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No One Is Illegal: Fighting Racism and State Violence on the U.S.-Mexico Border
No One Is Illegal debunks the leading ideas behind the often violent right-wing backlash against immigrants.
Countering the chorus of anti-immigrant voices, Mike Davis and Justin Akers Chacón expose the racism of anti-immigration vigilantes and put a human face on the immigrants who risk their lives to cross the border to work in the United States.
Davis and Akers Chacón challenge the racist politics of vigilante groups like the Minutemen, and argue for a pro-immigrant and pro-worker agenda that recognizes the urgent need for international solidarity and cross-border alliances in building a renewed labor movement.
Countering the chorus of anti-immigrant voices, Mike Davis and Justin Akers Chacón expose the racism of anti-immigration vigilantes and put a human face on the immigrants who risk their lives to cross the border to work in the United States.
Davis and Akers Chacón challenge the racist politics of vigilante groups like the Minutemen, and argue for a pro-immigrant and pro-worker agenda that recognizes the urgent need for international solidarity and cross-border alliances in building a renewed labor movement.
240 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 2006
68 people are currently reading
3101 people want to read
About the author
Justin Akers Chacón
7 books12 followersJustin Akers Chacón is a professor of U.S. History and Chicano Studies in San Diego, California.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 40 reviews
January 31, 2023
A must read for understanding the historical context of anti-immigration sentiment and debunking many of the mainstream narratives pushed by the right. The historical context highlights how the overt violence towards immigrants by working class nativists has developed due to the failures of capitalism.
This book makes it clear that there is no imaginable future of open borders and justice without the destruction of capitalism. Capitalism needs borders, but workers don’t!
This book makes it clear that there is no imaginable future of open borders and justice without the destruction of capitalism. Capitalism needs borders, but workers don’t!
March 11, 2008
Reflecting on my time in the ISO, this is one of the few Haymarket books I read that is worth slightly more than the paper it is printed on. Even so, after Mike Davis' section on the history of vigilantism in California, the rest of the book is the typically party-linish fluff that you could hear from the mouth of any ISO apparatchik. That Justin Akers Chacon wrote the second half of this book is irrelevant, it could have been any member who has been around the organization long enough for the process of osmosis to allow them to adequately regurgitate the ISO's position on this issue. Not to say that the analysis is wholly bad (it is useful, for example, in debunking many of the right wing myths regarding immigration and undocumented workers), it is just that the ISO's approach to organizing informs its conclusions making it seem more like a party line handbook than a genuine piece of historical or political analysis.
Even so, kudos to Mike Davis for not making me completely regret spending 20 bucks on this book.
Even so, kudos to Mike Davis for not making me completely regret spending 20 bucks on this book.
January 1, 2023
Great analysis of immigration from Mexico from a socialist perspective. The authors are clear in stating that global capitalism is the number one root cause of “illegal” immigration and expose the hypocrisy of the Democratic Party. Great read for immigration studies.
June 15, 2020
No one is illegal: Fighting Racism and State Violence on the U.S.–Mexico Border by Justin Akers Chacón and Mike Davis
Considering the racist nature of public policy in the United States, there was little surprising in this book. It is a detailed and well-documented compilation of the legacy of oppression of immigrants in the United States - regardless of their documentation. While this book can stand alone, and is quite excellent, for additional illumination of the subjects in this book I would also recommend “Harvest of Empire: A History of Latinos in America” by Juan Gonzalez and “Three Worlds of Relief: Race, Immigration, and the American Welfare State from the Progressive Era to the New Deal” by Cybelle Fox.
The first part of this book is devoted to a detailed account of the role of vigilantes and state supported violence against workers on behalf of wealthy agricultural businesses. The second part of the book is devoted to a detailed account of the long and sordid history of the use of immigration law and policy to oppress workers in general, and workers from Mexico and other parts of Latin America.
In this review I want to call my readers’ attention to two things. First, the connection between racial oppression of African Americans and racism at work in the fields of California. Contrary to the Northern white liberal message that racism is the exclusive domain of the South, racist terrorism has been, and still is, a horrific staple of life for African Americans all over the nation. To this day the terror unleashed is perpetrated by white citizens, often with the tacit approval and frequently with the active participation of the so-called law enforcement community. One only need to read Ida B. Wells-Barnett “Red Record” or Elliot Jaspin’s “Buried in the Bitter Waters: The Hidden History of Racial Cleansing in America” to understand the extent to which this is true. In part one of this book, author Mike Davis outlines the history in California of the same triumvirate of terror: big agriculture, ordinary racist white citizens and law enforcement. While the outcomes were not as horrific as those visited upon African Americans, the parallels in approaches were impossible to miss.
Critical to recognizing the nature of United States society is the important distinction between racist individuals and systemic racial oppression and violence. Critical to this analysis is to never lose focus on the systemic racism in the society. Mr. Davis traced this in California from the time of the Mexican - American War. (The scope of his work did not include the Native American genocide prior to that time). He describes a long-standing system: “But what truly demarcates the United States is not so much the scale or frequency of state repression, but rather the extraordinary centrality of institutionalized private violence in the reproduction of the racial and social order.” (Location 437, Kindle Edition). Privatized violence, in the form of hired vigilantes, was repeatedly employed against immigrants from China, Japan and Latin America. Mr. Davis explores in detail how: “Organized private violence, usually in tandem with local law enforcement, has shaped the racial-caste system of California agriculture, defeated radical labor movements like the IWW, and kept the New Deal out of the state’s farm counties.” (Location 413, Kindle Edition). The link to local law enforcement also extended to the federal level: “The fighting spirit of the field workers of all races was magnificent, but it was virtually impossible to defeat the growers as long as local courts and sheriffs were firmly aligned with the vigilantes, and the state and federal governments stood on the sidelines.” (Location 1150, Kindle Edition) Later in the book we learn that the state government and federal government have not stood on the sidelines: they continue to maintain the oppression of Latin American immigrants and migrant workers by actively encouraging vigilantes like the “Minutemen” on the border and by vastly increasing the number of Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) personnel.
Much is made of the so-called fight against fascism during World War II (WW II) but little is made of the sympathetic feelings for fascism held by powerful people (look up Charles Lindbergh). Davis quotes a California grower: “Another leader of the Associated Farmers returned from Germany full of praise for Adolf Hitler (who “ha[d] done more for democracy than any man before him”) and the admirable Nazi definition of citizenship: “you simply say that anybody who agrees with you is a citizen of the first class and anybody who does not agree with you is a non-voting citizen.” (Location 1271, Kindle Edition). This reminded me of a quote from Toni Morrison’s “Song of Solomon”: “You think Hitler surprised them?. . . . Hitler’s the most natural white man in the world.” (p. 155).
While I learned a lot from this book about the historic details of vigilantism in California for me a major take away was a reinforcement of a consistent theme of history in the United States. This theme has three main threads: 1) those of European descent could easily be convinced to work as private forces of terror in support of the wealthy exploiters of workers; 2) mediocre white people have a sense of entitlement to all resources, which is easily threatened by hard-working Black, Latino, Chinese and Japanese people (and by the rightful claims of Native Americans to the land and resources); and 3) these two forces, aligned with the legal system, have no boundaries attributable to humane conduct of life. These are themes that never surfaced in the education system where I went to school: part and parcel of systemic racism in the United States.
Justin Akers Cachon wrote the remaining sections of this book which cover a narrow but deep array of topics related to the exploitation of Latin American workers - and by extension all workers. While these sections of the book offer very detailed accounts of the driving forces and history of immigration legislation - in particular in the last 30 years - there are two components of this analysis I want to bring to light: 1) the link between the need for corporations to have easily exploitable workforces and immigration policy and 2) the absence of distinction between the two main parties in United States politics.
As early as the preface to the 2018 Kindle Edition these two components come to light: “By keeping a growing segment of the workforce noncitizen and vulnerable to persecution, capitalists can leverage down wages, more easily fire those who attempt to organize or speak out, and foster or exploit racial tensions as a means to divide and segment their workforces to preempt collective bargaining.” (Location 235, Kindle Edition). The responsibility for this is made clear: “Since this migration has been composed primarily of working migrants, it has led to a substantial shift in the character of the U.S. workforce. This has been used to the advantage of capital, as Democratic and Republican administrations alike have whittled down the pathways to citizenship for this latest generation of immigrants while simultaneously increasing enforcement penalties.” (Location 229, Kindle Edition). So while vilifying the Apprentice is low-hanging fruit, this particular fruit is from the exact same tree that was planted and nourished in the United States from 1619 to the present. (For example, see also The Naturalization Act of 1790, which specified, ““Any alien, being a free white person, who shall have resided within the limits and under the jurisdiction of the United States for the term of two years, may be admitted to become a citizen … and the children of such persons … shall also be considered as citizens of the United States.”)
The power of workers primarily comes from their ability to act collectively to bring the employer to the bargaining table in order to negotiate for a variety of benefits including pay, health care and pension benefits. Since their inception, labor unions have been under a sustained attack by corporations with the paid assistance of the legislative and executive branches of government. Immigration policy is no different. According to Cachon, “The subordination of Mexican capitalism to U.S. imperialism and the global institutions of neoliberalism set the stage for further economic convulsions. Out-migration served as a release valve for the socially dislocated. This by-product was welcomed by a U.S. market eager to absorb not only Mexican imports, but also its reserve armies of labor, since migrants could be paid less and leveraged against unionized workers.” (Location 2001, Kindle Edition). In this section of the book Cachon details this case and documents it clearly: “receipts” as they say. This case is supported in the work by Juan Gonzalez mentioned above (“Harvest of Empire”).
United States corporations have a vested interest in immigration policy, “To fully open or close the borders would have a deleterious effect on profits, since the former would enable equalization of rights for workers and the latter would restrict business’s access to both necessary labor and necessarily cheap labor.” (Location 3174, Kindle Edition). Mr. Cachon goes on to say, “The anti-immigrant choir is a reflection of conflicts taking place within the U.S. economy. On the one hand, immigrants provide an easy target for politicians seeking to deflect attention from the systemic deficiencies of capitalism; on the other hand, their legal integration into the working class creates the conditions for participation in unions and the political process, and is thus a threat to the mega-profits of corporate America.” (Location 3046, Kindle Edition). Of course Congress, a pay to play caricature of democracy, goes along with it all.
Speaking of Congress one must remember that over the past 20 years it has been controlled by both parties at different times. Throughout that time immigration policy has been on a steady course of increased deportations, punitive immigration policies aimed at workers and an increasingly Byzantine set of regulations and policies of a “path to citizenship” that looks like a mountain goat migration track from Santiago, Chile to Banff, Canada. Mr. Cachon documents the increasingly stringent policies that kicked in with the Bush administration after the attack on the World Trade Center, which were increased during the Obama administration. Under President Obama, “The U.S. government currently spends about $66 billion annually on immigration and border enforcement,” (Location 6491) And the Border Patrol increased from, “10,000 in 2004 to more than 21,000 today [2018].” (Location 6491, Kindle Edition) ICE has seen, “Total enforcement personnel increased from 41,001 to over 61,354, and there was a vast expansion of ICE offices, field operations, and detention centers throughout the interior of the country.” (Location 6511)
Immigration is an issue that both parties really agree on. Cachon explains, “Since the Democratic Party is a creature of the American capitalist system, it can’t stray too far from its master’s side. . . .So, as the immigrant working class goes about constructing a new civil rights movement aimed at democratizing society and winning equality for all workers, the Democrats have gone on the offensive to demobilize it. . . .In other words, the Democratic Party works to contain any self-activated protests of workers that operate outside of its control or challenge the absolute power of big business.” (Locations 4166, 4177 and 4183, Kindle Edition). We can see this happening in current events as well. Do not be surprised if we see increased funding for police militarization from both sides of the aisle after the November election.
What has escaped the media spotlight is the true impact of draconian policies toward immigrant workers. Citing the case of Alabama, Cachon calls it to our attention: “The fear of arrest sowed terror in the immigrant community, which fled in droves. It also exposed the hollowness of the idea that the expulsion of immigrants would create jobs for citizens. Instead, the law could cost Alabama up to $11 billion in GDP and nearly $265 million in state income and sales tax (since fewer than nine of every hundred of the eighty thousand jobs vacated were being filled by unemployed legal residents and citizens).” (Location 6462, Kindle Edition).
I have only illuminated a small fraction of the insights reading this book brought about. The illusions and distortions of the corporate propaganda machine are vast and these authors go a long way toward exposing them all. Having read this book I know I will examine immigration issues from a better informed position. I recommend it highly.--
Considering the racist nature of public policy in the United States, there was little surprising in this book. It is a detailed and well-documented compilation of the legacy of oppression of immigrants in the United States - regardless of their documentation. While this book can stand alone, and is quite excellent, for additional illumination of the subjects in this book I would also recommend “Harvest of Empire: A History of Latinos in America” by Juan Gonzalez and “Three Worlds of Relief: Race, Immigration, and the American Welfare State from the Progressive Era to the New Deal” by Cybelle Fox.
The first part of this book is devoted to a detailed account of the role of vigilantes and state supported violence against workers on behalf of wealthy agricultural businesses. The second part of the book is devoted to a detailed account of the long and sordid history of the use of immigration law and policy to oppress workers in general, and workers from Mexico and other parts of Latin America.
In this review I want to call my readers’ attention to two things. First, the connection between racial oppression of African Americans and racism at work in the fields of California. Contrary to the Northern white liberal message that racism is the exclusive domain of the South, racist terrorism has been, and still is, a horrific staple of life for African Americans all over the nation. To this day the terror unleashed is perpetrated by white citizens, often with the tacit approval and frequently with the active participation of the so-called law enforcement community. One only need to read Ida B. Wells-Barnett “Red Record” or Elliot Jaspin’s “Buried in the Bitter Waters: The Hidden History of Racial Cleansing in America” to understand the extent to which this is true. In part one of this book, author Mike Davis outlines the history in California of the same triumvirate of terror: big agriculture, ordinary racist white citizens and law enforcement. While the outcomes were not as horrific as those visited upon African Americans, the parallels in approaches were impossible to miss.
Critical to recognizing the nature of United States society is the important distinction between racist individuals and systemic racial oppression and violence. Critical to this analysis is to never lose focus on the systemic racism in the society. Mr. Davis traced this in California from the time of the Mexican - American War. (The scope of his work did not include the Native American genocide prior to that time). He describes a long-standing system: “But what truly demarcates the United States is not so much the scale or frequency of state repression, but rather the extraordinary centrality of institutionalized private violence in the reproduction of the racial and social order.” (Location 437, Kindle Edition). Privatized violence, in the form of hired vigilantes, was repeatedly employed against immigrants from China, Japan and Latin America. Mr. Davis explores in detail how: “Organized private violence, usually in tandem with local law enforcement, has shaped the racial-caste system of California agriculture, defeated radical labor movements like the IWW, and kept the New Deal out of the state’s farm counties.” (Location 413, Kindle Edition). The link to local law enforcement also extended to the federal level: “The fighting spirit of the field workers of all races was magnificent, but it was virtually impossible to defeat the growers as long as local courts and sheriffs were firmly aligned with the vigilantes, and the state and federal governments stood on the sidelines.” (Location 1150, Kindle Edition) Later in the book we learn that the state government and federal government have not stood on the sidelines: they continue to maintain the oppression of Latin American immigrants and migrant workers by actively encouraging vigilantes like the “Minutemen” on the border and by vastly increasing the number of Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) personnel.
Much is made of the so-called fight against fascism during World War II (WW II) but little is made of the sympathetic feelings for fascism held by powerful people (look up Charles Lindbergh). Davis quotes a California grower: “Another leader of the Associated Farmers returned from Germany full of praise for Adolf Hitler (who “ha[d] done more for democracy than any man before him”) and the admirable Nazi definition of citizenship: “you simply say that anybody who agrees with you is a citizen of the first class and anybody who does not agree with you is a non-voting citizen.” (Location 1271, Kindle Edition). This reminded me of a quote from Toni Morrison’s “Song of Solomon”: “You think Hitler surprised them?. . . . Hitler’s the most natural white man in the world.” (p. 155).
While I learned a lot from this book about the historic details of vigilantism in California for me a major take away was a reinforcement of a consistent theme of history in the United States. This theme has three main threads: 1) those of European descent could easily be convinced to work as private forces of terror in support of the wealthy exploiters of workers; 2) mediocre white people have a sense of entitlement to all resources, which is easily threatened by hard-working Black, Latino, Chinese and Japanese people (and by the rightful claims of Native Americans to the land and resources); and 3) these two forces, aligned with the legal system, have no boundaries attributable to humane conduct of life. These are themes that never surfaced in the education system where I went to school: part and parcel of systemic racism in the United States.
Justin Akers Cachon wrote the remaining sections of this book which cover a narrow but deep array of topics related to the exploitation of Latin American workers - and by extension all workers. While these sections of the book offer very detailed accounts of the driving forces and history of immigration legislation - in particular in the last 30 years - there are two components of this analysis I want to bring to light: 1) the link between the need for corporations to have easily exploitable workforces and immigration policy and 2) the absence of distinction between the two main parties in United States politics.
As early as the preface to the 2018 Kindle Edition these two components come to light: “By keeping a growing segment of the workforce noncitizen and vulnerable to persecution, capitalists can leverage down wages, more easily fire those who attempt to organize or speak out, and foster or exploit racial tensions as a means to divide and segment their workforces to preempt collective bargaining.” (Location 235, Kindle Edition). The responsibility for this is made clear: “Since this migration has been composed primarily of working migrants, it has led to a substantial shift in the character of the U.S. workforce. This has been used to the advantage of capital, as Democratic and Republican administrations alike have whittled down the pathways to citizenship for this latest generation of immigrants while simultaneously increasing enforcement penalties.” (Location 229, Kindle Edition). So while vilifying the Apprentice is low-hanging fruit, this particular fruit is from the exact same tree that was planted and nourished in the United States from 1619 to the present. (For example, see also The Naturalization Act of 1790, which specified, ““Any alien, being a free white person, who shall have resided within the limits and under the jurisdiction of the United States for the term of two years, may be admitted to become a citizen … and the children of such persons … shall also be considered as citizens of the United States.”)
The power of workers primarily comes from their ability to act collectively to bring the employer to the bargaining table in order to negotiate for a variety of benefits including pay, health care and pension benefits. Since their inception, labor unions have been under a sustained attack by corporations with the paid assistance of the legislative and executive branches of government. Immigration policy is no different. According to Cachon, “The subordination of Mexican capitalism to U.S. imperialism and the global institutions of neoliberalism set the stage for further economic convulsions. Out-migration served as a release valve for the socially dislocated. This by-product was welcomed by a U.S. market eager to absorb not only Mexican imports, but also its reserve armies of labor, since migrants could be paid less and leveraged against unionized workers.” (Location 2001, Kindle Edition). In this section of the book Cachon details this case and documents it clearly: “receipts” as they say. This case is supported in the work by Juan Gonzalez mentioned above (“Harvest of Empire”).
United States corporations have a vested interest in immigration policy, “To fully open or close the borders would have a deleterious effect on profits, since the former would enable equalization of rights for workers and the latter would restrict business’s access to both necessary labor and necessarily cheap labor.” (Location 3174, Kindle Edition). Mr. Cachon goes on to say, “The anti-immigrant choir is a reflection of conflicts taking place within the U.S. economy. On the one hand, immigrants provide an easy target for politicians seeking to deflect attention from the systemic deficiencies of capitalism; on the other hand, their legal integration into the working class creates the conditions for participation in unions and the political process, and is thus a threat to the mega-profits of corporate America.” (Location 3046, Kindle Edition). Of course Congress, a pay to play caricature of democracy, goes along with it all.
Speaking of Congress one must remember that over the past 20 years it has been controlled by both parties at different times. Throughout that time immigration policy has been on a steady course of increased deportations, punitive immigration policies aimed at workers and an increasingly Byzantine set of regulations and policies of a “path to citizenship” that looks like a mountain goat migration track from Santiago, Chile to Banff, Canada. Mr. Cachon documents the increasingly stringent policies that kicked in with the Bush administration after the attack on the World Trade Center, which were increased during the Obama administration. Under President Obama, “The U.S. government currently spends about $66 billion annually on immigration and border enforcement,” (Location 6491) And the Border Patrol increased from, “10,000 in 2004 to more than 21,000 today [2018].” (Location 6491, Kindle Edition) ICE has seen, “Total enforcement personnel increased from 41,001 to over 61,354, and there was a vast expansion of ICE offices, field operations, and detention centers throughout the interior of the country.” (Location 6511)
Immigration is an issue that both parties really agree on. Cachon explains, “Since the Democratic Party is a creature of the American capitalist system, it can’t stray too far from its master’s side. . . .So, as the immigrant working class goes about constructing a new civil rights movement aimed at democratizing society and winning equality for all workers, the Democrats have gone on the offensive to demobilize it. . . .In other words, the Democratic Party works to contain any self-activated protests of workers that operate outside of its control or challenge the absolute power of big business.” (Locations 4166, 4177 and 4183, Kindle Edition). We can see this happening in current events as well. Do not be surprised if we see increased funding for police militarization from both sides of the aisle after the November election.
What has escaped the media spotlight is the true impact of draconian policies toward immigrant workers. Citing the case of Alabama, Cachon calls it to our attention: “The fear of arrest sowed terror in the immigrant community, which fled in droves. It also exposed the hollowness of the idea that the expulsion of immigrants would create jobs for citizens. Instead, the law could cost Alabama up to $11 billion in GDP and nearly $265 million in state income and sales tax (since fewer than nine of every hundred of the eighty thousand jobs vacated were being filled by unemployed legal residents and citizens).” (Location 6462, Kindle Edition).
I have only illuminated a small fraction of the insights reading this book brought about. The illusions and distortions of the corporate propaganda machine are vast and these authors go a long way toward exposing them all. Having read this book I know I will examine immigration issues from a better informed position. I recommend it highly.--
October 20, 2008
I have learned SO MUCH about the history of our immigration laws as well as how all different kinds of immigrants have been treated since the birth of the United States. As I'm trying to shape my own views on the whole immigration issue that has been circling the main stream media lately this book has really helped me understand where the issues are coming from, the history behind them. I've always heard that the knowledge of history helps an individual keep from repeating the bad parts. Maybe it should be a government mandate that all employees must read a few books (including this one) on the HISTORY of immigration in different parts of our country.
I'm having a hard time finishing this book because 1. it is very sad and 2. it is technically a history book. I can only read one chapter at a time or else it's hard for me to grasp what's going on and keep my emotions at bay.
This book is not for people who enjoy ignorance.
I'm having a hard time finishing this book because 1. it is very sad and 2. it is technically a history book. I can only read one chapter at a time or else it's hard for me to grasp what's going on and keep my emotions at bay.
This book is not for people who enjoy ignorance.
January 27, 2015
I actually couldn't finish reading this. I read 50 pages in and despite the fact that this is a subject I'm very interested in and fully support, I couldn't take all the incendiary vocabulary. I wanted to read the facts and decide for myself how I felt about the situation. Instead, I was guided from the get-go into thinking lawmakers were monsters. I didn't appreciate that. Lots of good information, but again, the diction just turned me off.
July 7, 2018
Excellent accessible background on the forces that led to US foreign intervention and destabilization of economies in the global south + capitalism driving the migration of people into US as cheap undocumented labor. Ties together capitalism, immigration and labor systems and overlays the racist white supremacist violence that has always plagued the country, which uses immigrants as scapegoats pitted against white working class
May 7, 2007
I'd say 3.5 stars, mainly because I felt that many parts of the book were too brief, and that, overall, the tone, though justifiably outraged, just didn't seem "scholarly." To be honest, my feelings on this matter are conflicted and complicated, but I"ll just leave it at that.
June 6, 2008
amazing easy to read book about the history of immigrant struggles. it was amazing to me how a certain group would be vilified at one point only to be embraced later when another group was hated. this happened wit the chinese, japanese, filipino etc etc etc...
June 15, 2020
No one is illegal: Fighting Racism and State Violence on the U.S.–Mexico Border by Justin Akers Chacón and Mike Davis
Considering the racist nature of public policy in the United States, there was little surprising in this book. It is a detailed and well-documented compilation of the legacy of oppression of immigrants in the United States - regardless of their documentation. While this book can stand alone, and is quite excellent, for additional illumination of the subjects in this book I would also recommend “Harvest of Empire: A History of Latinos in America” by Juan Gonzalez and “Three Worlds of Relief: Race, Immigration, and the American Welfare State from the Progressive Era to the New Deal” by Cybelle Fox.
The first part of this book is devoted to a detailed account of the role of vigilantes and state supported violence against workers on behalf of wealthy agricultural businesses. The second part of the book is devoted to a detailed account of the long and sordid history of the use of immigration law and policy to oppress workers in general, and workers from Mexico and other parts of Latin America.
In this review I want to call my readers’ attention to two things. First, the connection between racial oppression of African Americans and racism at work in the fields of California. Contrary to the Northern white liberal message that racism is the exclusive domain of the South, racist terrorism has been, and still is, a horrific staple of life for African Americans all over the nation. To this day the terror unleashed is perpetrated by white citizens, often with the tacit approval and frequently with the active participation of the so-called law enforcement community. One only need to read Ida B. Wells-Barnett “Red Record” or Elliot Jaspin’s “Buried in the Bitter Waters: The Hidden History of Racial Cleansing in America” to understand the extent to which this is true. In part one of this book, author Mike Davis outlines the history in California of the same triumvirate of terror: big agriculture, ordinary racist white citizens and law enforcement. While the outcomes were not as horrific as those visited upon African Americans, the parallels in approaches were impossible to miss.
Critical to recognizing the nature of United States society is the important distinction between racist individuals and systemic racial oppression and violence. Critical to this analysis is to never lose focus on the systemic racism in the society. Mr. Davis traced this in California from the time of the Mexican - American War. (The scope of his work did not include the Native American genocide prior to that time). He describes a long-standing system: “But what truly demarcates the United States is not so much the scale or frequency of state repression, but rather the extraordinary centrality of institutionalized private violence in the reproduction of the racial and social order.” (Location 437, Kindle Edition). Privatized violence, in the form of hired vigilantes, was repeatedly employed against immigrants from China, Japan and Latin America. Mr. Davis explores in detail how: “Organized private violence, usually in tandem with local law enforcement, has shaped the racial-caste system of California agriculture, defeated radical labor movements like the IWW, and kept the New Deal out of the state’s farm counties.” (Location 413, Kindle Edition). The link to local law enforcement also extended to the federal level: “The fighting spirit of the field workers of all races was magnificent, but it was virtually impossible to defeat the growers as long as local courts and sheriffs were firmly aligned with the vigilantes, and the state and federal governments stood on the sidelines.” (Location 1150, Kindle Edition) Later in the book we learn that the state government and federal government have not stood on the sidelines: they continue to maintain the oppression of Latin American immigrants and migrant workers by actively encouraging vigilantes like the “Minutemen” on the border and by vastly increasing the number of Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) personnel.
Much is made of the so-called fight against fascism during World War II (WW II) but little is made of the sympathetic feelings for fascism held by powerful people (look up Charles Lindbergh). Davis quotes a California grower: “Another leader of the Associated Farmers returned from Germany full of praise for Adolf Hitler (who “ha[d] done more for democracy than any man before him”) and the admirable Nazi definition of citizenship: “you simply say that anybody who agrees with you is a citizen of the first class and anybody who does not agree with you is a non-voting citizen.” (Location 1271, Kindle Edition). This reminded me of a quote from Toni Morrison’s “Song of Solomon”: “You think Hitler surprised them?. . . . Hitler’s the most natural white man in the world.” (p. 155).
While I learned a lot from this book about the historic details of vigilantism in California for me a major take away was a reinforcement of a consistent theme of history in the United States. This theme has three main threads: 1) those of European descent could easily be convinced to work as private forces of terror in support of the wealthy exploiters of workers; 2) mediocre white people have a sense of entitlement to all resources, which is easily threatened by hard-working Black, Latino, Chinese and Japanese people (and by the rightful claims of Native Americans to the land and resources); and 3) these two forces, aligned with the legal system, have no boundaries attributable to humane conduct of life. These are themes that never surfaced in the education system where I went to school: part and parcel of systemic racism in the United States.
Justin Akers Cachon wrote the remaining sections of this book which cover a narrow but deep array of topics related to the exploitation of Latin American workers - and by extension all workers. While these sections of the book offer very detailed accounts of the driving forces and history of immigration legislation - in particular in the last 30 years - there are two components of this analysis I want to bring to light: 1) the link between the need for corporations to have easily exploitable workforces and immigration policy and 2) the absence of distinction between the two main parties in United States politics.
As early as the preface to the 2018 Kindle Edition these two components come to light: “By keeping a growing segment of the workforce noncitizen and vulnerable to persecution, capitalists can leverage down wages, more easily fire those who attempt to organize or speak out, and foster or exploit racial tensions as a means to divide and segment their workforces to preempt collective bargaining.” (Location 235, Kindle Edition). The responsibility for this is made clear: “Since this migration has been composed primarily of working migrants, it has led to a substantial shift in the character of the U.S. workforce. This has been used to the advantage of capital, as Democratic and Republican administrations alike have whittled down the pathways to citizenship for this latest generation of immigrants while simultaneously increasing enforcement penalties.” (Location 229, Kindle Edition). So while vilifying the Apprentice is low-hanging fruit, this particular fruit is from the exact same tree that was planted and nourished in the United States from 1619 to the present. (For example, see also The Naturalization Act of 1790, which specified, ““Any alien, being a free white person, who shall have resided within the limits and under the jurisdiction of the United States for the term of two years, may be admitted to become a citizen … and the children of such persons … shall also be considered as citizens of the United States.”)
The power of workers primarily comes from their ability to act collectively to bring the employer to the bargaining table in order to negotiate for a variety of benefits including pay, health care and pension benefits. Since their inception, labor unions have been under a sustained attack by corporations with the paid assistance of the legislative and executive branches of government. Immigration policy is no different. According to Cachon, “The subordination of Mexican capitalism to U.S. imperialism and the global institutions of neoliberalism set the stage for further economic convulsions. Out-migration served as a release valve for the socially dislocated. This by-product was welcomed by a U.S. market eager to absorb not only Mexican imports, but also its reserve armies of labor, since migrants could be paid less and leveraged against unionized workers.” (Location 2001, Kindle Edition). In this section of the book Cachon details this case and documents it clearly: “receipts” as they say. This case is supported in the work by Juan Gonzalez mentioned above (“Harvest of Empire”).
United States corporations have a vested interest in immigration policy, “To fully open or close the borders would have a deleterious effect on profits, since the former would enable equalization of rights for workers and the latter would restrict business’s access to both necessary labor and necessarily cheap labor.” (Location 3174, Kindle Edition). Mr. Cachon goes on to say, “The anti-immigrant choir is a reflection of conflicts taking place within the U.S. economy. On the one hand, immigrants provide an easy target for politicians seeking to deflect attention from the systemic deficiencies of capitalism; on the other hand, their legal integration into the working class creates the conditions for participation in unions and the political process, and is thus a threat to the mega-profits of corporate America.” (Location 3046, Kindle Edition). Of course Congress, a pay to play caricature of democracy, goes along with it all.
Speaking of Congress one must remember that over the past 20 years it has been controlled by both parties at different times. Throughout that time immigration policy has been on a steady course of increased deportations, punitive immigration policies aimed at workers and an increasingly Byzantine set of regulations and policies of a “path to citizenship” that looks like a mountain goat migration track from Santiago, Chile to Banff, Canada. Mr. Cachon documents the increasingly stringent policies that kicked in with the Bush administration after the attack on the World Trade Center, which were increased during the Obama administration. Under President Obama, “The U.S. government currently spends about $66 billion annually on immigration and border enforcement,” (Location 6491) And the Border Patrol increased from, “10,000 in 2004 to more than 21,000 today [2018].” (Location 6491, Kindle Edition) ICE has seen, “Total enforcement personnel increased from 41,001 to over 61,354, and there was a vast expansion of ICE offices, field operations, and detention centers throughout the interior of the country.” (Location 6511)
Immigration is an issue that both parties really agree on. Cachon explains, “Since the Democratic Party is a creature of the American capitalist system, it can’t stray too far from its master’s side. . . .So, as the immigrant working class goes about constructing a new civil rights movement aimed at democratizing society and winning equality for all workers, the Democrats have gone on the offensive to demobilize it. . . .In other words, the Democratic Party works to contain any self-activated protests of workers that operate outside of its control or challenge the absolute power of big business.” (Locations 4166, 4177 and 4183, Kindle Edition). We can see this happening in current events as well. Do not be surprised if we see increased funding for police militarization from both sides of the aisle after the November election.
What has escaped the media spotlight is the true impact of draconian policies toward immigrant workers. Citing the case of Alabama, Cachon calls it to our attention: “The fear of arrest sowed terror in the immigrant community, which fled in droves. It also exposed the hollowness of the idea that the expulsion of immigrants would create jobs for citizens. Instead, the law could cost Alabama up to $11 billion in GDP and nearly $265 million in state income and sales tax (since fewer than nine of every hundred of the eighty thousand jobs vacated were being filled by unemployed legal residents and citizens).” (Location 6462, Kindle Edition).
I have only illuminated a small fraction of the insights reading this book brought about. The illusions and distortions of the corporate propaganda machine are vast and these authors go a long way toward exposing them all. Having read this book I know I will examine immigration issues from a better informed position. I recommend it highly.
Considering the racist nature of public policy in the United States, there was little surprising in this book. It is a detailed and well-documented compilation of the legacy of oppression of immigrants in the United States - regardless of their documentation. While this book can stand alone, and is quite excellent, for additional illumination of the subjects in this book I would also recommend “Harvest of Empire: A History of Latinos in America” by Juan Gonzalez and “Three Worlds of Relief: Race, Immigration, and the American Welfare State from the Progressive Era to the New Deal” by Cybelle Fox.
The first part of this book is devoted to a detailed account of the role of vigilantes and state supported violence against workers on behalf of wealthy agricultural businesses. The second part of the book is devoted to a detailed account of the long and sordid history of the use of immigration law and policy to oppress workers in general, and workers from Mexico and other parts of Latin America.
In this review I want to call my readers’ attention to two things. First, the connection between racial oppression of African Americans and racism at work in the fields of California. Contrary to the Northern white liberal message that racism is the exclusive domain of the South, racist terrorism has been, and still is, a horrific staple of life for African Americans all over the nation. To this day the terror unleashed is perpetrated by white citizens, often with the tacit approval and frequently with the active participation of the so-called law enforcement community. One only need to read Ida B. Wells-Barnett “Red Record” or Elliot Jaspin’s “Buried in the Bitter Waters: The Hidden History of Racial Cleansing in America” to understand the extent to which this is true. In part one of this book, author Mike Davis outlines the history in California of the same triumvirate of terror: big agriculture, ordinary racist white citizens and law enforcement. While the outcomes were not as horrific as those visited upon African Americans, the parallels in approaches were impossible to miss.
Critical to recognizing the nature of United States society is the important distinction between racist individuals and systemic racial oppression and violence. Critical to this analysis is to never lose focus on the systemic racism in the society. Mr. Davis traced this in California from the time of the Mexican - American War. (The scope of his work did not include the Native American genocide prior to that time). He describes a long-standing system: “But what truly demarcates the United States is not so much the scale or frequency of state repression, but rather the extraordinary centrality of institutionalized private violence in the reproduction of the racial and social order.” (Location 437, Kindle Edition). Privatized violence, in the form of hired vigilantes, was repeatedly employed against immigrants from China, Japan and Latin America. Mr. Davis explores in detail how: “Organized private violence, usually in tandem with local law enforcement, has shaped the racial-caste system of California agriculture, defeated radical labor movements like the IWW, and kept the New Deal out of the state’s farm counties.” (Location 413, Kindle Edition). The link to local law enforcement also extended to the federal level: “The fighting spirit of the field workers of all races was magnificent, but it was virtually impossible to defeat the growers as long as local courts and sheriffs were firmly aligned with the vigilantes, and the state and federal governments stood on the sidelines.” (Location 1150, Kindle Edition) Later in the book we learn that the state government and federal government have not stood on the sidelines: they continue to maintain the oppression of Latin American immigrants and migrant workers by actively encouraging vigilantes like the “Minutemen” on the border and by vastly increasing the number of Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) personnel.
Much is made of the so-called fight against fascism during World War II (WW II) but little is made of the sympathetic feelings for fascism held by powerful people (look up Charles Lindbergh). Davis quotes a California grower: “Another leader of the Associated Farmers returned from Germany full of praise for Adolf Hitler (who “ha[d] done more for democracy than any man before him”) and the admirable Nazi definition of citizenship: “you simply say that anybody who agrees with you is a citizen of the first class and anybody who does not agree with you is a non-voting citizen.” (Location 1271, Kindle Edition). This reminded me of a quote from Toni Morrison’s “Song of Solomon”: “You think Hitler surprised them?. . . . Hitler’s the most natural white man in the world.” (p. 155).
While I learned a lot from this book about the historic details of vigilantism in California for me a major take away was a reinforcement of a consistent theme of history in the United States. This theme has three main threads: 1) those of European descent could easily be convinced to work as private forces of terror in support of the wealthy exploiters of workers; 2) mediocre white people have a sense of entitlement to all resources, which is easily threatened by hard-working Black, Latino, Chinese and Japanese people (and by the rightful claims of Native Americans to the land and resources); and 3) these two forces, aligned with the legal system, have no boundaries attributable to humane conduct of life. These are themes that never surfaced in the education system where I went to school: part and parcel of systemic racism in the United States.
Justin Akers Cachon wrote the remaining sections of this book which cover a narrow but deep array of topics related to the exploitation of Latin American workers - and by extension all workers. While these sections of the book offer very detailed accounts of the driving forces and history of immigration legislation - in particular in the last 30 years - there are two components of this analysis I want to bring to light: 1) the link between the need for corporations to have easily exploitable workforces and immigration policy and 2) the absence of distinction between the two main parties in United States politics.
As early as the preface to the 2018 Kindle Edition these two components come to light: “By keeping a growing segment of the workforce noncitizen and vulnerable to persecution, capitalists can leverage down wages, more easily fire those who attempt to organize or speak out, and foster or exploit racial tensions as a means to divide and segment their workforces to preempt collective bargaining.” (Location 235, Kindle Edition). The responsibility for this is made clear: “Since this migration has been composed primarily of working migrants, it has led to a substantial shift in the character of the U.S. workforce. This has been used to the advantage of capital, as Democratic and Republican administrations alike have whittled down the pathways to citizenship for this latest generation of immigrants while simultaneously increasing enforcement penalties.” (Location 229, Kindle Edition). So while vilifying the Apprentice is low-hanging fruit, this particular fruit is from the exact same tree that was planted and nourished in the United States from 1619 to the present. (For example, see also The Naturalization Act of 1790, which specified, ““Any alien, being a free white person, who shall have resided within the limits and under the jurisdiction of the United States for the term of two years, may be admitted to become a citizen … and the children of such persons … shall also be considered as citizens of the United States.”)
The power of workers primarily comes from their ability to act collectively to bring the employer to the bargaining table in order to negotiate for a variety of benefits including pay, health care and pension benefits. Since their inception, labor unions have been under a sustained attack by corporations with the paid assistance of the legislative and executive branches of government. Immigration policy is no different. According to Cachon, “The subordination of Mexican capitalism to U.S. imperialism and the global institutions of neoliberalism set the stage for further economic convulsions. Out-migration served as a release valve for the socially dislocated. This by-product was welcomed by a U.S. market eager to absorb not only Mexican imports, but also its reserve armies of labor, since migrants could be paid less and leveraged against unionized workers.” (Location 2001, Kindle Edition). In this section of the book Cachon details this case and documents it clearly: “receipts” as they say. This case is supported in the work by Juan Gonzalez mentioned above (“Harvest of Empire”).
United States corporations have a vested interest in immigration policy, “To fully open or close the borders would have a deleterious effect on profits, since the former would enable equalization of rights for workers and the latter would restrict business’s access to both necessary labor and necessarily cheap labor.” (Location 3174, Kindle Edition). Mr. Cachon goes on to say, “The anti-immigrant choir is a reflection of conflicts taking place within the U.S. economy. On the one hand, immigrants provide an easy target for politicians seeking to deflect attention from the systemic deficiencies of capitalism; on the other hand, their legal integration into the working class creates the conditions for participation in unions and the political process, and is thus a threat to the mega-profits of corporate America.” (Location 3046, Kindle Edition). Of course Congress, a pay to play caricature of democracy, goes along with it all.
Speaking of Congress one must remember that over the past 20 years it has been controlled by both parties at different times. Throughout that time immigration policy has been on a steady course of increased deportations, punitive immigration policies aimed at workers and an increasingly Byzantine set of regulations and policies of a “path to citizenship” that looks like a mountain goat migration track from Santiago, Chile to Banff, Canada. Mr. Cachon documents the increasingly stringent policies that kicked in with the Bush administration after the attack on the World Trade Center, which were increased during the Obama administration. Under President Obama, “The U.S. government currently spends about $66 billion annually on immigration and border enforcement,” (Location 6491) And the Border Patrol increased from, “10,000 in 2004 to more than 21,000 today [2018].” (Location 6491, Kindle Edition) ICE has seen, “Total enforcement personnel increased from 41,001 to over 61,354, and there was a vast expansion of ICE offices, field operations, and detention centers throughout the interior of the country.” (Location 6511)
Immigration is an issue that both parties really agree on. Cachon explains, “Since the Democratic Party is a creature of the American capitalist system, it can’t stray too far from its master’s side. . . .So, as the immigrant working class goes about constructing a new civil rights movement aimed at democratizing society and winning equality for all workers, the Democrats have gone on the offensive to demobilize it. . . .In other words, the Democratic Party works to contain any self-activated protests of workers that operate outside of its control or challenge the absolute power of big business.” (Locations 4166, 4177 and 4183, Kindle Edition). We can see this happening in current events as well. Do not be surprised if we see increased funding for police militarization from both sides of the aisle after the November election.
What has escaped the media spotlight is the true impact of draconian policies toward immigrant workers. Citing the case of Alabama, Cachon calls it to our attention: “The fear of arrest sowed terror in the immigrant community, which fled in droves. It also exposed the hollowness of the idea that the expulsion of immigrants would create jobs for citizens. Instead, the law could cost Alabama up to $11 billion in GDP and nearly $265 million in state income and sales tax (since fewer than nine of every hundred of the eighty thousand jobs vacated were being filled by unemployed legal residents and citizens).” (Location 6462, Kindle Edition).
I have only illuminated a small fraction of the insights reading this book brought about. The illusions and distortions of the corporate propaganda machine are vast and these authors go a long way toward exposing them all. Having read this book I know I will examine immigration issues from a better informed position. I recommend it highly.
May 26, 2022
This book reads like it was someone's college term paper that they decided to expand into a book. I was and still am highly interested in the topic. The way this book was written, however, was not the least bit engaging. Most of it is simply a dry delivery of facts or impersonal relaying of history. The book frequently revisits events or points previously made while not building or expanding on the event or fact in any way, making it very repetitive. I have read many social justice oriented books that were enthralling and engaging to read. This one isn't. Still rating it 3 stars because I feel the topic is important to address. I just wish it were written in a more engaging manner.
September 10, 2021
Fantastic information, incredibly compelling and horrifying stuff… could have been half as long.
January 12, 2019
Definitely should have taken notes.
It is important to realize that this book was put out by Haymarket Books a radical socialist publisher so the information within is presented with an anti-capitalist lens. It wasn't exactly what I was looking to learn about immigration and racism but it's important to shake up my perspective (as a white lady consumer) every once in a while. It was simultaneously heartening and discouraging to read that the rhetoric being employed today has a long history. None of this "they're gangsters and rapists and will steal our jobs" is new and the methods to prevent and criminalize immigration and isolate and disenfranchise immigrants also have a long history in the US. (Heartening because it's not that the US has suddenly had a moral downturn but we've always been d**ks.)
I will say the the first half of the book was very repetitive. There were some annoying typos throughout. And more substantially the timeline was often unclear and the data could have used more digestion. (For example, yes Obama deported more people than any other previous President but what did that look like per capita?) Also, the book assumes a working understanding of NAFTA and trade agreements and unions and had no explanation of how the government defines illegal or undocumented.
Anyhoo, an important read.
It is important to realize that this book was put out by Haymarket Books a radical socialist publisher so the information within is presented with an anti-capitalist lens. It wasn't exactly what I was looking to learn about immigration and racism but it's important to shake up my perspective (as a white lady consumer) every once in a while. It was simultaneously heartening and discouraging to read that the rhetoric being employed today has a long history. None of this "they're gangsters and rapists and will steal our jobs" is new and the methods to prevent and criminalize immigration and isolate and disenfranchise immigrants also have a long history in the US. (Heartening because it's not that the US has suddenly had a moral downturn but we've always been d**ks.)
I will say the the first half of the book was very repetitive. There were some annoying typos throughout. And more substantially the timeline was often unclear and the data could have used more digestion. (For example, yes Obama deported more people than any other previous President but what did that look like per capita?) Also, the book assumes a working understanding of NAFTA and trade agreements and unions and had no explanation of how the government defines illegal or undocumented.
Anyhoo, an important read.
June 21, 2018
In no way was this book a bad book. The authors have a progressive bias; Davis and Chacon used to book to argue, as the title suggests, that no one is illegal. The book was also used to argue for a borderless nation: capitalism needs and wants borders whereas the working class doesn't and suffers because of it. The authors also demonstrate how immigration and the rapid militarization of the border isn't just a Republican issue. Both Democrats and Republicans militarized the border fully aware of the cost of human lives. The authors also drew parallels between the treatment of Mexican immigrants to the treatment of other racial and ethnic minorities within America. Even though the book was a good read, I ultimately gave it only three stars because it didn't give every matter equal attention. Some chapters were too short and others were too long. The first fifth of the book could have been significantly cut down as it was the bulk of the book's fluff. Some chapters had an excessive amount of fluff and I questioned how necessary certain details were to the book's argument. Whether or not you agree with the ultimate argument of the book, there is much to learn from it.
December 29, 2011
Immigration law and deportation have been crafted and implemented over the years not to streamline citizenship or stop immigration but to permanently fragment the working class. The comprehensive appropriation of the state apparatus of immigration control by capital has created the “illegal” worker, and entirely artificial construction whose sole purpose is to deprive the international “American” working class of its democratic rights.
p 199
Their main goal is not to “protect” the physical borders of the United States: their primary political objectives have more to do with protecting the borders of white privilege and the notions of citizenship that are being transcended by a global society –Robert Lovato
p 254
through 2002, undocumented migrants have contributed up to $463 billion to Social Security.
p 166
p 199
Their main goal is not to “protect” the physical borders of the United States: their primary political objectives have more to do with protecting the borders of white privilege and the notions of citizenship that are being transcended by a global society –Robert Lovato
p 254
through 2002, undocumented migrants have contributed up to $463 billion to Social Security.
p 166
February 26, 2017
Would recommend to the following groups: People who support a border wall, Trump supporters who "aren't racist", liberals who are surprised Trump won, liberals surprised at anti-immigrant and racist sentiments, people interested in labour movements, people interested in learning more about immigration, " pro-lifers" who advocate more border control
A great book that details the history of anti-immigrant sentiment in the U.S., while going into ideas of borders and some of the history of the labour movement. A must read, for anyone who thinks a border wall is a good idea and liberals who are surprised at anti-immigrant sentiment. My only regret is not reading this before reading David Bacon's The Right to Stay Home and Children of NAFTA. "Current" information from this book is a bit dated, but the history and historical perspective is invaluable.
A great book that details the history of anti-immigrant sentiment in the U.S., while going into ideas of borders and some of the history of the labour movement. A must read, for anyone who thinks a border wall is a good idea and liberals who are surprised at anti-immigrant sentiment. My only regret is not reading this before reading David Bacon's The Right to Stay Home and Children of NAFTA. "Current" information from this book is a bit dated, but the history and historical perspective is invaluable.
December 10, 2010
Mixture of informative social history of the US south west and its class struggles over immigration and rather strident agit-prop. Read it over a week when I was due to watch, and provide comment as a discusaant, a screen of 'Welcome to Shelbyville'. Helped me to clarify throughts on the whole 'US as a country built by migrants' bit - which is obviously true by terribly soft focus, rose-tinted stuff.
March 2, 2012
This book is extremely informative on the history of immigration. I enjoyed how the book was split into sections and also the authors' objectivity. It isn't extremely detailed but it does give a great overview of all of the issues. The ending could be a bit controversial when they suggest that socialism is the only way to end immigration issues and racism, but it didn't override the purpose of the book. I highly recommend this book!
Currently reading
August 13, 2011Have read about half so far. Is interesting to find out about the history of white vigilantism against migrant workers who dared to organise themselves in the early US west coast days through to current day fascist groups putting the lives of immigrants at risks, immigrants who have come to the US thanks to the pursuit of neoliberal policies from their governments pushed by the US government.
June 20, 2025
Interesting analysis on the anti-immigrant/immigration scheme in the U.S. For me to think: do you think capitalism breeds illegal immigration? Or is it our flawed version of capitalism that does so? Is there even a “flawed” version of capitalism? Or is it just inherently bad?
October 9, 2007
four stars just cause i like mike davis.
January 22, 2008
Very interesting contribution to the debate on immigration. Essential for anyone who does not see the debate as black and white. Very quick read, entertaing and extremely informative.
March 10, 2011
Very good book that illustrates past battles over immigration as well as the current ones and situates them within their proper economic context.
April 8, 2012
Perfect book if u need to reference immigration issues. This books also points u in the right direction for many other topics. All around good read.
February 15, 2017
Very engrossing text on the history of migrant workers and their role in creating America, the revulsion, racism and injustices they endured. The main focus is on Mexicans who found after the Mexican American War found that the border had move hundreds of miles south of them, and while now within the boundaries of the United States were stripped of all rights, their properties confiscated, driven off their land and had laws passed that stripped them of all rights to any justice or citizenship.
While the misuse of immigrants lowering each group to an indentured status with no protections, and the use of political dialog that described them as less than human deserving nothing better than the exploitation that was their due. This whole period that ran through slavery, and the first large migrations up to the 2000s was indeed a very ugly period both for migrants and the white working poor. It is hard to read the racist and disgusting statements of well known politicians who tried to justify white nationalism and pitted each immigrant group against each other for the sake of large growers and corporations whose profits were built on the sweat and blood of the workers who suffered under them.
Much of this was known to me to some extent as my Grandfather was a ranch foreman in the Santa Barbara area from the 30s until he retired in the mid 70s. He ran a large Mexican crew, most of them who worked under him for generations. He would drive me out to meet them when I was a toddler, after his second breakfast, this would often be repeated each time I made a return visit...workers remembering me from my last visit. He had a ground crew of 20 who took care of his boss' garden landscaping and a larger crew who tended the polo grounds and the golf course and the grand drives of this exclusive residential sub-division, and an even larger crew who tended the lemon groves that surrounded the residential area. I have to assume that he was a good foreman, as he showed them a lot of respect and it was returned. He knew their families and their children...and they always remarked at how I had grown. That is how I knew they weren't braceros who had to return back to Mexico as soon as the crops were harvested. I knew that this was not the way most Mexican migrants were treated, I knew that most were exploited especially in the horticultural crops like were found in the Salinas Valley and up and down the coast. My grandparents who earlier had lived in Naples by the Sea (which eventually became part of Goleta) had farm neighbors who were Japanese, and Filipino and Mexican. Grams had run the General Store during the depression and residents were judged on their worth as people, not whether they had money or were white: neighbors helped neighbors. I know it tore at her when her Japanese neighbors were driven off of their property and interned, which happened before I was born, but the stories about them survived.
My Dad was stationed in the Philippines before the war broke out and had a deep respect for Filipinos...I don't think he knew how poorly the Filipino migrants were treated in California, even worse than any other group of farm workers. He returned to the Pacific as a bomber co-pilot and was surprised on an emergency leave back to Santa Barbara to walk into a bar where no black, or Mexican or Filipino would have even been allowed to enter to find a group of guys with arm bands sitting at the bar...on inquiry he found out that they were German POWs who worked as field hands, but could in their white privileged bodies after their labors, come downtown for a few beers. That they had these freedoms when men my father fought along side of would not be welcome in the same facility was something he never forgot.
In fourth grade we were stationed in Texas, and lived in a community who hated military officers, hated Papists more, and Mexicans just as much. I went to a Catholic school which was integrated with Mexicans, which I think was perceived as even worse than being Papist as I actually sat in the same room as non-whites. It was the first time I encountered overt racism. Texas in the 50s made no bones about how they felt about Mexicans and Blacks and Catholics.
Returning to California in the late 50s I belonged to a parish that had Mexican families, Portuguese and Hawaiian families, shunned by some parishioners, but not by my family. I had no idea of what was happening in the Ag fields surrounding Sacramento, or in the canneries downtown. I could sense the racism but as a child had no idea about the vigilantes and institutional violence in the fields.
One of our neighbors, a doctor had a son my younger brothers age...a soft very white Pillsbury dough type of teen, who spent one summer working in the fields with undocumented workers, stoop labor, sharing their living conditions. He returned a totally changed person, speaking Spanish, lean and tan with a different perspective on the world.
You could not live in California and be blind to the living conditions of migrant field hands, though the work camps were not on highly traveled roads. You knew though because in small towns farm workers kept their distance, eyes down, knowing where they would be welcome and where not.
It was not until the UFW organized the grape boycott that I became aware of what the plight of farm workers and what they dealt with up and down the valleys of my home state. The violence they encountered was covered in some papers, other papers made it sound as though they were subversives here to destroy all social order and our very peace and security.
I found this text moving and at times emotionally difficult, because at some level I had been sheltered from the terror and violence that I had thought was restricted to the Jim Crow south. This is a text that requires you to have a deep love of your country and its ideals, otherwise you would be shattered by the way large groups of people supported by sheriffs and police and militarized border enforcers have behaved as extra judicial thugs no better than the neo-Nazis and Ku Klux Klan that bolstered their ranks. It is a face to face encounter of how we can behave when messages of fear of 'others' and racism, hatred and violence are drummed up by anti-immigrant politicians and the corporations that benefit from undocumented workers who sponsor this divisiveness. A real eye opener about a subject that divides our country even today.
While the misuse of immigrants lowering each group to an indentured status with no protections, and the use of political dialog that described them as less than human deserving nothing better than the exploitation that was their due. This whole period that ran through slavery, and the first large migrations up to the 2000s was indeed a very ugly period both for migrants and the white working poor. It is hard to read the racist and disgusting statements of well known politicians who tried to justify white nationalism and pitted each immigrant group against each other for the sake of large growers and corporations whose profits were built on the sweat and blood of the workers who suffered under them.
Much of this was known to me to some extent as my Grandfather was a ranch foreman in the Santa Barbara area from the 30s until he retired in the mid 70s. He ran a large Mexican crew, most of them who worked under him for generations. He would drive me out to meet them when I was a toddler, after his second breakfast, this would often be repeated each time I made a return visit...workers remembering me from my last visit. He had a ground crew of 20 who took care of his boss' garden landscaping and a larger crew who tended the polo grounds and the golf course and the grand drives of this exclusive residential sub-division, and an even larger crew who tended the lemon groves that surrounded the residential area. I have to assume that he was a good foreman, as he showed them a lot of respect and it was returned. He knew their families and their children...and they always remarked at how I had grown. That is how I knew they weren't braceros who had to return back to Mexico as soon as the crops were harvested. I knew that this was not the way most Mexican migrants were treated, I knew that most were exploited especially in the horticultural crops like were found in the Salinas Valley and up and down the coast. My grandparents who earlier had lived in Naples by the Sea (which eventually became part of Goleta) had farm neighbors who were Japanese, and Filipino and Mexican. Grams had run the General Store during the depression and residents were judged on their worth as people, not whether they had money or were white: neighbors helped neighbors. I know it tore at her when her Japanese neighbors were driven off of their property and interned, which happened before I was born, but the stories about them survived.
My Dad was stationed in the Philippines before the war broke out and had a deep respect for Filipinos...I don't think he knew how poorly the Filipino migrants were treated in California, even worse than any other group of farm workers. He returned to the Pacific as a bomber co-pilot and was surprised on an emergency leave back to Santa Barbara to walk into a bar where no black, or Mexican or Filipino would have even been allowed to enter to find a group of guys with arm bands sitting at the bar...on inquiry he found out that they were German POWs who worked as field hands, but could in their white privileged bodies after their labors, come downtown for a few beers. That they had these freedoms when men my father fought along side of would not be welcome in the same facility was something he never forgot.
In fourth grade we were stationed in Texas, and lived in a community who hated military officers, hated Papists more, and Mexicans just as much. I went to a Catholic school which was integrated with Mexicans, which I think was perceived as even worse than being Papist as I actually sat in the same room as non-whites. It was the first time I encountered overt racism. Texas in the 50s made no bones about how they felt about Mexicans and Blacks and Catholics.
Returning to California in the late 50s I belonged to a parish that had Mexican families, Portuguese and Hawaiian families, shunned by some parishioners, but not by my family. I had no idea of what was happening in the Ag fields surrounding Sacramento, or in the canneries downtown. I could sense the racism but as a child had no idea about the vigilantes and institutional violence in the fields.
One of our neighbors, a doctor had a son my younger brothers age...a soft very white Pillsbury dough type of teen, who spent one summer working in the fields with undocumented workers, stoop labor, sharing their living conditions. He returned a totally changed person, speaking Spanish, lean and tan with a different perspective on the world.
You could not live in California and be blind to the living conditions of migrant field hands, though the work camps were not on highly traveled roads. You knew though because in small towns farm workers kept their distance, eyes down, knowing where they would be welcome and where not.
It was not until the UFW organized the grape boycott that I became aware of what the plight of farm workers and what they dealt with up and down the valleys of my home state. The violence they encountered was covered in some papers, other papers made it sound as though they were subversives here to destroy all social order and our very peace and security.
I found this text moving and at times emotionally difficult, because at some level I had been sheltered from the terror and violence that I had thought was restricted to the Jim Crow south. This is a text that requires you to have a deep love of your country and its ideals, otherwise you would be shattered by the way large groups of people supported by sheriffs and police and militarized border enforcers have behaved as extra judicial thugs no better than the neo-Nazis and Ku Klux Klan that bolstered their ranks. It is a face to face encounter of how we can behave when messages of fear of 'others' and racism, hatred and violence are drummed up by anti-immigrant politicians and the corporations that benefit from undocumented workers who sponsor this divisiveness. A real eye opener about a subject that divides our country even today.
February 4, 2021
No One is Illegal is a superb analysis into the long history of immigration and immigrant working class struggle in the United States. Reading this book in the age of Trump and blatant white supremacy is utterly jarring as the book explores traditional tropes that have fueled backlash and damning policies against working class immigrants through the last hundred years, particularly undocumented agricultural workers. The book is divided in two parts, with the initial chapters focused on the first several decades of the 1900s in California and the waves of violence and racist policies inflicted upon immigrant agricultural workers, including Chinese, Indian, Filipino, Japanese, and Mexican nationals. This terrifying portrait of California migration highlights the extent to which white wealthy landowners colluded with local authorities through vigilantism to suppress any efforts for workers to unionize or gain basic labor rights. It is astounding to learn about the violence enacted upon radical union organizers such as the IWW by fascist vigilantes and the white hysteria caused by false narratives perpetuated in local newspapers. Part II of the book continues its focus on migrant history and shines a light on the massive contributions of Mexican agricultural immigrant workers to build infrastructure and the economy in the US as well as their heroic efforts to try to gain better working conditions. To set the scene, the author contextualizes the harm inflicted by sweeping neoliberal policies like NAFTA and its subsequent displacement of Mexican farmers. In this trajectory, the author debunks tropes about immigration and argues that a heavily militarized border, which happened post 9/11, are only succeeding in causing the deaths of migrants rather than deterrence. The book humanizes immigrant workers and concludes with the recent efforts by undocumented immigrants to fight for their right to remain in the US and live with dignity. Written in 2006, this book is fundamental in understanding labor history, US policy, ruling class vigilantism, and very much relevant today in a divided country, where nativist narratives fuel hysteria and dehumanize the millions of hardworking immigrants.
April 20, 2020
This book tells the history of immigration in the US in sometimes excruciating detail. I’ve always wondered why so many immigrants flocked to the US, and this question seemed more nuanced than the overarching dismissive excuse that it was for economic opportunity and fleeing bad circumstances.
As someone interested in the role the US played in drawing in tremendous numbers of immigrates, to use for economic exploitation, I found this book absorbing, fascinating, and often horrifying to read. History classes have often failed to recount the racist atrocities committed against immigrants, and the role the US has played in displacing them in the first place, as well as the hypocrisy of being “the land of the free” when really, we systematically discriminate against vast numbers of people, and have for a long time.
The book is a heavily researched description of the the systematic oppression of immigrants, presenting a convincing argument for immigration. Written in the modern context of the Trump wall construction, the historical accounts are eerily similar to current racism we see today. The militarization of the border is definitely overkill, and something US corporations profit tremendously off of.
Whatever party you align with, this book critiques the actions of both, and presents logic and evidence in defense of immigrants, promoting further understanding of the immigration situation and contextualizing the difficulties immigrants undergo. I’d recommend this to anyone wanting to better understand the immigration situation. Both historical and modern, political and logical, Chacón and Davis’ book is an informative and articulate read.
As someone interested in the role the US played in drawing in tremendous numbers of immigrates, to use for economic exploitation, I found this book absorbing, fascinating, and often horrifying to read. History classes have often failed to recount the racist atrocities committed against immigrants, and the role the US has played in displacing them in the first place, as well as the hypocrisy of being “the land of the free” when really, we systematically discriminate against vast numbers of people, and have for a long time.
The book is a heavily researched description of the the systematic oppression of immigrants, presenting a convincing argument for immigration. Written in the modern context of the Trump wall construction, the historical accounts are eerily similar to current racism we see today. The militarization of the border is definitely overkill, and something US corporations profit tremendously off of.
Whatever party you align with, this book critiques the actions of both, and presents logic and evidence in defense of immigrants, promoting further understanding of the immigration situation and contextualizing the difficulties immigrants undergo. I’d recommend this to anyone wanting to better understand the immigration situation. Both historical and modern, political and logical, Chacón and Davis’ book is an informative and articulate read.
September 11, 2023
Justin Akers Chacon's No One Is Illegal gives an in depth look at the racism against immigrants in the USA, focusing at the systemic racism and discrimination at a State level. In it, he postulates, with a great deal of evidence, that the State's intense enforcement -- which really only began in the 80s; prior to that, workers were able to cross back and forth between countries with very little problems -- serves first and foremost to insure that the USA has a not insignificant workforce which is easily exploitable, with little to no worker protections. This allows businesses that hire them to pay them well below regulated wages, as well as ensuring that they have very little recourse for workplace abuses. He clearly outlines the connection between capitalism and anti-immigrant rhetoric.
Akers Chacon draws examples throughout history, and his work is well cited. His analyses are well-thought out, and he expounds so precisely that it's difficult to find much, if any, fault with said analyses. His writing is clear and easy to understand, and what examples he draws are explained clearly and concisely; from what I can tell, he doesn't assume his readers are already familiar with the data.
Mike Davis has a section at the beginning of the book about the history of anti-immigrant vigilantism and speaks quite a bit about pre-WWII Japanese immigrants in California, and I likewise found it very informative and enlightening.
Akers Chacon draws examples throughout history, and his work is well cited. His analyses are well-thought out, and he expounds so precisely that it's difficult to find much, if any, fault with said analyses. His writing is clear and easy to understand, and what examples he draws are explained clearly and concisely; from what I can tell, he doesn't assume his readers are already familiar with the data.
Mike Davis has a section at the beginning of the book about the history of anti-immigrant vigilantism and speaks quite a bit about pre-WWII Japanese immigrants in California, and I likewise found it very informative and enlightening.
November 20, 2020
Este libro está dividido en dos partes: En la la primera, Mike Davis habla de la historia del vigilantismo racista en EEUU, mientras que en la segunda, Justin Akers Chacón habla del rol del capitalismo en la opresión de migrantes mexicanos indocumentados.
A mi parecer, la parte de Davis es excelente y no le reclamaría nada. Perfectamente documentada y explicada. Por el otro lado, la sección que escribe Akers Chacón sigue siendo interesante y me brindó una buena perspectiva sobre cómo se mueven los intereses de las grandes empresas en relación a la migración. Sin embargo, creo ofrece una versión simplista del asunto. Él argumenta que el capitalismo es el causante de la xenofobia en EEUU y que un sistema socialista ayudaría a los indocumentados. No obstante, en el mundo hay incontables ejemplos de que países socialistas, tanto dictatoriales (Cuba y la URSS) como socialdemócratas (Noruega y Finlandia) no tratan bien a los que tratan de migrar.
En conclusión, aunque no esté de acuerdo con muchas de sus determinaciones, creo que Nadie Es Ilegal es un libro bueno para entender la historia (y el presente) del movimiento antimigrante en los Estados Unidos.
A mi parecer, la parte de Davis es excelente y no le reclamaría nada. Perfectamente documentada y explicada. Por el otro lado, la sección que escribe Akers Chacón sigue siendo interesante y me brindó una buena perspectiva sobre cómo se mueven los intereses de las grandes empresas en relación a la migración. Sin embargo, creo ofrece una versión simplista del asunto. Él argumenta que el capitalismo es el causante de la xenofobia en EEUU y que un sistema socialista ayudaría a los indocumentados. No obstante, en el mundo hay incontables ejemplos de que países socialistas, tanto dictatoriales (Cuba y la URSS) como socialdemócratas (Noruega y Finlandia) no tratan bien a los que tratan de migrar.
En conclusión, aunque no esté de acuerdo con muchas de sus determinaciones, creo que Nadie Es Ilegal es un libro bueno para entender la historia (y el presente) del movimiento antimigrante en los Estados Unidos.
May 30, 2017
A great dive into the roles that (some) unions, nativists, agribusiness, small business owners, and politicians on both sides of the aisle have played in the construction and perpetuation on the anti-immigrant border-focused fear-mongering that has existed throughout our nation's history. Strong on data and facts to back up all its major points, it focuses most heavily on the history of agricultural fieldwork in California, and to a lesser extent across the entire border to Texas. In a Trump world, some of the warnings are prescient, and a few outdated, but overall a necessary introduction for those looking to better critique the mischaracterizations and lies about immigration, both racially and economically.
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