Book Selections

Culling the Masses questions the widely held view that in the long run democracy and racism cannot coexist. David Scott FitzGerald and David Cook-Martin show that democracies were the first countries in the Americas to select immigrants by race, and undemocratic states the first to outlaw discrimination. Through analysis of legal records from twenty-two countries between 1790 and 2010, the authors present a history of the rise and fall of racial selection in the Western Hemisphere. The United States led the way in using legal means to exclude "inferior" ethnic groups. Starting in 1790, Congress began passing nationality and immigration laws that prevented Africans and Asians from becoming citizens, on the grounds that they were inherently incapable of self-government. Similar policies were soon adopted by the self-governing colonies and dominions of the British Empire, eventually spreading across Latin America as well. Undemocratic regimes in Chile, Uruguay, Paraguay, and Cuba reversed their discriminatory laws in the 1930s and 1940s, decades ahead of the United States and Canada. The conventional claim that racism and democracy are antithetical - because democracy depends on ideals of equality and fairness, which are incompatible with the notion of racial inferiority - cannot explain why liberal democracies were leaders in promoting racist policies and laggards in eliminating them. Ultimately, the authors argue, the changed racial geopolitics of World War II and the Cold War was necessary to convince North American countries to reform their immigration and citizenship laws. -- Publisher's website

The author draws on thousands of documents and interviews to examine the myths and achievements marking the life of the iconic Latino labor leader and civil rights activist, portraying him as a flawed but brilliant strategist who was often at odds with himself. Cesar Chavez founded a labor union, launched a movement, and inspired a generation. He rose from migrant worker to national icon, becoming one of the great charismatic leaders of the 20th century. Two decades after his death, Chavez remains the most significant Latino leader in U.S. history. Yet his life story has been told only in hagiography, until now. In this biography of Chavez, the author offers a searching yet empathetic portrayal. Chavez emerges here as a visionary figure with tragic flaws; a brilliant strategist who sometimes stumbled; and a canny, streetwise organizer whose pragmatism was often at odds with his elusive, soaring dreams. He was an experimental thinker with eclectic passions, an avid, self-educated historian and a disciple of Gandhian non-violent protest. This biography deepens our understanding of one of Chavez's most salient qualities: his profound humanity. The author traces Chavez's remarkable career as he conceived strategies that empowered the poor and vanquished California's powerful agriculture industry, and his later shift from inspirational leadership to a cult of personality, with tragic consequences for the union he had built. This book reveals how this most unlikely American hero ignited one of the great social movements of our time.--From publisher's website

"Both international law and the immigration laws of liberal states have developed to mimic and reinforce a dichotomy between voluntary (often economically motivated) migrants who can be legitimately excluded by potential host states, and forced (often politically motivated) refugees who should be let in. This migrant/refugee binary is ubiquitous, even as it is strained by contemporary border crossing crises. The nuanced patterns of global migration and the lived experiences of border crossers push against the binary, revealing it to be a constructed "legal fiction." In Crossing, Rebecca Hamlin explores the prevalence of this conceptual dichotomy, and its significant consequences. She outlines some of the major inconsistencies and faulty assumptions upon which the binary relies, and explains its endurance and appeal by tracing its origins to the birth of the modern state. The book re-examines core works of political theorists on the ethics of border control and the rights of migrants from Kant to Arendt. It engages in an institutional analysis of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and contributes a rich empirical study of multiple unfolding border crossing "crises" in Europe, North America, South America, and the Middle East. Hamlin argue that like many social constructs, the migrant/refugee binary endures because it serves a purpose, which is to make harsh border control measures more ethically palatable. However, failure to account for the assumptions of the binary has negative consequences for policymaking, human rights advocacy, and the academic study of migration"--

Immigration is shaking up electoral politics around the world. Anti-immigration and ultranationalistic politics are rising in Europe, the United States, and countries across Asia and Africa. What is causing this nativist fervor? Are immigrants the cause or merely a common scapegoat? In Blaming Immigrants, economist Neeraj Kaushal investigates the rising anxiety in host countries and tests common complaints against immigration. Do immigrants replace host country workers or create new jobs? Are they a net gain or a net drag on host countries? She finds that immigration, on balance, is beneficial to host countries. It is neither the volume nor pace of immigration but the willingness of nations to accept, absorb, and manage new flows of immigration that is fueling this disaffection. Kaushal delves into the demographics of immigrants worldwide, the economic tides that carry them, and the policies that shape where they make their new homes. She demystifies common misconceptions about immigration, showing that today's global mobility is historically typical; that most immigration occurs through legal frameworks; that the U.S. system, far from being broken, works quite well most of the time and its features are replicated by many countries; and that proposed anti-immigrant measures are likely to cause suffering without deterring potential migrants. Featuring accessible and in-depth analysis of the economics of immigration in worldwide perspective, Blaming Immigrants is an informative and timely introduction to a critical global issue.

"One day a few years ago, 300 migrants were kidnapped between the remote desert towns of Altar, Mexico, and Sasabe, Arizona. A local priest got 120 released, many with broken ankles and other marks of abuse, but the rest vanished. O��scar Marti��nez, a young writer from El Salvador, was in Altar soon after the abduction, and his account of the migrant disappearances is only one of the harrowing stories he garnered from two years spent traveling up and down the migrant trail from Central America and across the US border. More than a quarter of a million Central Americans make this increasingly dangerous journey each year, and each year as many as 20,000 of them are kidnapped"--Publisher's website.

"The story of two refugee families and their hope and resilience as they fight to survive and belong in America The welcoming and acceptance of immigrants and refugees has been central to America's identity for centuries--yet America has periodically turned its back at the times of greatest humanitarian need. After the Last Border is an intimate look at the lives of two women as they struggle for the twenty-first century American dream, having won the "golden ticket" to settle as refugees in Austin, Texas. Mu Naw, a Christian from Myanmar struggling to put down roots with her family, was accepted after decades in a refugee camp at a time when America was at its most open to displaced families; and Hasna, a Muslim from Syria, agrees to relocate as a last resort for the safety of her family--only to be cruelly separated from her children by a sudden ban on refugees from Muslim countries. Writer and activist Jessica Goudeau tracks the human impacts of America's ever-shifting refugee policy as both women narrowly escape from their home countries and begin the arduous but lifesaving process of resettling in Austin, Texas--a city that would show them the best and worst of what America has to offer. After the Last Border situates a dramatic, character-driven story within a larger history--the evolution of modern refugee resettlement in the United States, beginning with World War II and ending with current closed-door policies--revealing not just how America's changing attitudes toward refugees has influenced policies and laws, but also the profound effect on human lives"--

Collecting the diverse perspectives of scholars, labor organizers, and human-rights advocates, Accountability across borders is the first edited collection that connects studies of immigrant integration in host countries to accounts of transnational migrant advocacy efforts, including case studies from the United States, Canada, and Mexico. Covering the role of federal, state, and local governments in both countries of origin and destinations, as well as nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), these essays range from reflections on labor solidarity among members of the United Food and Commercial Workers in Toronto to explorations of indigenous students from the Maya diaspora living in San Francisco. Case studies in Mexico also discuss the enforcement of the citizenship rights of Mexican American children and the struggle to affirm the human rights of Central American migrants in transit. As policies regarding immigration, citizenship, and enforcement are reaching a flashpoint in North America, this volume provides key insights into the new dynamics of migrant civil society as well as the scope and limitations of directives from governmental agencies -- Publisher description.

"On February 15, 2019, President Donald Trump declared a national emergency at America's southern border. He depicted a dire crisis, with criminals and drugs flowing unchecked into the country, unlawful border crossers overwhelming enforcement capacity, and dangerous immigrants disappearing into the nation's interior after being released from detention. With his presidential proclamation, he ordered the military to assist in hardening the border, and he declared his intent to re-direct billions of dollars to build the wall he had promised since he first announced his candidacy. In a striking rebuke, Congress voted to overturn the President's declaration of emergency. Never before had Congress rejected a president's proclamation under the National Emergencies Act. Some members decried the President's move as an unlawful usurpation of Congress's power of the purse. Congress had just rejected the administration's request for funds to build a border wall. In trying nonetheless to re-all ocate military funding to the project, critics contended, the President displayed contempt for Congress's constitutional authority to appropriate federal dollars. Many representatives argued further that the President had manufactured the crisis, emphasizing that adding an exceedingly expensive wall to already ample enforcement would not address the real problems at the border. Illegal crossings, they noted, had been declining for over a decade and were at historic lows during the President's first two years in office. The types of migrants now arriving at the border presented urgent legal and policy concerns, but not the threat the President imagined. They were families fleeing violence in Central America. They often sought out border patrol agents at ports of entry in order to request asylum, rather than cross through the desert to evade apprehension. A new wall would not stop them. President Trump promptly issued the very first veto of his administration and attempted to press forwa rd with his plans. His clash with Congress was partly about partisan disagreement. It reflected the deep gulf that now separates the Democratic and Republican parties on immigration policy. But even the Republican-controlled Senate voted to reject the President's emergency declaration. "The Senate vote," the Washington Post remarked the following day, "stood as a rare instance of Republicans breaking with Trump in significant numbers on an issue central to his presidency." It remains to be seen whether the President or Congress will emerge with the upper hand; as we go to press, the funding fight remains tied up in the courts. But the unfolding conflict has transcended partisanship, pitting Congress against the Executive in a battle for control of immigration policy"--

"This work explores the conflicts over migration at the center of the social, political, intellectual, and physical landscape of the early United States. Examining the voluntary and forced migrations of Indigenous, African American, and Anglo Americans in the decades immediately following the Revolution, Samantha Seeley argues that the United States took shape as a white republic through contentious negotiations over who could move and where, who could remain and how. Removal was not sweeping, top-down federal legislation. Instead, it was a battle fought on multiple fronts. It encompassed tribal leaders' attempts to expel white settlers from Native lands and African Americans' legal battles to remain within states that sought to drive them out. National in scope, the book is grounded in a close examination of Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri--states poised between the edges of slavery and freedom where removal was both warmly embraced and hotly contested"--

Immigration law is unique in its national security applications because, while it may be used as a mechanism for keeping the enemy out, it is also the apparatus for entry into the US. This book examines this topic by conducting a historical overview of using immigration law for national security purposes, and exploring laws and cases themselves.

They stole 15 years of my life. A native of Monterrey, Mexico, Ricardo Aldape Guerra was sentenced to death in 1982 for the first-degree murder of a Houston Police Officer. He spent 15 years in a maximum security prison in Huntsville, Texas, before his death sentence was overturned and he was set free. Ricardo Ampudia, explores the history and ethics of the death penalty in this fascinating look at its impact on Mexicans sentenced to death in the United States. A fervent opponent of capital punishment, Ampudia came to his beliefs because of his involvement in defending Aldape. The author offers a brief introduction about the death penalty, both in the U.S. and around the world. Most of the countries that apply the death penalty have dictatorial regimes or repressive governments, with the U.S. being the notable exception. Subsequent chapters focus on the death penalty in the U.S. and the work done by the Mexican government to protect its citizens abroad. The final chapters focus on the Ricardo Aldape Guerra case. In this section, it¿s revealed that the reopened investigation of the crime uncovered evidence that the jury never heard when Aldape was convicted. And in fact, a shocking pattern of police and prosecutorial intimidation, misconduct, and abuse came to light. Originally published in Mexico as Mexicanos al grito de muerte, this absorbing account of the history, use, and flaws of the death penalty is a must-read for anyone interested in the criminal justice system in the United States.

"Legal Passing offers a nuanced understanding of how undocumented Mexicans constantly negotiate the vexed conditions of their US receiving locales as shaped by a spectrum of federal, state, and local immigration measures. Leveraging differences between cities and states that accommodate immigrants and those that aim to drive them away, Garia shows that undocumented Mexicans in restrictive locations are not more likely to leave, but, instead, learn to pass as 'legal' by carefully choosing how to dress, where to travel, when to speak, and even what to name their children. Legal Passing combines social theory on race and immigration with place and law, using interviews, surveys, and ethnography to show the everyday failures and long-term human consequences of anti-immigrant legislation"--Provided by publisher.

"A 1975 state-wide law in Texas made it legal for school districts to bar students from public schools if they were in the country illegally, thus making it extremely difficult or even possible for scores of children to receive an education. The resulting landmark Supreme Court case, Plyler v. Doe (1982), established the constitutional right of children to attend public elementary and secondary schools regardless of legal status and changed how the nation approached the conversation about immigration outside the law. Today, as the United States takes steps towards immigration policy reform, Americans are subjected to polarized debates on what the country should do with its "illegal" or "undocumented" population. In Immigration Outside the Law, acclaimed immigration law expert Hiroshi Motomura takes a neutral, legally-accurate approach in his attention and responses to the questions surrounding those whom he calls "unauthorized migrants." In a reasoned and careful discussion, he seeks to explain why unlawful immigration is such a contentious debate in the United States and to offer suggestions for what should be done about it. He looks at ways in which unauthorized immigrants are becoming part of American society and why it is critical to pave the way for this integration. In the final section of the book, Motomura focuses on practical and politically viable solutions to the problem in three public policy areas: international economic development, domestic economic policy, and educational policy. Amidst the extreme opinions voiced daily in the media, Motomura explains the complicated topic of immigration outside the law in an understandable and refreshingly objective way for students and scholars studying immigration law, policy-makers looking for informed opinions, and any American developing an opinion on this contentious issue"--

"The Immigration Act of 1965 was one of the most consequential laws ever passed in the United States and immigration policy continues to be one of the most contentious areas of American politics. As a 'nation of immigrants, ' the United States has a long and complex history of immigration programs and controls which are deeply connected to the shape of American society today. This volume makes sense of the political history and the social impacts of immigration law, showing how legislation has reflected both domestic concerns and wider foreign policy. [The author] examines how immigration law reforms have inspired radically different responses across all levels of government, from cooperation to outright disobedience, and how they continue to fracture broader political debates. [The author] concludes with an overview of how significant, on-going challenges in our interconnected world, including 'failed states' and climate change, will shape American migrations for many decades to come."--

A critical look at the mechanisms, beliefs, and ideologies that govern U.S. immigration laws, and the social impacts of their enforcement--Provided by publisher.

The Fourteenth Amendment and the Privileges and Immunities of American Citizenship-book

"At its most basic, "crimmigration" law describes the convergence of two distinct bodies of law: criminal law and procedure with immigration law and procedure. This book lays out crimmigration laws contours. It tracks the legal developments that have created crimmigration law and explains the many ways in which the stark line that once appeared to keep criminal law firmly divided from immi-gration law has melted away. In doing so, it highlights crimmigration laws most salient features-its ability to substantially raise the stakes of criminal prosecutions by dramati-cally expanding the list of crimes that can result in removal from the United States, its willingness to freely rely on crimes that apply only to migrants, and its vast dependence on detention as a means of policing immigration law"--

"This ethnography investigates immigration enforcement in New York City, following individual migrants, their lawyers, and the NGOs that serve them into the immigration courtrooms that decide their cases"--

"Citizenship as Foundation of Rights explores the nature and meaning of citizenship and the rights flowing from American citizens in the context of current debates around politics including immigration. The book explains the sources of citizenship rights in the Constitution and focuses on three key citizenship rights - the right to vote, the right to employment, and the right to travel in the US. It explains why those rights are fundamental and how national identification systems and ID requirements to vote, work and travel undermine the fundamental citizen rights. Richard Sobel analyzes how protecting citizens' rights preserves them for future generations of citizens and aspiring citizens here. No other book offers such a clarification of fundamental citizen rights and explains how ID schemes contradict and undermine the constitutional rights of American citizenship"--

"The Battle to Stay in America is the story of a community learning to defend itself from the U.S. federal government's crackdown on immigrants. Told through the eyes of a lawyer on the front line, the book offers an introduction to a broken legal system"--

"During the Trump administration, the immigration courts have been decried as more politicized enforcement weapon than impartial tribunal. Yet few people are aware of a fundamental flaw in the system that long pre-dates the current administration: The immigration courts are not really "courts" at all but an office of the Department of Justice-the nation's law enforcement agency. The Accidental History of the U.S. Immigration Courts uses narrative history, focusing on previously unstudied decisions in the Franklin D. Roosevelt and George W. Bush administrations, to help readers understand both the human tragedy of our immigration court system today and the human crises that led to its creation. Moving the reader from understanding to action, Alison Peck offers a lens through which to evaluate contemporary bills and proposals to reform our immigration court system. Peck provides an accessible legal analysis of recent events to make the case for independent immigration courts, proposing that the courts be moved from the Department of Justice into an independent, Article I court system. As long as the immigration courts remain under the authority of the attorney general, the administration of immigration justice will remain a game of political football-with people's very lives on the line"--

"Providing a radical new approach to labour migration, this book challenges the prevailing legal and political construction of the figure of the irregular migrant labourer, whilst at the same time reimagining this irregularity as the basis of an alternative, post-capitalist, sociality. The text draws on the work of contemporary philosopher Jean-Luc Nancy, and more specifically his term 'ecotechnics', in order to examine how economic, political and juridical norms deny the full legal status of certain people who are deemed to be irregular. This ostensible irregularity is revealed as a regular feature of labour market practice, and a necessary support for the conceptual foundations of capitalist legality. As this book shows, however, this legality - and with it, the technological subordination of life to the circulation of capital as if this were the only possibility for our being in the world - is not insurmountable. The book's consideration of the figure of the irregular migrant labourer comes to provide an alternative basis for reimagining our relationship not only to migration and to labour itself, but ultimately to each other. This powerful analysis of contemporary labour migration is of considerable interest to legal and political theorists, philosophers, labour lawyers, migration experts, and others with theoretical, political or policy interests in this area. Anastasia Tataryn is an Assistant Professor at St. Jerome's University of Waterloo, Canada"--

"In 2007, Saket Soni received an anonymous phone call from an Indian migrant worker inside a Mississippi labor camp. He and 500 other men were living in squalor in Gulf Coast "man camps," surrounded by barbed wire, watched by armed guards, crammed into cold trailers with putrid portable toilets, forced to eat moldy bread and frozen rice. Worse, lured by the promise of good work and green cards, the men had desperately scraped together up to 20,000 dollars each to apply for this "opportunity" to rebuild oil rigs after Hurricane Katrina, putting their families into impossible debt. Soni traces the workers' extraordinary escape; their march on foot to Washington, DC; and their 31-day hunger strike to bring attention to their cause"--

Debunks the pervasive and self-congratulatory myth that our country is proudly founded by and for immigrants, and urges readers to embrace a more complex and honest history of the United States Whether in political debates or discussions about immigration around the kitchen table, many Americans, regardless of party affiliation, will say proudly that we are a nation of immigrants. In this bold new book, historian Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz asserts this ideology is harmful and dishonest because it serves to mask and diminish the US's history of settler colonialism, genocide, white supremacy, slavery, and structural inequality, all of which we still grapple with today. She explains that the idea that we are living in a land of opportunity--founded and built by immigrants--was a convenient response by the ruling class and its brain trust to the 1960s demands for decolonialization, justice, reparations, and social equality. Moreover, Dunbar-Ortiz charges that this feel good--but inaccurate--story promotes a benign narrative of progress, obscuring that the country was founded in violence as a settler state, and imperialist since its inception. While some of us are immigrants or descendants of immigrants, others are descendants of white settlers who arrived as colonizers to displace those who were here since time immemorial, and still others are descendants of those who were kidnapped and forced here against their will. This paradigm shifting new book from the highly acclaimed author of An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States charges that we need to stop believing and perpetuating this simplistic and a historical idea and embrace the real (and often horrific) history of the United States.

Rodriguez's acclaimed first book, Hunger of Memory raised a fierce controversy with its views on bilingualism and alternative action. Now, in a series of intelligent and candid essays, Rodriguez ranges over five centuries to consider the moral and spiritual landscapes of Mexico and the US and their impact on his soul.