely friendship, a four-thousand-mile voyage, and an impenetrable frontier—this dramatic odyssey reveals the chaos and cruelty US immigration policies have unleashed beyond our borders. Axel Kirschner was a lifelong New Yorker, all Queens hustle and bravado. But he was also undocumented. After a minor traffic violation while driving his son to kindergarten, Axel was deported to Guatemala, a country he swore he had not lived in since he was a baby. While fighting his way back through Mexico on a migrant caravan, Axel met Levi Vonk, a young anthropologist and journalist from the US. That chance encounter would change both of their lives forever. Levi soon discovered that Axel was no ordinary migrant. He was harboring a secret: Axel was a hacker. This secret would launch the two friends on a dangerous adventure far beyond what either of them could have imagined. While Axel’s abilities gave him an edge in a system that denied his existence, they would also ensnare him in a tangled underground network of human traffickers, corrupt priests, and anti-government guerillas eager to exploit his talents for their own ends. And along the way, Axel’s secret only raised more questions for Levi about his past. How had Axel learned to hack? What did he want? And was Axel really who he said he was? Border Hacker is at once an adventure saga—the story of a man who would do anything to return to his family, and the friend who would do anything to help him—and a profound parable about the violence of American immigration policy told through a single, extraordinary life. The thrilling narrative of an unlikely friendship and a Guatemalan migrant-hackers journey, revealing the chaos and cruelty U.S. immigration policies have unleashed even beyond our borders Axel Kirschner was a lifelong New Yorker, all Queens hustle and bravado. But he was also undocumented. After a minor traffic violation while driving his son to kindergarten, Axel was deported to Guatemala, a country he swore he had not lived in since he was a baby. While fighting his way back through Mexico on a migrant caravan, Axel met Levi Vonk, a young anthropologist and journalist from the US. That chance encounter would change both of their lives forever. Levi soon discovered that Axel was no ordinary migrant. He was harboring a secret: Axel was ahacker. This secret would launch the two friends on a dangerous adventure far beyond what either of them could have imagined. While Axels abilities gave him an edge in a system that denied his existence, they would also ensnare him in a tangled underground network of human traffickers, corrupt priests, and anti-government guerillas eager to exploit his talents for their own ends. And along the way, Axels secret only raised more questions for Levi about his past. How had Axel learned to hack? What did he want? And was Axel really who he said he was? Border Hackeris at once an adventure sagathe story of a man who will do anything to return to his family, and the friend who will do anything to help himand a deeper parable about the violence of US immigration policy as shot through a single, extraordinary life. "In 2015, several years before migrant caravans were making headlines, Levi Vonk, a young anthropologist and journalist, went to Mexico to live and work with migrants, in defiance of the conservative politics of his Southern hometown. There he made a friend who would change the course of his life--and quite possibly the course of Mexican history along with it. Axel Kirschner was a lifelong New Yorker, all Queens hustle and bravado, having been brought to the U.S from Guatemala at only a year old. But he was also undocumented. When he met Levi in Mexico in 2015, after being deported for a minor traffic violation, Axel was fighting to get home to his young kids in Queens. While on its surface, Axel's story is an archetypal one, Vonk soon discovered that he was harboring a secret: Axel was a hacker. This secret would launch the two friends on a dangerous adventure far beyond what either of them could have imagined when they first met on the caravan. While Axel's abilities gave him an edge in a system that denied his existence, they would also ensnare him in a tangled underground network of human traffickers, corrupt priests, and anti-government guerillas eager to exploit his talents for their own ends. The Border Hacker is at once an adventure saga-the story of a man who will do anything to return to his family and the friend who will do anything to help him--and a deeper parable about the violence of US immigration policy as shot through a single, extraordinary life"-- Provided by publisher