Undocumented: How Immigration Became Illegal

Excellent work on the concept and evolution of being "illegal" in America. Traces the development of that concept through the history of immigration to the present day. Chomsky's argument that national borders are arbitrary and that the right to maintain the sovereignty of those borders through "border control" is fraught with implications, may not set well with readers and may cause them to discount the rest of the book. At the very least, that would be an interesting source of discussion. Nevertheless, Chomsky is able to show how the idea of the "illegal immigrant" is a recent one and owes much to immigration reform that benefited prospective European immigrants and prejudiced Mexican immigration. How? By imposing new restrictions that broke up traditional patterns of migration,work and acculturation by immigrants and replaced them with a gamed system that exposed immigrants to exploitation by employers. Chomsky takes to task the "my ancestors came here legally" myth and shows how immigration law and American prejudice privileged some immigrant groups over others, creating a dilemma in which new immigrants are not offered the opportunity to even get in line, as it were. Readers should come away with the understanding that rather than an ordered, efficient process that serves all equally, immigration law sometimes if not many times reinforces those prejudices or imposes undue burdens on likely immigrants. Chomsky elaborates of how immigration law frustrates rather than facilitates human rights and an efficient immigration process. She also, with no punches pulled, explains how immigrants employ fraud to try and keep up with ever changing demands. The solutions chapter at the end is the weakest, and does not really bridge the gap between theory and possibility. This book adds an important voice to the debates over immigration

Chomsky underscores the obvious. Today's heavily propagandized 100% American knows absolutely nothing about US or any other history and is totally ignorant about the rest of the world. Mix that with an utter deficit in critical analysis ability, stir in heaping portions of jingoism and exceptionalism and serve up a one-party military dictatorship and totalitarian security state. And I don't mean to plagiarize George Bernard Shaw, the 100% American is 99% idiot".

Stop Calling Them "Immigrants": They are PHIs (Persons Here Illegally) - The Solution Begins with Using the Right Term I hoped to give this book more than three stars because as it directly competes with mine (captioned above), I didn't want to seem petty. I also wanted to make sure I wasn't trashing the book because I disagreed with the author's premise (which I do), because I think the worst thing to do when reviewing books is to grant stars based on like-mindedness or lack thereof. So, we begin with five stars, and then the question is, does the book deserve to keep them or lose a couple? Prof. Chomsky's writing is quite good. She draws upon much history and provides it in an eminently readable manner. But she makes the critical mistake of assuming that just because there was much shameful and inexcusable institutional racism in this country for many, many decades - and quite a large number of people will argue it still exists today, institutionally - that our immigration policy was designed to perpetuate that racism. Specifically, she argues that the reasons we have immigration laws is to keep out the brown people. That's quite a leap, to say the least. But a tenuous premise by itself would not be enough to lose two stars. The other problem is incorrect information. The average American does not know a whole lot about immigration law, and so would expect an educated author to present accurate facts and laws. Some examples to the contrary include Chomsky's attestation that "citizens can only sponsor children who are unmarried" (p. 165). Not true. See the "Third Preference" category for relative-based immigration (Immigration and Nationality Act). Also, Chomsky writes that parents of anchor babies basically have no immigration benefits as a result, because they can be deported, but that is not entirely true. They can take their new baby, leave the country, and when that baby is 21, he or she can return to the United States, still a natural-born citizen in every way, and petition for his/her parents, any other siblings, and the spouses and children (under 21) of all of the above. Chomsky's final chapter, titled, "Solutions" is, I supposel worthwhile, if the "problem" is that we don't have open borders, which is more or less what Chomsky appears to be saying. It stands in stark contrast to my book and my solutions. Nonetheless, I think it is a valuable book to read, so as to understand a very real component of the immigration discussion. And for that reason, I brought the stars back up to FOUR. Ultimately, then, this is an important book to read, even though I think Chomsky's rationale is, pardon the pun, way out in left field.

Great book I read for immigration and Identity class. Has changed a little of my perspective on immigration.

This book does a great job at demonstrating how the United States has historically never been welcoming to immigrant groups and how it has actively tried to keep immigrants out. I think everyone should read this if you care about human rights.

A fascinating read. I'm aware of horrendous problem people face by being in this country without documentation, but did not know about the circuitous and capricious laws and regulations that keep them that way. So much has been done to benefit business and the wealthy with utter disregard for the human beings that build the businesses and benefit those who have much. This book clearly delineates the process the country went through to demonize Latino people-- particularly Mexicans -- and that continues to dehumanize them. Some of the statistics relate heartbreaking situations.

It completely altered my perceptions of the current Immigration situation. And, unfortunately, did not give any likely solutions to the problem.It is a huge problem which mere politicians are unlikely to fix! But this book really describes what is going on and could help in ameliorating this problem if we can get politicians to read it! W.R.R. Park ( a legal immigrant from Canada in the 50`s)!

Well documented book on the UNdocumented. Unfortunately, Chomsky does what so many do - she comes to her research with a pre-existing bias that sometimes makes her arguments ludicrous. Her take on job availability and other minority populations like African Americans is well-supported, but her argument about holding companies to task for hiring illegal immigrants as being detrimental only to those who are undocumented, just does not hold water, in my opinion.