Skip to content
LPBN-Icon-v1
ImmigrationProf Blog
A Member of the Law Professor Blogs Network

From the Bookshelves: Soldiers and Kings: Survival and Hope in the World of Human Smuggling by Jason De León

By immigrationprof

Soldiers and Kings by Jason De León

CNN interviews Jason De León, a UCLA professor and director of the school’s Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, who spent seven years shadowing smugglers to tell their stories.  He argues that the lives of smugglers are far more complicated and less glamorous than typical media portrayals suggest. De León‘s work won the 2024s National Book Award.

Check out his book Soldiers and Kings: Survival and Hope in the World of Human Smuggling.
 
One interesting passage from the interview:
 
“Thinking back on that moment, what are the kinds of changes you expect to see?

Smugglers love Trump, because it’s a lot of bluster, and migrants don’t know that, so they can jack up their prices quickly. I would say Trump is good for the economy of undocumented migration. Smugglers are going, `OK, if you want to come now, the price has doubled, because it’s so much more dangerous now,’ even though it’s probably not. I remember having lots of conversations with smugglers, who would say, `I love Trump. He makes our job easier and makes it easier for us to justify higher rates.'”

KJ

Posted in:
Books and Current Affairs