University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa Professor Reece Jones authors books about border politics, but his newest is the most anticipated. On October 20, 2026, Smuggler: Drugs, Gangs, and Refugees at America's Northern Border, will be released by Prometheus Books.
The book has already earned recognition, named a Big Indie Book of the Fall by Publishers Weekly, and a Most Anticipated Book of 2026 by Inkstick Media. And a major TV studio has optioned the rights to produce a scripted series based on the book, co-authored by Greg Boos, an immigration lawyer.
Smuggler is the true story of American Bob Boulé, a quirky bed-and-breakfast owner on the U.S. Canadian border in Blaine, Washington, who became a central figure of debate around violent immigration policing in the U.S. The book follows the events behind Egbert v. Bob Boulé, a 2022 U.S. Supreme Court decision that gave ICE and border patrol agents immunity from civil cases for constitutional violations.
"It's exciting for this important story to be getting the attention it deserves," said Jones, a Department of Geography and Environment professor in the College of Social Sciences and an expert on border politics. "I first came to this story because of the landmark Supreme Court case, but Bob Boulé's willingness to sacrifice everything to help refugees became the heart of the book."
Boulé was a conservative businessman who had voted Republican his whole life. At first, the owner of Smuggler's Inn worked as a confidential informant for the Border Patrol and Homeland Security Investigations targeting drug trafficking in the area. Over time, his perspective changed and he found his life's purpose in helping over 1,000 asylum seekers cross the border into Canada.
Jones's U.S. online book launch is on October 20, and there will be an in-person launch on campus at noon on October 29, in Saunders 443.
He has authored the award-winning books Border Walls: Security and the War on Terror in the United States, India and Israel , which received the 2013 Julian Minghi Distinguished Book Award for best book in political geography from the American Association of Geographers; and Violent Borders: Refugees and the Right to Move , which garnered the 2017 award for best book in political geography from the Royal Geographical Society.
Jones received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2021 , and was named an American Association of Geographers Fellow in 2023.
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