Constructing Immigrant 'Illegality'

Cecilia Menjívar is Cowden Distinguished Professor at the T. Denny Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics at Arizona State University. In her work she has examined the social consequences of immigration enforcement and how the law positions immigrants to live in legal ambiguity. She is the author of Enduring Violence: Ladina Women's Everyday Lives in Guatemala (2011) and Fragmented Ties: Salvadoran Immigrant Networks in America (2000). Daniel Kanstroom is Professor of Law at Boston College Law School where he teaches immigration and refugee law, international human rights law, and administrative law. He is Director of the International Human Rights Program and the Post-Deportation Human Rights Project. He also founded the Boston College Immigration and Asylum Clinic, where students represent indigent migrants and asylum-seekers. He is the author of Aftermath: Deportation Law and the New American Diaspora (2012) and Deportation Nation: Outsiders in American History (2007).

• 1. Introduction: 'immigrant illegality': constructions, critiques, resistance Cecilia Menjívar and Daniel Kanstroom; Part I. The Construction of 'Illegality': 2. Immigration 'reform' and the production of migrant 'illegality' Nicholas De Genova; 3. Coercive immigration enforcement and bureaucratic ideology Nestor Rodriguez and Cristian Paredes; 4. 'Illegality' across generations: public discourse and the children of undocumented immigrants Leo R. Chavez; 5. 'Illegality' and the US-Mexico border: how it is produced and resisted Josiah McC. Heyman; Part II. Complicating Lived Experiences of 'Illegality': 6. Latino immigrants' diverse experiences of 'illegality' Leisy Abrego; 7. Challenging the transition to new 'illegalities': undocumented young adults and the shifting boundaries of inclusion Roberto G. Gonzales, Luisa Laura Heredia and Genevieve Negrón-Gonzales; 8. The modern deportation regime and Mexican families: the indirect consequences for children in new destination communities Joanna Dreby; 9. From legal to 'illegal': the deportation of legal permanent residents from the United States Tanya Golash-Boza; Part III. Responses and Resistance: 10. Voice and power in the immigrant rights movement Walter J. Nicholls; 11. 'Illegality' and the spaces of sanctuary: belonging and homeland-making in urban community gardens Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo and Jose Miguel Ruiz; 12. Challenging laws: faith-based engagement with unauthorized immigration Marie Friedmann Marquardt, Susanna J. Snyder and Manuel A. Vásquez; 13. Shades of blue: local policing, legality, and immigration law Doris Marie Provine and Paul G. Lewis; Part IV. Policy the Future: 14. 'Illegal' people and the rule of law Donald Kerwin; 15. Developing a new mindset on immigration reform Bill Ong Hing.

"This is an important and timely book. An array of distinguished scholars from a variety of disciplines - inter alia, anthropology, psychology, and sociology, but also education, law, and religious studies - come together and perform the best a sharply focused and intelligent interdisciplinary dialogue can offer on the phenomena of ‘illegality’ in contemporary American immigration. The individual chapters - some eloquent but all indispensable - engage, with rigorous data and conceptual clarity, the empire of suffering created by our anachronistic and barbarian immigration system. It is a book every concerned citizen should read before opining on the decisive immigration challenge of our era." Marcelo M. Suárez-Orozco, Dean and Distinguished Professor, UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies