Welcome the Wretched: In Defense of the “Criminal Alien.”

Immigration lawyer and law professor García Hernández (Ohio State Univ.; Migrating to Prison) argues that racism is at the heart of the United States’ deployment of criminal law to reject migrants. His well-documented book shows that since 1929, the country has predicated the citizenship rights of migrants, especially people of color, on the basis of whether they’ve been convicted of a crime; first Chinese immigrants were targeted, then Mexicans, Cubans, and Salvadorans. He makes his case via the stories of individual migrants and the history of immigration law, which has been swayed by political winds. Statistically, migrants commit fewer crimes than citizens in the U.S., and García Hernández asserts that white non-citizens, when criminally charged or convicted, are treated more favorably than non-citizens of color who are in the same situation. He suggests changing the definition of citizenship and separating criminal charges from immigration law; he also decries the huge increase, since 2001, in funding for immigration enforcement and border patrol. But he concludes that these solutions, while popular with many Americans, are too politically charged to be implemented in the current environment; this leaves readers with a call to action.