Against the Wall: My Journey from Border Patrol Agent to Immigrant Rights Activist

Jenn Budd, the only former U.S. Border Patrol agent to continually blow the whistle on this federal agency's rampant corruption, challenges us-as individuals and as a nation-to face the consequences of our actions. Her journey offers a vital perspective on the unfolding moral crisis of our time. She also gives harrowing testimony about rape culture, white privilege, women in law enforcement, LGBTQ issues, mental illness, survival and forgiveness.

Jenn Budd wrote Against the Wall to heal herself from a traumatic childhood, a sexual assault she survived while in the Border Patrol academy and a serious suicide attempt in 2015. Much like our border wall, her personal walls did not keep her safe. Her trauma and the trauma she caused others only began to heal when she began tearing down her personal walls and facing her own prejudices and racism..."I hope my memoir will prompt more citizens to face our prejudices, dismantle institutionalized racism and be willing to listen to those we've harmed."

"I don't know anybody else out there who's telling us the stuff Jenn Budd is telling us right now. She's a warrior."

-Kathy Griffin

"As Americans, we invest so much power and responsibility in our law enforcement officers. When that power is abused, it's our responsibility to stand up and speak out about it-and Jenn Budd does that so courageously in this compelling book. Please read it. Please internalize it. And please join Jenn in her incredible activism to make sure the abuses of power stop now and never happen again."

-Alyssa Milano, activist-actress-author of Sorry Not Sorry

"An unflinching look at a Border Patrol riddled with corruption, racism, and misogyny. Raw and truthful, no one escapes judgement..."

-Melissa del Bosque, author of Blood Lines, Lannan Reporting Fellow at Type Investigations, and co-author of The Border Chronicle newsletter and podcast

"With painstaking honesty and the sharp eye of a natural storyteller, Jenn Budd chronicles her journey from oppressor to activist. She investigates and condemns the agency she once was proud to be a part of while simultaneously exploring her own complicity...Jenn's story, so deftly told, is a powerful testament to the importance of confronting both our own personal demons and our country's corrupt systems of power."

-Barbara Feinman Todd, author of Pretend I´m Not Here and founding journalism director at Georgetown University

"...a must-read for anyone who is interested in a first-hand account of how immigration enforcement plays out at the U.S.-Mexico border."

-Vicki B. Gaubeca, a long-time human rights advocate and current director of the Southern Border Communities Coalition

"A shocking look at the ugly underbelly of the U.S. Border Patrol. Brave and unflinching, Jenn Budd is one of the most important voices about immigration enforcement in the United States."

-Reece Jones, a 2021 Guggenheim Fellow and the author of White Borders: The History of Race and Immigration in the United States from Chinese Exclusion to the Border Wall

"...essential reading to understand how today's heartless and abusive Border Patrol culture came into being and what needs to be done to transform immigration policy in America."

- Ruth Ben-Ghiat, author of Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present