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A powerful argument for separating immigration enforcement from the criminal legal system, by one of the nation's foremost “crimmigration” expertsIn the fevered battles over immigration, Democrats and Republicans alike agree on this: that migrants who have committed a crime have no place in this country. But targeting migrants because they have committed a crime is a short-sighted appeal to nativist fear. To predicate a migrant's right to stay in the country on whether they are law-abiding and therefore deserving or “criminal” and undeserving does little to improve public safety and has an especially devastating impact on low-income migrants of color.While César Cuauhtémoc García Hernández's first book, Migrating to Prison, focuses on the explosion of migrant detention centers over the past decades, Welcome the Wretched tackles head-on what happens when a deeply flawed and racist criminal legal system and immigration system converge to senselessly cruel effect. Drawing on everything from history to legal analyses and philosophy, García Hernández counters the fundamental assumption that criminal activity has a rightful place in immigration matters, arguing that instead of using the criminal legal system to identify people to deport, the United States should place a reimagined sense of citizenship and solidarity at the center of immigration policy.

DREAMers and the Choreography of Protest chronicles the history of the DREAMers--the term used to describe undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as children. Based on interviews with lead activists, extensive archival research, and years of ethnographic study, Michael P. Young details the making of the DREAMer, the early organizing of undocumented youth on college campuses cooperating with nonprofit organizations, and the independent organizing of an online network of radical undocumented youth. Tracing a sequence of escalating protests--from sit-ins to detention center infiltrations and border crossing actions--Young argues that this later network of DREAMer activists pushed the immigrant rights movement away from the elite-driven, insider politics of immigration reform toward radical direct action organized by and for undocumented immigrants. In one of the first accounts of the radical factions of DREAMer activism, Young provides a detailed and engrossing counternarrative of DREAMer history that offers some pragmatic lessons for activists and the allied supporters of social movements.

Aspirations and Challenges for Undocumented Student Success offers a comprehensive review of rigorous, innovative, and critical scholarship profiling the scope and terrain on undocumented student success. Compiling the most significant work in the field in terms of its contributions to research and professional practice, the volume opens with an exploration the aspirations of undocumented students and the fight for equity, followed by an examination of the impact and influence of parents and families on educational outcomes. Finally, it concludes with testimonios reflecting on the educational experiences of undocumented students in America. Each section presents readings in chronological order, demonstrating the progression around undocumented student success in the field over the past 20+ years, in respect to the intentionality about integrating undocumented student success throughout equity initiatives, breaking down institutional silos, fostering welcoming campus environments, and advocating for solutions that allow undocumented students to achieve economic mobility in both policy and practice. This text is a must-have resource for graduate students and researchers in Educational Leadership and Policy, Multicultural Education, and Teacher Education. It will also be important reading for educational leaders, teachers, counselors, administrators, and organizations that share a common interest in and commitment to the educational issues that impact undocumented students and their families.

Four point five million, that is the number of illegal aliens encountered by CBP officials just in the time since President Biden took office; 1.7 million, the number of illegal migrants that Joe Biden released into American communities; 2,378,944, the number of illegal migrants encountered by CBP on the Southwest border in 2022—the highest number ever recorded in a single year in our Nation's history; 251,487, the number of illegal migrants encountered by CBP on the Southwest border in the month of December of last year—the highest monthly number ever recorded; 8,100, the average number of illegal migrants encountered per day on the Southwest border in the month of December, 2022; 717,660, the number of illegal migrant encounters on the Southwest border in just the first three months of this fiscal year; 1.1 million, the number of known got-aways who have successfully crossed the Southwest border since President Biden took office; 856, the number of migrants who died attempting to cross the Southwest border during the past fiscal year—again, the highest number on record; 98, the number of aliens on the Terrorist Watch List encountered on our Southwest border during Fiscal Year 2022—yet another record set by the Biden Administration. This book will explore some of the effects of Biden's open-border policies on everyday Americans and the communities in which they live.

The 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program was supposed to be a stepping stone, a policy innovation announced by the White House designed to put pressure on Congress for a broader, lasting set of legislative changes. Those changes never materialized, and the people who hoped to benefit from them have been forced to navigate a tense and contradictory policy landscape ever since, haunted by these unfulfilled promises. Legal Phantoms tells their story. After Congress failed to pass a comprehensive immigration bill in 2013, President Obama pivoted in 2014 to supplementing DACA with a deferred action program (known as DAPA) for the parents of citizens and lawful permanent residents and a DACA expansion (DACA+) in 2014. But challenges from Republican-led states prevented even these programs from going into effect. Interviews with would-be applicants, immigrant-rights advocates, and government officials reveal how such failed immigration-reform efforts continue to affect not only those who had hoped to benefit, but their families, communities, and the country in which they have made an uneasy home. Out of the ashes of these lost dreams, though, people find their own paths forward through uncharted legal territory with creativity and resistance.

Features the stories of undocumented mothers who reunite with their children in the US years after fleeing violence at homeFacing escalating chaos and violence in their home countries, many Central American mothers have found that a desperate flight to the north was their only choice. Many left their children behind in order to spare them the hardships of the journey. If they made it across the border without getting locked up or deported, they entered a country increasingly unwilling to recognize claims of asylum.This book features the stories of women who crossed the border without encountering immigration authorities, in some cases several times, and settled in the greater Washington, DC, area, living in the shadows for years. By centering on the voices of the women themselves, it offers an intimate look at what drove them from home and the challenges they face in reuniting years later with their children.Forced Out traces the women's evolving attitudes toward the violence embedded in institutions and everyday life in their home countries, as well as their continued vulnerability and dependence in the US. It also highlights the challenges they face in parenting children adapting to American society and learning English while living with mothers who had left them years before and become strangers to them. Rather than sensationalizing their trauma or dwelling on their vulnerability, the stories reveal the women's rich, complex inner lives, their resilience in overcoming senseless violence, and their unswerving commitment to bettering their children's lives. Clear, vivid, and impactful, this is a humbling and humane look at the state of migration to America today.

As a young girl growing up in a small town in Honduras, Keyla Sanders imagined her own version of the American Dream. The reality involved dangers, suffering and sacrifice during an overland journey through Guatemala and Mexico, including arrests, deportations and kidnapping. For the first time, there is a first-person account from an undocumented immigrant from the Northern Triangle countries of Central America. Keyla tells what inspired her to embark on a dangerous journey, what the journey was like, and the years of struggle she endured after attempting to navigate the U.S. immigration system. She uses her own experience to demonstrate how this broken system is as reliant on circumstance and luck as any lottery. She recounts the struggle of an undocumented immigrant while also dealing with high school, young adulthood, and eventually having her own children. Keyla's story adds the voice of an undocumented immigrant to the conversation, demonstrating that the hardships expended in achieving one's American Dream are what unite all those striving for a better life, regardless of where they were born or how they got here.

An eye-opening analysis of the costs and effects of immigration and immigration policy, both on American life and on new Americans. For decades, immigration has been one of the most divisive, contentious topics in American politics. And for decades, urgent calls for its policy reform have gone mostly unanswered. As the discord surrounding the modern immigration debate has intensified, border enforcement has tightened. Crossing harsher, less porous borders makes unauthorized entry to the United States a permanent, costly undertaking. And the challenges don't end on the other side. At once enlightening and devastating, The Border Within examines the costs and ends of America's interior enforcement—the policies and agencies, including ICE, aimed at removing immigrants already living in the country. Economist Tara Watson and journalist Kalee Thompson pair rigorous analysis with deeply personal stories from immigrants and their families to assess immigration's effects on every aspect of American life, from the labor force to social welfare programs to tax revenue. What emerges is a critical, utterly complete examination of what non-native Americans bring to the country, including immigration's tendency to elevate the wages and skills of those who are native-born. News coverage has prompted many to question the humanity of American immigration policies; The Border Within opens a conversation of whether it is effective. The United States spends billions each year on detention and deportation, all without economic gain and at a great human cost. With depth and discipline, the authors dissect the shock-and-awe policies that make up a broken, often cruel system, while illuminating the lives caught in the chaos. It is an essential work with far-reaching implications for immigrants and non-immigrants alike.

A funny and poignant memoir about how as a teenager, TV writer Rafael Agustin (Jane The Virgin) accidentally discovered he was undocumented and how that revelation turned everything he thought he knew about himself and his family upside down.Growing up, Rafa's parents didn't want him to feel different because, as his mom told him:'Dreams should not have borders.'But when he tried to get his driver's license during his junior year of high school, his parents were forced to reveal his immigration status. Suddenly, the kid who modeled his entire high school career after American TV shows had no idea what to do -- there was no episode of Saved by the Bell where Zack gets deported! While his parents were relieved to no longer live a lie in front of their son, Rafa found himself completely unraveling in the face of his uncertain future. Illegally Yours is a heartwarming, comical look at how this struggling Ecuadorian immigrant family bonded together to navigate Rafa's school life, his parents'work lives, and their shared secret life as undocumented Americans, determined to make the best of their always turbulent and sometimes dangerous American existence. From using the Ricky Martin/Jennifer Lopez “Latin Explosion” to his social advantage in the ‘90s to how his parents—doctors in their home country of Ecuador—were reduced to working menial jobs in the US, the family's secret became their struggle, and their struggle became their hustle. An alternatingly hilarious and touching exploration of belonging and identity, Illegally Yours revolves around one very simple question: What does it mean to be American?

La dialéctica del mundo moderno alterna entre una supuesta universalidad de los derechos humanos y una limitación continua impuesta determinadas personas. Los grandes mitos fundacionales de las sociedades modernas construyeron y perpetuaron la pugna entre sedentarios y nómadas, residentes y visitantes, ciudadanos e inmigrantes. Nosotres y les Otres. Hoy día, nacer en un país del Norte o del Sur implica una marca de nacimiento que define los límites de posibilidad de nuestra permanencia y movimientos. Este libro es una mirada directa y amena, profundamente humana, a la complejidad del mayor corredor migratorio del mundo: México. A través de un viaje histórico, geopolítico, social y cartográfico, la figura de la persona migrante indocumentada será despojada de su contemporaneidad para interpretarse como nueva manifestación de una subalternidad migratoria implícita y constitutiva de las figuras históricas de bárbaros, esclaves, chichimecas, alines, ilegales... Superando esta construcción bestializada e inhumana, este libro atiende a las manifestaciones de resistencia de estas personas, recuperando sus experiencias y conocimientos a través de metodologías colectivas de mapeo. Así, esperamos dar un paso más en el reconocimiento de la deuda histórica d ella humanidad con las personas migrantes, y cimbrar la situación de marginación a la que han sido orilladas al poner en el centro el debate de sus propias voces y conocimientos.

A TELEGRAPH BOOK OF THE YEAR'Solito is my travel book of the year.'Telegraph'Heartbreaking… A rare, eye-opening rendition of the brutal reality of border-crossing.'Lea Ypi ‘If there's any justice, Solito will someday be considered a classic.'Rumaan Alam Young Javier dreams of eating orange sherbet ice cream with his parents in the United States. For this to happen, he must embark on a three-thousand-mile journey alone. It should last only two weeks. But it takes seven. In limbo, Javier learns what people will do to survive – and what they will forfeit to save someone else. This is a memoir of perilous boat trips, relentless desert treks, and pointed guns. But it is also a story of tasting tacos for the first time, of who passes you their water jug in the crippling heat, and of longing to be in your mother's arms.

While the concept of cities and places of refuge, or sanctuary cities, is as ancient as history itself, the past few years has given rapid rise to a new, related phenomenon in the U.S.: the anti-sanctuary city movement. As of 2018, over 500 U.S. municipalities and several states have adopted anti-sanctuary city policies. How do we explain the rapid rise of this movement? This book examines the social, political, and racial underpinnings of this radical new movement, and what members of targeted communities can do to counteract its corrosive effects. This book accomplishes five goals:Conceptually and descriptively gives form to the anti-sanctuary movement.Identifies trends and reasons for successes and failures of this movement.Draws lessons for social justice advocates in countering this movement.Presents a series of cities illustrating how and why this movement has unfolded in certain geographical areas.Presents recommendations for anticipating the evolution of this movement and countering its destructive impacts in communities where the anti-sanctuary is taking root.

Understanding Green Card Marriage Fraud explores personal accounts of participation in Green Card marriage fraud (GCMF), also known as ‘cash-for-vows', by legal and illegal immigrants, U.S. citizens, and marriage fraud brokers. This book reveals the various roles played by the marriage fraud brokers and others who aid, abet, or otherwise act as accessories to GCMF. Additional details provide the reasons why people commit GCMF and the methods they use in order to deceive immigration officials. Today, Green Card marriage fraud has acquired new importance due to world upheavals and the plight of refugees. The division in American public opinion has become political football and has led to various changes in immigration policy, often depending on the occupant of the White House. The study of Green Card marriage fraud can serve as a microcosm of the federal government's involvement in crime control. The author puts Green Card marriage fraud in the context of current immigration policies, suggesting necessary policy reforms since current rules and procedures are ineffective in detecting such fraudulent marriages. In unraveling the mystique surrounding GCMF, the methods of crime control and migration control converge revealing the ‘crimmigration phenomenon'with GCMF falling in the middle of this nexus.

Apoyo Sacrificial, Sacrificial Support explores the experiences of undocumented Latinx parents as they support and guide their children's pathways to higher education, and how their precarious immigration status impacts this support. In addition to analyzing the various understandings, interactions, and relationships undocumented Latinx parents develop with different education entities, including secondary schools and colleges and universities, the book also examines these in relation to the various social, political, and economic factors that shape parents'engagement with their children's education. Cuevas illuminates how the parents in her study engaged in supportive behaviors similar to those of middle and upper classes families despite the barriers they faced, such as low-income households, undocumented legal status, and single parenting. Providing an alternative view of parental engagement and access to higher education, Apoyo Sacrificial, Sacrificial Support will help educators truly meet the needs of marginalized students and communities. Book Features:Illustrates the often unobserved and unappreciated supportive strategies employed by undocumented Latinx parents. Highlights in-depth qualitative interviews that center the voices and perspectives of parents.Shows how an undocumented immigration status is a unique barrier that shapes how families interact with education entities. Illustrates the range of supportive behaviors undocumented Latinx parents engage in to ensure their children's success, including access to higher education. Demonstrates how the parents of first-generation Latinx students play a critical role in their success, even after they matriculate to college.

A history of the battles over US immigrants'rights since 1965—and how these conflicts reshaped access to education, employment, civil liberties, and moreThe 1965 Hart-Celler Act transformed the American immigration system by abolishing national quotas in favor of a seemingly egalitarian approach. But subsequent demographic shifts resulted in a backlash over the social contract and the rights of citizens versus noncitizens. In The Walls Within, Sarah Coleman explores those political clashes, focusing not on attempts to stop immigration at the border, but on efforts to limit immigrants'rights within the United States through domestic policy. Drawing on new materials from the Carter, Reagan, and Clinton administrations, and immigration and civil rights organizations, Coleman exposes how the politics of immigration control has undermined the idea of citizenship for all.Coleman shows that immigration politics was not just about building or tearing down walls, but about employer sanctions, access to schools, welfare, and the role of local authorities in implementing policies. In the years after 1965, a rising restrictionist movement sought to marginalize immigrants in realms like public education and the labor market. Yet throughout the 1970s and 1980s, restrictionists faced countervailing forces committed to an expansive notion of immigrants'rights. In the 1990s, with national politics gridlocked, anti-immigrant groups turned to statehouses to enact their agenda. Achieving strength at the local level, conservatives supporting immigration restriction actually acquired more influence under the Clinton presidency than even during the so-called Reagan revolution, resulting in dire consequences for millions of immigrants.Revealing the roots behind much of today's nativist sentiment, The Walls Within examines debates about who is entitled to the American dream, and how such dreams can be subverted for those already calling the country home.

Is it possible to create a borderless world? How might it be better equipped to solve the global emergencies threatening our collective survival? Build Bridges, Not Walls is an inspiring, impassioned call to envision–and work toward–a bold new reality.'Todd Miller cuts through the facile media myths and escapes the paralyzing constraints of a political ‘debate'that functions mainly to obscure the unconscionable inequalities that borders everywhere secure. In its soulfulness, its profound moral imagination, and its vision of radical solidarity, Todd Miller's work is as indispensable as the love that so palpably guides it.'—Ben Ehrenreich, author of Desert Notebooks: A Road Map for the End of Time'The stories of the humble people of the earth Miller documents ask us to also tear down the walls in our hearts and in our heads. What proliferates in the absence of these walls and in spite of them, Miller writes, is the natural state of things centered on kindness and compassion.'—Nick Estes, author of Our History Is the Future: Standing Rock Versus the Dakota Access Pipeline, and the Long Tradition of Indigenous ResistanceBy the time Todd Miller spots him, Juan Carlos has been wandering alone in a remote border region for days. Parched, hungry and disoriented, he approaches and asks for a ride. Miller's instinct is to oblige, but he hesitates: Furthering an unauthorized person's entrance into the U.S. is a federal crime.Todd Miller has been reporting from international border zones for over twenty-five years. In Build Bridges, Not Walls, he invites readers to join him on a journey that begins with the most basic of questions: What happens to our collective humanity when the impulse to help one another is criminalized?A series of encounters–with climate refugees, members of indigenous communities, border authorities, modern-day abolitionists, scholars, visionaries, and the shape-shifting imagination of his four-year-old son–provoke a series of reflections on the ways in which nation-states create the problems that drive immigration, and how the abolition of borders could make the world a more sustainable, habitable place for all.Praise for Build Bridges, Not Walls:'Todd Miller's deeply reported, empathetic writing on the American border is some of the most essential journalism being done today. As this book reveals, the militarization of our border is a simmering crisis that harms vulnerable people every day. It's impossible to read his work without coming away changed.'—Adam Conover, creator and host of Adam Ruins Everything and host of Factually!'All of Todd Miller's work is essential reading, but Build Bridges, Not Walls is his most compelling, insightful work yet.'—Dean Spade, author of Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity During This Crises (And the Next)'Miller calls us to see how borders subject millions of people to violence, dehumanization, and early death. More importantly, he highlights the urgent necessity to abolish not only borders, but the nation-state itself.'—A. Naomi Paik, author of Bans, Walls Raids, Sanctuary: Understanding U.S. Immigration for the Twenty-First Century and Rightlessness: Testimony and Redress in U.S. Prison Camps Since World War II'Miller lays bare the senselessness and soullessness of the nation-state and its borders and border walls, and reimagines, in their place, a complete and total restoration, therefore redemption, of who we are, and of who we are in desperate need of becoming.'—Brandon Shimoda, author of The Grave on the Wall'Miller's latest book is a personal, wide-ranging, and impassioned call for abolishing bord

Though sanctuary cities have recently become a significant aspect of the immigration debate as a result of the Trump administration's stricter immigration policies, sanctuary cities have existed in America since the 1980s and for centuries in countries around the world. However, the precise definition and legal standing of sanctuary cities in today's context is often foggy. The viewpoints in this volume discuss the timely issue of sanctuary cities from a variety of angles while also exploring the economic, cultural, political, and moral aspects of asylum and immigration.

The Trump administration violated the rights of migrant children who fled brutal violence in the Northern Triangle of Central America. Their rights are human rights. This book explores the administration's policies and practices of family separation at the U.S. southern border and its confinement of migrant children that, in some cases, experts describe as torture. Specific connections are made between harmful actions on the part of government officials and agencies, and provisions that protect against them in The Convention on the Rights of the Child and four other UN conventions. Awareness of the violations and the safeguards afforded to children may help preserve children's human rights. The book also examines efforts of humanitarian organizations, courts, and legislators to reclaim and defend migrant children's rights. The author's research includes information from international and national government documents, news reports, and interviews and stories that resulted from networking with advocates in both Arizona and Mexico. The young asylum seekers were called'criminals'and'not-innocent'by the President. However, his narrative is contradicted by vignettes that describe children's own experiences and beliefs and by photographs of them taken by advocates in Arizona and by the author in shelters in Mexico where families await asylum.

Across the globe, states have long aimed to control the movement of people, identify their citizens, and restrict noncitizens'rights through official identification documents. Although states are now less likely to grant permanent legal status, they are increasingly issuing new temporary and provisional legal statuses to migrants. Meanwhile, the need for migrants to apply for frequent renewals subjects them to more intensive state surveillance. The contributors to Paper Trails examine how these new developments change migrants'relationship to state, local, and foreign bureaucracies. The contributors analyze, among other toics, immigration policies in the United Kingdom, the issuing of driver's licenses in Arizona and New Mexico, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, and community know-your-rights campaigns. By demonstrating how migrants are inscribed into official bureaucratic systems through the issuance of identification documents, the contributors open up new ways to understand how states exert their power and how migrants must navigate new systems of governance.Contributors. Bridget Anderson, Deborah A. Boehm, Susan Bibler Coutin, Ruth Gomberg-Muñoz, Sarah B. Horton, Josiah Heyman, Cecilia Menjívar, Juan Thomas Ordóñez, Doris Marie Provine, Nandita Sharma, Monica Varsanyi

While people used to conceal the fact that they were gay or lesbian to protect themselves from stigma and discrimination, it is now commonplace for people to'come out'and encourage others to do so as well. Come Out, Come Out, Whoever You Are systematically examines how coming out has moved beyond gay and lesbian rights groups and how different groups wrestle with the politics of coming out in their efforts to resist stigma and enact social change. It shows how different experiences and disparate risks of disclosure shape these groups'collective strategies. Through scores of interviews with LGBTQ+ people, undocumented immigrant youth, fat acceptance activists, Mormon fundamentalist polygamists, and sexual harassment lawyers and activists in the era of the #MeToo movement, Come Out, Come Out, Whoever You Are explains why so many different groups gravitate toward the term coming out. By focusing on the personal and political resonance of coming out, it provides a novel way to understand how identity politics work in America today.

Idealistic and eager to serve his country, Army Reservist JAG Captain Matt C. Pinsker volunteer to go to Laredo, Texas, for six months as a federal prosecutor, helping out the short-staffed U.S. Attorney's Office. What he saw in Loredo changed his life, and his riveting account of the breakdown of law and order will change how you think about border security. Crisis on the Border reveals: - That drug cartels are in control of the U.S.-Mexican border - The horrifying viciousness of the criminals who smuggle human beings into the United States - That drug abuse and disease are rampant among illegal aliens—many of whom have lengthy criminal records - That routine abuse of the U.S. asylum laws undermines legitimate asylum-seekers - That U.S. courts are generally more lenient with illegal aliens than they would be with American citizens - The hypocrisy behind the'children in cages'stories - Solutions: how to solve the crisis on the border Earnest, shocking, and revealing, Crisis on the Border is essential for understanding one of the greatest problems confronting our country.

NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST • One of the first undocumented immigrants to graduate from Harvard reveals the hidden lives of her fellow undocumented Americans in this deeply personal and groundbreaking portrait of a nation.“Karla's book sheds light on people's personal experiences and allows their stories to be told and their voices to be heard.”—Selena GomezFINALIST FOR THE NBCC JOHN LEONARD AWARD • NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW, NPR, THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY, BOOK RIOT, LIBRARY JOURNAL, AND TIMEWriter Karla Cornejo Villavicencio was on DACA when she decided to write about being undocumented for the first time using her own name. It was right after the election of 2016, the day she realized the story she'd tried to steer clear of was the only one she wanted to tell. So she wrote her immigration lawyer's phone number on her hand in Sharpie and embarked on a trip across the country to tell the stories of her fellow undocumented immigrants—and to find the hidden key to her own. Looking beyond the flashpoints of the border or the activism of the DREAMers, Cornejo Villavicencio explores the lives of the undocumented—and the mysteries of her own life. She finds the singular, effervescent characters across the nation often reduced in the media to political pawns or nameless laborers. The stories she tells are not deferential or naively inspirational but show the love, magic, heartbreak, insanity, and vulgarity that infuse the day-to-day lives of her subjects. In New York, we meet the undocumented workers who were recruited into the federally funded Ground Zero cleanup after 9/11. In Miami, we enter the ubiquitous botanicas, which offer medicinal herbs and potions to those whose status blocks them from any other healthcare options. In Flint, Michigan, we learn of demands for state ID in order to receive life-saving clean water. In Connecticut, Cornejo Villavicencio, childless by choice, finds family in two teenage girls whose father is in sanctuary. And through it all we see the author grappling with the biggest questions of love, duty, family, and survival. In her incandescent, relentlessly probing voice, Karla Cornejo Villavicencio combines sensitive reporting and powerful personal narratives to bring to light remarkable stories of resilience, madness, and death. Through these stories we come to understand what it truly means to be a stray. An expendable. A hero. An American.

The media regularly reports on border walls, migrant caravans, asylum seekers, and undocumented immigrants. But what are the stories behind the headlines? Crisis on the Border: Refugees and Undocumented Immigrants closely examines the people, the politics, and the policies driving one of the most important issues of the day.

The first comprehensive history of the DREAM Act and Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA)In 1982, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled in Plyler v. Doe that undocumented children had the right to attend public schools without charge or impediment, regardless of their immigration status. The ruling raised a question: what if undocumented students, after graduating from the public school system, wanted to attend college? Perchance to DREAM is the first comprehensive history of the DREAM Act, which made its initial congressional appearance in 2001, and Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), the discretionary program established by President Obama in 2012 out of Congressional failure to enact comprehensive immigration reform. Michael A. Olivas relates the history of the DREAM Act and DACA over the course of two decades.With the Trump Administration challenging the legality of DACA and pursuing its elimination in 2017, the fate of DACA is uncertain. Perchance to DREAM follows the political participation of DREAMers, who have been taken hostage as pawns in a cruel game as the White House continues to advocate anti-immigrant policies. Perchance to DREAM brings to light the many twists and turns that the legislation has taken, suggests why it has not gained the required traction, and offers hopeful pathways that could turn this darkness to dawn.

This book examines the adaptation experiences of legal immigrants with undocumented spouses, considering the structural limitations that they face in their private, social, and professional lives, as well as in regard to their finances and health. The first study to systematically analyze the ways in which legal immigrants are affected by federal and state policies that target their undocumented spouses, it reveals that, regardless of their immigration status, all members of mixed-status families are directly or indirectly subjected to the same intrusive and punitive laws. Based on an autoethnographic approach, Everyday Fears of Legal Immigrants with Undocumented Spouses: Under U.S. Immigration Policy also draws on additional qualitative research as well empirical evidence from existing studies and the latest quantitative data from various governmental agencies and think tanks. It thus integrates multiple approaches to ways of knowing and understanding the experiences of legal immigrants in mixed-status families and will therefore appeal to social scientists with interests in migration.

What does it really mean to be'undocumented,'particularly in the contemporary United States? Political philosophers, immigration policy makers, and others have tended to define the term'undocumented migrant'legalistically-that is, in terms of lacking legal authorization to live and work in one's current country of residence. In Socially Undocumented, Reed-Sandoval challenges this'legalistic understanding'by arguing that being socially undocumented is to possess a real, visible, and embodied social identity that does not always track one's legal status. She further argues that achieving immigration justice in the U.S. (and elsewhere) requires a philosophical understanding of the racialized, class-based, and gendered components of socially undocumented identity and oppression. Socially Undocumented offers a new vision of immigration justice by integrating a descriptive and phenomenological account of socially undocumented identity with a normative and political account of how the oppression with which it is associated ought to be dealt with as a matter of social justice. It also addresses concrete ethical challenges such as the question of whether open borders are morally required, the militarization of the Mexico-U.S. border, the perilous journey that many migrants undertake to get to the United States, the difficult experiences of the women who cross U.S. borders seeking prenatal care while pregnant, and more.

Immigration detention is considered by many states to be a necessary tool in the execution of immigration policy. Despite the apparently key role it plays in immigration enforcement, the law on immigration detention is often vague, especially in relation to determining the circumstances under which prolonged detention remains lawful. As a result, the courts are frequently called upon to adjudicate these matters, with scant legal tools at their disposal. Though there have been some significant judgments on the legality of detention at the constitutional level, the extent to which these judgments have had an impact at the lower end of the judiciary is unclear. Indeed, it is the lower courts which are tasked with judging the legality of detention through habeas corpus or judicial review proceedings. This book examines the way this has occurred in the lower courts of two jurisdictions, the UK and the US, and contrasts this practice not only in those jurisdictions, but with judgments rendered by the Court of Justice of the European Union, a constitutional court at the other end of the judicial spectrum whose judgments are applied by courts and tribunals in the EU Member States. Although these three jurisdictions use similar tests to evaluate the legality of detention, case outcomes significantly differ. Many factors contribute to this divergence, but key among them is the role that fundamental rights protection plays in each jurisdiction. Through a forensic evaluation of 191 judgments, this book compares the laws on detention in the UK, US and EU, and makes recommendations to these jurisdictions for improvement.

Finalist, 2020 C. Wright Mills Award, given by the Society for the Study of Social ProblemsHonorable Mention, 2021 Asian America Section Book Award, given by the American Sociological AssociationAn inspiring look inside immigrant youth's political activism in perilous times Undocumented immigrants in the United States who engage in social activism do so at great risk: the threat of deportation. In Organizing While Undocumented, Kevin Escudero shows why and how—despite this risk—many of them bravely continue to fight on the front lines for their rights. Drawing on more than five years of research, including interviews with undocumented youth organizers, Escudero focuses on the movement's epicenters—San Francisco, Chicago, and New York City—to explain the impressive political success of the undocumented immigrant community. He shows how their identities as undocumented immigrants, but also as queer individuals, people of color, and women, connect their efforts to broader social justice struggles today. A timely, worthwhile read, Organizing While Undocumented gives us a look at inspiring triumphs, as well as the inevitable perils, of political activism in precarious times.

This book deals with migrant-sending countries in the Western Hemisphere because that was the Commission's mandate and because the bulk of undocumented immigrants into the United States come from Mexico and other countries of the Caribbean Basin.

In today's ever-expanding global movement of people border security becomes increasingly important. Stopping the illegal movement of weapons, drugs, and people, while allowing lawful trade and travel, is essential to our nation's security and economic prosperity. This book examines the funding, technologies and enforcement used to keep our borders secure. Chapter 1 reviews the critical infrastructure, technology, and personnel funding needed by U.S. Customs and Border Protection to enhance our Nation's border security. On January 25, 2017, in one of his first acts as President, Donald Trump ordered “the immediate construction of a physical wall on the southern border. As reported in chapter 2, Border Patrol agents have rarely recommended building a wall to address the most commonly identified vulnerabilities – or “capability gaps” – along the southwest border. More often, agents recommended additional technology and personnel as solutions for securing the border. The U.S. Border Patrol, within the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), has made progress deploying surveillance technology—a mix of radars, sensors, and cameras—along the southwest U.S. border as described in chapter 3. There is a wave of foreign nationals headed for the U.S. southern border. Chapter 4 discusses the impending arrival of what was initially called an immigrant caravan, which remains a challenge of U.S. border security. The San Diego-based group, Pueblo Sin Fronteras, or People Without Borders, has taken credit for organizing the effort. While they claim to provide humanitarian aid to migrants and refugees, what they are doing now is undermining the rule of law. Chapter 5 highlights the potential vulnerabilities in the visa issuance process. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), a component within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), implemented the Visa Security Program (VSP) in 2003. ICE has since deployed officials to certain U.S. embassies and consulates overseas to strengthen the visa review process by working with Department of State (State) consular officers in reviewing applications.

When Gina was deported to Tijuana, Mexico, in 2011, she left behind her parents, siblings, and children, all of whom are U.S. citizens. Despite having once had a green card, Gina was removed from the only country she had ever known. In Deported Americans legal scholar and former public defender Beth C. Caldwell tells Gina's story alongside those of dozens of other Dreamers, who are among the hundreds of thousands who have been deported to Mexico in recent years. Many of them had lawful status, held green cards, or served in the U.S. military. Now, they have been banished, many with no hope of lawfully returning. Having interviewed over one hundred deportees and their families, Caldwell traces deportation's long-term consequences—such as depression, drug use, and homelessness—on both sides of the border. Showing how U.S. deportation law systematically fails to protect the rights of immigrants and their families, Caldwell challenges traditional notions of what it means to be an American and recommends legislative and judicial reforms to mitigate the injustices suffered by the millions of U.S. citizens affected by deportation.

The impact of the U.S. immigration and legal systems on children and youth In the United States, millions of children are undocumented migrants or have family members who came to the country without authorization. The unique challenges with which these children and youth must cope demand special attention. Illegal Encounters considers illegality, deportability, and deportation in the lives of young people—those who migrate as well as those who are affected by the migration of others. A primary focus of the volume is to understand how children and youth encounter, move through, or are outside of a range of legal processes, including border enforcement, immigration detention, federal custody, courts, and state processes of categorization. Even if young people do not directly interact with state immigration systems—because they are U.S. citizens or have avoided detention—they are nonetheless deeply affected by the reach of the government in its many forms.Contributors privilege the voices and everyday experiences of immigrant children and youth themselves. By combining different perspectives from advocates, service providers, attorneys, researchers, and young immigrants, the volume presents rich accounts that can contribute to informed debates and policy reforms. Illegal Encounters sheds light on the unique ways in which policies, laws, and legal categories shape so much of daily life for young immigrants. The book makes visible the burdens, hopes, and potential of a population of young people and their families who have been largely hidden from public view and are currently under siege, following their movement through complicated immigration systems and institutions in the United States.

Unauthorized: Portraits of Latino Immigrants takes readers inside the diverse contemporary worlds of undocumented Latino immigrants in the United States, exploring the myths and realities of education, health care, work, deportation, and more. This book aims to dispel common misconceptions while introducing readers to real people behind the headlines.Chapters explore the myths and realities of topics including education, health care, work, deportation, and more. As immigration remains a controversial topic in the United States, this book aims to dispel common misconceptions about immigration while introducing readers to the real people behind the headlines. The topic of undocumented immigration has received tremendous attention—from the debate on immigration reform to the Executive Actions of President Obama to the growing numbers of unaccompanied minors from Central America and more. In addition, the Syrian refugee crisis and the anti-immigrant discourse of presidential candidate Donald Trump have enraged many observers and emboldened others. This book provides factual information to readers who are interested in learning more about these issues and the people who are labeled “illegal.” Each chapter draws on both existing and original research to provide an accessible overview of key themes, and case studies bring issues to life.

'Michelle Malkin's latest book is required reading for anyone wishing to understand the forces and interests behind the open borders and mass migration lobby.'—Pawel Styrna, ImmigrationReform.comFollow the money, find the truth. That's Michelle Malkin's journalistic mantra, and in her stunning new book, Open Borders Inc., she puts it to work with a shocking, comprehensive exposé of who's behind our immigration crisis. In the name of compassion—but driven by financial profit—globalist elites, Silicon Valley, and the radical Left are conspiring to undo the rule of law, subvert our homeland security, shut down free speech, and make gobs of money off the backs of illegal aliens, refugees, and low-wage guest workers. Politicians want cheap votes or cheap labor. Church leaders want pew-fillers and collection plate donors. Social justice militants, working with corporate America, want to silence free speech they deem “hateful,” while raking in tens of millions of dollars promoting mass, uncontrolled immigration both legal and illegal. Malkin names names—from Pope Francis to George Clooney, from George Soros to the Koch brothers, from Jack Dorsey to Tim Cook and Mark Zuckerberg. Enlightening as it is infuriating, Open Borders Inc. reveals the powerful forces working to erase America.

Legal Passing offers a nuanced look at how the lives of undocumented Mexicans in the US are constantly shaped by federal, state, and local immigration laws. Angela S. García compares restrictive and accommodating immigration measures in various cities and states to show that place-based inclusion and exclusion unfold in seemingly contradictory ways. Instead of fleeing restrictive localities, undocumented Mexicans react by presenting themselves as “legal,” masking the stigma of illegality to avoid local police and federal immigration enforcement. Restrictive laws coerce assimilation, because as legal passing becomes habitual and embodied, immigrants distance themselves from their ethnic and cultural identities. In accommodating destinations, undocumented Mexicans experience a localized sense of stability and membership that is simultaneously undercut by the threat of federal immigration enforcement and complex street-level tensions with local police. Combining social theory on immigration and race as well as place and law, Legal Passing uncovers the everyday failures and long-term human consequences of contemporary immigration laws in the US.

The term'sanctuary city'gained a new level of national recognition during the 2016 United States presidential election, and immigration policies and debates have remained a top issue since the election of Donald Trump. The battle over immigration and deportation will be waged on many fronts in the coming years, but sanctuary cities - municipalities that resist the national government's efforts to enforce immigration laws - are likely to be on the front lines for the immediate future, and social workers and others in the helping professions have vital roles to play. In this book, Melvin Delgado offers a compelling case for the centrality of sanctuary cities'cause to the very mission and professional identity of social workers and others in the human services and mental health professions. The text also presents a historical perspective on the rise of the sanctuary movements of the 1970s and 2000s, thereby giving context to the current environment and immigration debate. Sanctuary Cities, Communities, and Organizations serves as a helpful resource for human service practitioners, academics, and the general public alike.

Teachers as Allies provides educators with the information and tools they need to involve immigrant students and their American-born siblings and peers in inclusive and transformative classroom experiences. The authors offer teaching strategies that address the needs of DREAMers and undocumented youth and include a broad range of curriculum connections and resources.Contributors include Theresa Austin, Aurora Chang, Sylvia Y. Sánchez, Gertrude Tinker Sachs, Eva K. Thorp, Emma Violand-Sánchez, and DREAMers Hareth Andrade-Ayala, Gaby Pacheco, and Rodrigo Velasquez-SotoRoyalties from the sale of this book will go to United We Dream.“Teachers are uniquely placed to support undocumented students facing adverse circumstances and to challenge the narrative of immigrant criminality in the public sphere. This book should help enable them to do both.”—From the Foreword by Aviva Chomsky, Salem State University“This powerful book provides information, strategies, stories, hope, and sustenance for teachers and other educators working to support some of the most marginalized students in our schools.”—Sonia Nieto, professor emerita, University of Massachusetts, Amherst“In light of the current political climate, it is crucial that this information be available for educators and the community.”—Stewart Kwoh, president and executive director, Asian Americans Advancing Justice, Los Angeles

THE NATIONAL BESTSELLER“This riveting, courageous memoir ought to be mandatory reading for every American.” —Michelle Alexander, New York Times bestselling author of The New Jim Crow“l cried reading this book, realizing more fully what my parents endured.” —Amy Tan, New York Times bestselling author of The Joy Luck Club and Where the Past Begins“This book couldn't be more timely and more necessary.” —Dave Eggers, New York Times bestselling author of What Is the What and The Monk of MokhaPulitzer-Prize winning journalist Jose Antonio Vargas, called “the most famous undocumented immigrant in America,” tackles one of the defining issues of our time in this explosive and deeply personal call to arms.“This is not a book about the politics of immigration. This book––at its core––is not about immigration at all. This book is about homelessness, not in a traditional sense, but in the unsettled, unmoored psychological state that undocumented immigrants like myself find ourselves in. This book is about lying and being forced to lie to get by; about passing as an American and as a contributing citizen; about families, keeping them together, and having to make new ones when you can't. This book is about constantly hiding from the government and, in the process, hiding from ourselves. This book is about what it means to not have a home.After 25 years of living illegally in a country that does not consider me one of its own, this book is the closest thing I have to freedom.”—Jose Antonio Vargas, from Dear America

Handcuffs and Chain Link enters the immigration debate by addressing one of its most controversial aspects: the criminalization both of extralegal immigration to the United States and of immigrants themselves in popular and political discourse. Looking at the factors that led up to criminalization, Benjamin Gonzalez O'Brien points to the alternative approach of the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 and how its ultimate demise served to negatively reinforce the fictitious association of extralegal immigrants with criminality.Crucial to Gonzalez O'Brien's account thus is the concept of the critical policy failure—a piece of legislation that attempts a radically different approach to a major issue but has shortcomings that ultimately further entrench the approach it was designed to supplant. The IRCA was just such a piece of legislation. It highlighted the contributions of the undocumented and offered amnesty to some while attempting to stem the flow of extralegal immigration by holding employers accountable for hiring the undocumented. The failure of this effort at decriminalization prompted a return to criminalization with a vengeance, leading to the stalemate on immigration policy that persists to this day.

Examining how undocumented migrants are using film, video, and other documentary media to challenge surveillance, detention, and deportation As debates over immigration increasingly become flashpoints of political contention in the United States, a variety of advocacy groups, social service organizations, filmmakers, and artists have provided undocumented migrants with the tools and training to document their experiences.In The Undocumented Everyday, Rebecca M. Schreiber examines the significance of self-representation by undocumented Mexican and Central American migrants, arguing that by centering their own subjectivity and presence through their use of documentary media, these migrants are effectively challenging intensified regimes of state surveillance and liberal strategies that emphasize visibility as a form of empowerment and inclusion. Schreiber explores documentation as both an aesthetic practice based on the visual conventions of social realism and a state-administered means of identification and control. As Schreiber shows, by visualizing new ways of belonging not necessarily defined by citizenship, these migrants are remaking documentary media, combining formal visual strategies with those of amateur photography and performative elements to create a mixed-genre aesthetic. In doing so, they make political claims and create new forms of protection for migrant communities experiencing increased surveillance, detention, and deportation.

A revealing look inside a controversial movementThey live in the suburbs of Tennessee and Indiana. They fought in Vietnam and Desert Storm. They speak about an older, better America, an America that once was, and is no more. And for the past decade, they have come to the U.S. / Mexico border to hunt for illegal immigrants. Who are the Minutemen? Patriots? Racists? Vigilantes?Harel Shapira lived with the Minutemen and patrolled the border with them, seeking neither to condemn nor praise them, but to understand who they are and what they do. Challenging simplistic depictions of these men as right-wing fanatics with loose triggers, Shapira discovers a group of men who long for community and embrace the principles of civic engagement. Yet these desires and convictions have led them to a troubling place. Shapira takes you to that place—a stretch of desert in southern Arizona, where he reveals that what draws these men to the border is not simply racism or anti-immigrant sentiments, but a chance to relive a sense of meaning and purpose rooted in an older life of soldiering. They come to the border not only in search of illegal immigrants, but of lost identities and experiences.Now with a new afterword by the author, Waiting for José brings understanding to a group of people in search of lost identities and experiences.

The Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 (IRCA) was amanifestation of widespread public concern over the volume of undocumentedimmigration into the United States. The principal innovationof this legislation-the provision to impose penalties on employers whoknowingly hire undocumented immigrants-was a response to thisconcern.This effort at restriction was tempered in IRCA by other provisionspermitting the legalization of two types of undocumented immigrantsthosewho had resided in the United States since January 1, 1982; andwhat were called special agricultural workers (SAWs), persons who hadworked in perishable crop agriculture for at least 90 days during specifiedperiods from 1983 to 1986. Approximately 3.1 million persons soughtlegalization (what is popularly referred to as amnesty) under these twoprovisions. The breakdown was roughly 1.8 million under the regularprogram and 1.3 million as SAWs. Mexicans made up 75 percent of thecombined legalization requests.

America's immigration crisis is out of control! Unregulated immigration has led to an increase in crime, a loss of working class jobs, an inflated welfare state, and an elevated amount of terror threats on our home territory. The clash of differing emotions, facts, and opinions reveal that this issue is not simply a nationwide disagreement; it is an American crisis. In The Politically Incorrect Guide to Immigration, authors John Zmirak and Al Perrotta debunk the Left's most deceptive myths on this complex policy issue – and reveal the huge implications that lie ahead for our nation's future. Zmirak and Perrotta set the record straight on the history of American immigration, uncover the principles with which our forefathers migrated to America, affirm the respect with which migrants should treat our country if they wish to live here, and assert real solutions to the immigration crisis America faces. The Politically Incorrect Guide to Immigration equips readers with real-life statistics and information, and is packed with targeted arguments to help convince even the staunchest advocates for open borders that America needs to build “The Wall.” You may think you know all about immigration, but in The Politically Incorrect Guide to Immigration you'll learn: • Building “The Wall” would cost less than half of what we spend to educate illegal immigrants every year • Illegal immigration costs American taxpayers $116 billion a year • 62% of naturalized immigrants are for the Democrats; only 25% are for the Republicans • Competition from immigrants costs American worker $450 billion a year • The Founders wanted to admit only immigrants who would make a net contribution—and assimilate • Millions of nineteenth-century immigrants who couldn't make it in American went back home • The percent of foreign-born in the United States today is the highest since World War I—and this time we're not doing “Americanization” • After Reagan's 1986 Amnesty the illegal population went from 3.2 million to 11 million • Over 700,000 foreign visitors to the United States in 2016 overstayed their visas • Eighty percent of Central American women and girls who enter the United States illegally are raped along the way • Non-citizens are only 9 percent of our population but 27 percent of federal prisoners • One hundred forty-seven million more people from around the world would like to move to the United States

Today in the United States, millions of men, women, and children are considered'illegal aliens'under federal law. While the presence of these migrants runs against the law, many arrive in response to US demand for cheap labor and stay to contribute to community life. This book asks where migrants stand within God's world and how authorities can govern immigration with Christian ethics. The author tracks the emergence of the concept of the illegal alien in federal US law while exploring Christian ways of understanding belonging, government, and relationships with neighbors. This is a thought-provoking book that provides a fresh response to the difficult issue of illegal immigration in the United States through the context of Christian theology.

What does it mean to be a young undocumented immigrant? Current public debate on undocumented immigration provokes discussion worldwide, and it is estimated that there are more than 11.1 million undocumented immigrants in the US, yet what it really means to be an undocumented immigrant appears less explicitly delineated in the debate.This interdisciplinary volume applies theories from Media, Cultural, and Literary Studies to investigate how undocumented immigrant youth in the United States have claimed a public voice by publishing their video narratives on YouTube. Case studies show how political protest significantly shapes these videos as activists narrate and perform their ‘dispossession', redefining their understanding of the mechanisms of immigration in the Americas, and of home, belonging, and identity. The impact of the videos is explored as the activists connect them to Congressional bills and present their activities as a continuation of the legacy of the civil rights movements of the 1960s and 1970s. This book will be of interest to a wide range of scholars and students involved in debates on migration, communication, new media, culture, protest movements and political lobbying.

作者旅居美國後，接觸許多輾轉從中國逃到美國的偷渡客和他們形形色色的故事，因而寫成此書，作為對這些苦難同胞的懷念和那個特定時代的見證。

For Love of the Dollar is a young writer's tale of ambitions undermined by economic forces, racial divides and artistic hubris. Hilarious, irreverent, even cynical, Servín worked in kitchens, gas stations, golf courses, and finally, as a “manny'for a dysfunctional Connecticut family. His view of the plight of the undocumented worker confronts as much what it means to be Mexican, as it does American, laying bare a version of the American dream few have had the courage to articulate.

The deeply reported story of identical twin brothers who escape El Salvador's violence to build new lives in California—fighting to survive, to stay, and to belong.“Impeccably timed, intimately reported, and beautifully expressed.”—The New York TimesNAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW • WINNER OF THE RIDENHOUR BOOK PRIZE • SILVER WINNER OF THE CALIFORNIA BOOK AWARDGrowing up in rural El Salvador in the wake of the civil war, the United States was a distant fantasy to identical twins Ernesto and Raul Flores—until, at age seventeen, a deadly threat from the region's brutal gangs forces them to flee the only home they've ever known. In this urgent chronicle of contemporary immigration, journalist Lauren Markham follows the Flores twins as they make their way across the Rio Grande and the Texas desert, into the hands of immigration authorities, and from there to their estranged older brother in Oakland, CA. Soon these unaccompanied minors are navigating school in a new language, working to pay down their mounting coyote debt, and facing their day in immigration court, while also encountering the triumphs and pitfalls of teenage life with only each other for support. With intimate access and breathtaking range, Markham offers an unforgettable testament to the migrant experience.FINALIST FOR THE LOS ANGELES TIMES BOOK PRIZE • SHORTLISTED FOR THE J. ANTHONY LUKAS BOOK PRIZE • LONGLISTED FOR THE PEN/BOGRAD WELD PRIZE FOR BIOGRAPHY“[This] beautifully written book... can be read as a supplement to the current news, a chronicle of the problems that Central Americans are fleeing and the horrors they suffer in flight. But it transcends the crisis. Markham's deep, frank reporting is also useful in thinking ahead to the challenges of assimilation, for the struggling twins and many others like them.... Her reporting is intimate and detailed, and her tone is a special pleasure. Trustworthy, calm, decent, it offers refuge from a world consumed by Twitter screeds and cable news demagogues.... A generous book for an ungenerous age.”—Jason DeParle, The New York Review of Books“You should read The Far Away Brothers. We all should.”—NPR“This is the sort of news that is the opposite of fake.... Markham is our knowing, compassionate ally, our guide in sorting out, up close, how our new national immigration policy is playing out from a human perspective.... An important book.”—The Minneapolis Star Tribune

They arrive from around the world for countless reasons. Many come simply to make a living. Others are fleeing persecution in their native countries. Millions of immigrants risk deportation and imprisonment by living in the U.S. without legal status. They are living underground, with little protection from exploitation at the hands of human smugglers, employers, or law enforcement. Underground America, from the Voice of Witness series, presents the remarkable oral histories of women and men struggling to carve a life for themselves in the U.S.

These remarkable oral histories of undocumented men and women struggling to carve a life for themselves in the U.S. “[fill] a gap in our understanding of [immigration] by humanizing the people at the center of an otherwise cold debate” (Huffington Post) They arrive from around the world for countless reasons. Many come simply to make a living. Others are fleeing persecution in their native countries. Millions of immigrants risk deportation and imprisonment by living in the U.S. without legal status. They are living underground, with little protection from exploitation at the hands of human smugglers, employers, or law enforcement. Underground America presents the remarkable stories of U.S. immigrants. Among the narrators: Farid, an Iranian-American business owner who employs a number of American citizens while he himself remains undocumented. A critic of the Iranian government, he fears for his safety if he is deported to his native country. Diana, who along with thousands of other Latino workers helped rebuild the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina. After completing her work, she and many others were detained and imprisoned for not having proper documentation. Liso, who was enticed to come to the United States as a religious missionary, but on arrival was forced into unpaid domestic labor. Underground America is part of the Voice of Witness book series—co-founded by acclaimed author Dave Eggers—which uses oral history to illuminate human rights crises around the world.