Crossing Borders: Reframing undocumented immigration into the United States

Crossing Borders scrutinizes the historical foundations of undocumented immigration into the United States, demonstrating how migratory fluxes into the country lie at the intersection of labor needs and nativist pressures that date back to the days of unrestricted immigration. The resulting forces of attraction and repulsion find echo in the most consequential immigration legislation adopted over the years, legitimizing a system of selective and ethnically motivated (il)legality that persists to this day. Pedro Lopes furthermore foils the dehumanizing rhetoric informing the dominant political discourse on immigration by focusing on the first-hand accounts of a few men, women, and even children who have engaged in the perilous undertaking of traversing the U.S.-Mexico border clandestinely.