Immigration and DACA: Books

Throughout his presidency, John F. Kennedy was passionate about the issue of immigration reform. He believed that America is a nation of people who value both tradition and the exploration of new frontiers, people who deserve the freedom to build better lives for themselves in their adopted homeland. The book reveals the president's inspiring suggestions for immigration policy and presents a chronology of the main events in the history of immigration in America. As continued debates on immigration engulf the nation, this paean to the importance of immigrants to our nation's prominence and success is as timely as ever.

To discover what becomes of Mexicans who come illegally to the United States, Conover disguised himself as an illegal alien, traveling and working across America for more than a year.

In Americans in Waiting, Motomura discovers in our national past a simple yet powerful approach to immigration and citizenship. Rewriting the conventional story, Motomura uncovers how for over 150 years, many immigrants were immediately put on track to U.S. citizenship. They were entitled to overseas diplomatic protection and eligible to homestead land on the western frontier. Citizens-to-be were even allowed to vote. In sum, immigration was assumed to be a transition to citizenship, and immigrants were future citizens--Americans in waiting. Beginning in the early twentieth century, the United States began to treat its immigrants in one of two ways: as signatories to a contract that sets the terms of their stay in this country, or as affiliates who can earn rights only as they become, over time, enmeshed in the nation's life. Immigration is now seen too often as a problem to be solved, rather than a pillar of our nation's strength. A panoramic history of the past 200 years of immigration and citizenship in the United States, Americans in Waiting offers a clear lesson: only by recovering this lost history of immigration can we ensure that both current and future citizens share in the sense of belonging that is crucial to full participation in American life.

Using Arizona as a microcosm, this book explores the larger issues surrounding the massive human migration from Mexico to America including: the desperation that compels Mexicans to cross the border; the militarization of the borderlands; the pile-up of unidentified bodies; and much more.

In a book of deep and telling ironies, Peter Schrag provides essential background for understanding the fractious debate over immigration. Covering the earliest days of the Republic to current events, Schrag sets the modern immigration controversy within the context of three centuries of debate over the same questions about who exactly is fit for citizenship. He finds that nativism has long colored our national history, and that the fear--and loathing--of newcomers has provided one of the faultlines of American cultural and political life. He links the terrible history of eugenic "science" to ideas, individuals, and groups now at the forefront of the fight against rational immigration policies. Not Fit for Our Society makes a powerful case for understanding the complex, often paradoxical history of immigration restriction as we work through the issues that inform, and often distort, the debate over who can become a citizen, who decides, and on what basis.

Throughout history, migrants have fueled the engine of human progress. Their movement has sparked innovation, spread ideas, relieved poverty, and laid the foundations for a global economy. In a world more interconnected than ever before, the number of people with the means and motivation to migrate will only increase. Exceptional People provides a long-term and global perspective on the implications and policy options for societies the world over. Challenging the received wisdom that a dramatic growth in migration is undesirable, the book proposes new approaches for governance that will embrace this international mobility. The authors explore the critical role of human migration since humans first departed Africa some fifty thousand years ago--how the circulation of ideas and technologies has benefited communities and how the movement of people across oceans and continents has fueled economies.

This book offers a balanced, poignant, and often moving portrait of America’s immigrants over more than a century. The author has organized the book by decades so that readers can easily find the time period most relevant to their experience or that of family members. Also included is a comprehensive appendix of statistics showing immigration by country and decade from 1890 to the present, a complete list of famous immigrants, and much more.

This book traces the origins of the "illegal alien" in American law and society, explaining why and how illegal migration became the central problem in U.S. immigration policy--a process that profoundly shaped ideas and practices about citizenship, race, and state authority in the twentieth century. Mae Ngai offers a close reading of the legal regime of restriction that commenced in the 1920s--its statutory architecture, judicial genealogies, administrative enforcement, differential treatment of European and non-European migrants, and long-term effects. She shows that immigration restriction, particularly national-origin and numerical quotas, remapped America both by creating new categories of racial difference and by emphasizing as never before the nation's contiguous land borders and their patrol.

This book examines how and why liberalism and human rights have proven insufficient to protect immigrants. Contemporary immigration systems are characterized by increasing complexity and expanding enforcement, and frequently criticized for violating human rights and for causing death, exclusion and exploitation. The 'migrant crisis' can also be understood as a crisis of hospitality for liberal democracies. The book provides a fresh and original perspective on the development of immigration systems, showing how they have become subject to the politics of fear and greed, and revealing how different traditions of hospitality have evolved, survived, and renewed.

The Politics of Immigration focuses the analytical lens on the electoral incentives that legislators in Congress have to support or oppose immigration policy reforms at the federal level. In contrast to previous arguments,Tom K. Wong argues that contemporary immigration politics in the United States can be characterized by three underlying features: the entrenchment of partisan divides among legislators on the issue of immigration, the political implications of the demographic changes that are reshaping the American electorate, and how these changes are creating new opportunities to define what it means to be an American in a period of unprecedented national origins, racial and ethnic, and cultural diversity.

Weaves together detailed historical and contemporary examples of immigration to the United States that move beyond hackneyed stereotypes about immigrants to give readers a fact-based understanding of why and how immigration occurs. Discusses immigration from the 1800s to today,

Borders and immigration are topics dominating world affairs during the 21st century including North America. This book examines the historical antecedents to the current crisis notably along the U.S.A./Mexico border under the Trump administration. Both the immigration and border issues transcend the current Administration with a history as long as that of America itself. Market demands often determined the influx of immigrants into the United States resulting in periods of anti-immigrant backlash based on race and ethnic factors. The geo-politics of market factors and immigrant backlash is rooted in both de jure and de facto politics. These factors are examined in detail with particular attention to the treatment of indigenous peoples of the Americas.

A New York Times Editors' Choice * Best Book of the Year: Time, NPR, Bookpage, L.A. Times What does it mean to be American? In this starkly illuminating and impassioned book, Pulitzer Prize­­-finalist Laila Lalami recounts her unlikely journey from Moroccan immigrant to U.S. citizen, using it as a starting point for her exploration of American rights, liberties, and protections. "Sharp, bracingly clear essays."--Entertainment Weekly Tapping into history, politics, and literature, she elucidates how accidents of birth--such as national origin, race, and gender--that once determined the boundaries of Americanness still cast their shadows today.   Lalami poignantly illustrates how white supremacy survives through adaptation and legislation, with the result that a caste system is maintained that keeps the modern equivalent of white male landowners at the top of the social hierarchy. Conditional citizens, she argues, are all the people with whom America embraces with one arm and pushes away with the other.   Brilliantly argued and deeply personal, Conditional Citizens weaves together Lalami's own experiences with explorations of the place of nonwhites in the broader American culture.

Green cards, visas, and more: What every immigrant needs to know Want to live, work, or travel in the United States? U.S. Immigration Made Easy has helped tens of thousands of people get a visa, green card, or other immigration status. You'll learn: whether you and your family qualify for a short-term visa, permanent U.S. residence, or protection from deportation how to obtain, fill out, and submit the necessary forms and documents insider strategies for dealing with bureaucratic officials, delays, and denials ways to overcome low income and other immigration barriers, and how to select the right attorney. U.S. Immigration Made Easy provides detailed descriptions of application processes and helps you avoid traps that might destroy your chances. There's also an immigration eligibility self-quiz, which helps you match your background and skills to a likely category of visa or green card. The 21st edition is completely updated to cover recent legal changes through the Biden administration,