‘Crossing the Line’ author speaks about mass deportation

At Fogartyville event, local immigrant advocates share personal stories.

By Ramon Lopez

Original Air Date: October 8, 2026

Host: Yesterday at Fogartyville Community Center, a book author explained the impact of mass deportation and the border-industrial complex. The biggest takeaway from the event, though, were the stories of three local immigrant activists. Ramon Lopez was there.

Ramon Lopez: Last night, author Sarah Towle joined Sarasota immigrant rights activists at Fogartyville to unravel how immigration has been weaponized to break U.S. democracy. The author of Crossing the Line: Finding America in the Borderlands was in town as part of a Florida speaking tour. Joining Towle on stage was Daniela Arcadia, Michelle Jewell and Junior Salazar.

Earlier in the day, Towle visited WSLR. Rhatia Murphy asked the award-winning writer what comes next. When this phase of mass deportations is over, what challenges will the United States have to confront first?

Sarah Towle | Photo: Lopez

Sarah Towle: The challenges are many, but we also are looking at an opportunity to finally be the nation that we have long aspired to be. This can’t go on. We are committing human rights atrocities, and we are paying for them. This is not the nation I was brought up to believe we are. The main thing is we need to, first and foremost, flip Congress this November; then, return candidates who have values to the White House in 2028-2029; and then we need to hold Democrats’ feet to the fire because they’re complicit in building what we have right now, and what we have right now is a Department of Homeland so-called Security that has been turned against all of us with its agencies—in particular, ICE and Customs and Border Protection, which includes the border patrol. It must be dismantled. We built it, we can unbuild it, and we can rebuild it again. We have created an infrastructure that is driving us toward a new Holocaust.

RL: That night, Towle continued her verbal attack on Trump immigration policy.

ST: The real crisis we face today is not the number of people striving to become part of this so-called American dream or to stay right here where they put down roots and made careers and started families—the place they call home. The real crisis that we face today is the hardening of the human heart against their hope for better. Our government has chosen to ask, all these decades, “How do we stop them?” What the current regime acts through its mass detention and mass deportation campaign is, “How do we get rid of them?” Their response is robbing us blind. It is making us complicit to their crimes against humanity. It is leading us down a dark, dark road that history will not soon forget or forgive while tanking our economy and destroying our democratic birthright. It begs us to ask, “Can human rights exist in a world obsessed with security?”

RL: Michelle Jewell takes Trump’s immigration dragnet personally. This, because her Columbia-born and naturalized US citizen mother elected to leave her adopted country. She didn’t like what she was seeing.

Michelle Jewell and her mom, Dianeth Dorris | Photo: Lopez

Michelle Jewell: All of these things scared her to even take walks in my neighborhood. After a woman who has been brave and has stood up to everything you can imagine, she decided she was going to move to Costa Rica. She decided she was going to move to a country where she knew no one—no friends, no family—just because she knew that she would at least be safe there. So my reason for being here is not only as a social justice activist but as a daughter of an immigrant—as a witness to what’s happening every day.

RL: Michelle’s mom is doing just fine. She’s buying a house in her new nation.

Meanwhile, Daniela Arcadia continues her fight to stay in America.

From left to right: Sarah Towle, Michelle Jewell, Daniela Arcadia and Junior Salazar. | Photo: Werner

Daniela Arcadia: I am a DACA recipient, so I am not a U.S. citizen yet and I do not have a green card. I have DACA. I have had DACA for about 15, 16 years now. They do check my background and make sure that I haven’t committed any crimes, and if I did, they would send me back. They would not renew it. So, every two years, I’ve been able to renew it. This year, it’s taking longer than it should, which is really scary. That’s why I decided to be more open about it and share with everyone—because I do feel like, if I’m going to go down, I’m going to go down kicking.

RL: Junior Salazar knows all too well what Daniela is going through.

Junior Salazar | Photo: Lopez

Junior Salazar: As I see people who are on DACA, one of the things that we’re seeing currently is that this administration has weaponized it. What they’re doing is allowing the clock to run out for these people, and they’re letting it run out on purpose so that, at the very last minute, on that last day, when it has expired, they know exactly who it has expired on, and guess who’s knocking on that door that very next day? And it’s not a nice visit. And they’re showing up and picking them up.

RL: For Sarah Towle, it has to be “One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”

ST: I don’t want to be associated with the indignity and deliberate cruelty of an immigration system that has become a dagger plunged into the heart of U.S. democracy. These days will end. They always do. When they do, if we act today, together, we can build a better nation from the ashes—because the thing is, peeps, we can’t go back. The only way through it is together, and when this dark chapter is finally behind us, it will be us taking the lead and recreating the nation we wish to be—one in which diversity, equity and inclusion are celebrated—one in which the stranger, the newcomer, is welcomed—one characterized by peace, justice and human rights for all—a true exemplar of freedom and a beacon of hope for all those the world over striving to live free wherever they may be, including right here in these Reunited States of America.

RL: This is Ramon Lopez for WSLR News.

WSLR News aims to keep the local community informed with our 1/2 hour local news show, quarterly newspaper and social media feeds. The local news broadcast airs on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 6pm.