Killing the American dream : how anti-immigration extremists are destroying the nation / by Pilar Marrero.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Marrero, Pilar.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Latin Americans.

Social conditions.

United States--Emigration and immigration--Government policy.

United States.

Emigration and immigration.

Government policy.

Noncitizens--Government policy--United States.

Noncitizens.

Illegal immigration--Government policy--United States.

Illegal immigration.

Noncitizens--Government policy.

Immigrants--Government policy--United States.

Immigrants.

Immigrants--Government policy.

Noncitizens--United States--Social conditions.

Immigrants--United States--Social conditions.

Latin Americans--United States--Social conditions.

Physical Description:

XV, 237 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

New York : Palgrave Macmillan, 2012.

Summary:

"As the US deports record numbers of illegal immigrants and local and state governments scramble to pass laws resembling dystopian police states where anyone can be questioned and neighbors are encouraged to report on one another, violent anti-immigration rhetoric is growing across the nation. Against this tide of hysteria, Pilar Marrero reveals how damaging this rise in malice toward immigrants is not only to the individuals, but to our country as a whole. Marrero explores the rise in hate groups and violence targeting the foreign-born from the 1986 Immigration Act to the increasing legislative madness of laws like Arizona's SB1070 which allows law officers to demand documentation from any individual with "reasonable suspicion" of citizenship, essentially encouraging states and municipalities to form their own self-contained nation-states devoid of immigrants. Assessing the current status quo of immigration, Marrero reveals the economic drain these ardent anti-immigration policies have as they deplete the nation of an educated work force, undermine efforts to stabilize tax bases and social security, and turn the American Dream from a time honored hallmark of the nation into an unattainable fantasy for all immigrants of the present and future"-- Provided by publisher.

"A timely look at the evolution of US immigration policy and how the increasingly hostile anti-immigrant climate is detrimental to our nation's economic well-being"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Part I Twenty-Five Years of Immigration Politics

From Ronald Reagan's Amnesty to the Persecution of "Illegals"

1 "I Believe in Amnesty": Ronald Reagan, the 1986 Law, and Unfinished Reform 13

2 California Casts the First Stone 23

3 Nativism: The Old and the New 35

Part II The Radicalization of Anti-Immigrant Laws and Legal Chaos

4 The New Millennium: Bush, Latinos, and 9/11 47

5 Immigration: A Question of National Security 55

6 "Illegals" and the New Hate Movement 69

7 States Take the Law into Their Own Hands 83

8 Hazleton, Pennsylvania: A Community's Demographic Shock 93

9 Arizona, Alabama, and Kobach's Anti-Immigrant Laws 103

10 The Booming Business of Immigrant Detention 119

11 Rejecting Extremism and the Search for Solutions 129

Part III Dreams Have No Visas

12 Immigrant Youth and the Broken Dream 143

13 The Obama Era: A Perfected Deportation Machine 159

14 The Republicans: Stuck on Immigration 181

15 The Economy, Immigrants, and the Future of America 191

16 Is the American Dream Dead? 201

17 Demographic Change Won't Wait 215.

ISBN:

9780230341753

0230341756

OCLC:

778421827

Online:

Cover image