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"The United States is detaining and deporting undocumented immigrants at a rate never before seen in American history. Hundreds of thousands languish in immigration detention centers, separated from their families, sometimes for years. Deportees are dropped off unceremoniously in sometimes dangerous Mexican border towns, or flown back to crime-ridden Central American nations. Many of the deported have lived in the United States for years, and have U.S. citizen children; despite the legal consequences, many cross the border again. Using volatile Arizona as a case study of the system, Margaret Regan conjures up the harshness of the detention centers hidden away the countryside and travels to Mexico and Guatemala to report on the fate of deportees stranded far from their families in the United States"--… (more)
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MS Regan tells the story using first hand accounts of people caught in our inhumane and broken immigration system. This book is less an indictment of the people who enter the US illegally than it is of the failings of current US policies in which immigration and citizenship have been politicized with little regard for the human costs. Our legal solutions for the crime of illegally entering the US often seem “cruel and unusual” and one wonders why more humane methods cannot be implemented. Under our current system, the most humane solutions seem to be just to ignore the broken system and deliver relief in various forms like picking people up at bus stations in the middle of the night, giving them temporary food and lodging or even bus fare. These ad hoc solutions occur on both sides of the border.
Using first hand accounts, MS Regan depicts most of the many flaws with the current immigration system on the US-Mexican border. Clearly, measures like fences, increased detention/deportation and Arizona's SB1070 have done little to reduce the problem. The detention centers are little more than for profit prisons that have effectively lobbied to maintain their inmate populations, while doing little to alleviate the problem. Perversions like the “streamline court” are an insult to the idea of justice. These are combined with non-judicial punishments designed to dehumanize the immigrants. Detainees are not provided with adequate meals or medical care, and are housed in cells that are deliberately maintained at very low temperatures. Their warm clothing is taken from them. Other measures like NAFTA and drug enforcement efforts have the unintended consequence of exacerbating the problem.
Is this presentation biased? It probably is because it sets out to tell the story of the immigrants and not that of the enforcers or those living on the border. Regan is not attempting to present a balanced view; instead she is trying to show the human toll of a broken and politicized system. Indeed, rules are being broken, but one has to ask if these rules are just and humane. Martin Luther King Jr.’s words are relevant here: “One has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws.”
The result is an exposé of sorts of America's (and especially Arizona's) handling of these people, which includes holding them under poor conditions (in uncomfortably cold rooms, often without adequate food or medical care) in detention centers that make a profit from imprisoning them; making it difficult for them to contact their families, who might not know they were even picked up or have any idea where they are; ramrodding them through the legal process, often without even explaining their rights to them; dumping them across the border in an unfamiliar city with nothing but the clothes on their backs and no easy way to get word to their loved ones; and, of course, separating parents from children, some of whom then end up in the US foster care system.
Some of these stories are heartbreaking, and I don't think you have to have ultra-liberal opinions on the subject of immigration for them to make you think that something is badly wrong with this system. If you are already pro-immigration, they'll undoubtedly just make you angry. Whatever your stance, I think it's good to see these things. It's all too easy, in the course of political debate, to regard it all as an abstraction and forget that there are actual human lives involved, or even to think of them as an undifferentiated mass of "undesirables," rather than as people at all. Putting a real human face on things is necessary and important.
Regan herself, although she clearly cares for these people and is writing this book about them for a reason, avoids climbing up onto a soapbox and lecturing her readers about how to feel, or how to vote. Instead, she lets the people she talks to, and the facts of the matter, speak for themselves, which I think is exactly the right tack to take.
I suggest this book to any at all on the front lines of the immigration issue and every American that has an opinion on the subject. We need to arm ourselves with facts before forming an educated opinion. I was given a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
"The little girl I saw crying under the table in the family visiting room...haunts me still. Her name was Jacqueline, she was
With its thematic sections on experiences of Detention, Deportation, and Resistance, this book offers a moving glimpse of the struggles faced by American families with undocumented members.
I received this book as part of the Early Reviewers giveaway programme.
One of the common themes is one frequently in the news of late: undocumented parents with US citizen children. The desire for a safe, unified family is greater than whatever threats we can make to personal liberty -- many of these people come right back to this country as soon as possible. Except now we've fully criminalized them, making them more desperate to avoid detection -- and driving them to support organized crime by paying large sums of money to "coyotes" who get them across the border.
Another problem is the crackdown at urban crossing areas, forcing immigrants to take dangerous, sometimes fatal. journeys into the desert. Sometimes these people are picked up by border patrol agents who have to then deal with medical emergencies while at the same time trying to incarcerate them.
Margaret Regan interviews a wide range of displaced immigrants in various private and public institutions, as well as support groups that exist to provide aid for these unfortunate people. It seems incredible that in spite of what these people endure, here is still where they want to be. And some of the stories are so horrifying that we should be ashamed as a nation: One young lady's crime was having been brought to this country when she was 3 months old. After excelling as a student in high school, she had to take a job at a Subway restaurant when her mother became ill with leukemia. She was a perfect employee, and her employer even went out of the way to testify on her behalf. Yet she was forced to plead guilty of a felony charge of working while being ineligible to do so, and it took 2 more years of living in detention centers while her attorney pursued every avenue of opportunity to keep her here, eventually succeeding although she still can't work.
Private prisons, overzealous border patrol police, and laws authorizing inhumane treatment of human beings (Arizona by far the worst) all require immediate fixing. Politicians who don't think of their housekeepers and gardeners as being people are to blame -- Hispanics have a poor record of participation in government -- they need to organize replace those responsible if anything is ever going to change.
OUCH! Margaret Regan delivers a hard punch in the gut with the stories of immigrant families and their treatment by the U.S. Immigration system in her book "Detained and Deported".
ISBN: 978-0807079836
Author: Margaret Regan
Well written and compelling, Ms. Regan has succeeded in writing a book that all of us need to read.
I have to say Detained and Deported shook me to the core. As a Mid-westerner, the press has
I had no idea of the immigrant situation in the Southwestern United States. I am appalled and disheartened by what we “Americans” are capable of doing to those seeking a better life.
Long gone are the days when America opened its arms to the tired, the poor, and those yearning to breathe free. Our attitude now seems to be “We don’t want you here, but we’re more than happy to incarcerate you”. Prison for profit. Abuse. Inadequate housing and food. Random racial profiling by law enforcement and border guards. Brought here as a child by your parents? Fleeing persecution or violence? Too bad! Back you go.
Thank God for the volunteers and activists who are working so hard to help, comfort, inform, feed, clothe, and house undocumented immigrants! The system has not only failed these people, but has been designed to extend their suffering. This has to stop, and the sooner Americans open their eyes to what is going on at present in their country, the sooner lives can be saved, and families can be restored.
While reading this quick-paced, information packed book, I kept thinking “what a great story” as Regan laid out one fascinating character after another, walked me through streets that I’d never venture on my own
Then I realized… these aren’t stories. These are people! Individuals caught up in the harrowing trap of trying to better their lives, escape unimaginable circumstances and just attempting to be families. After reading this book, I realized this is a problem that needs to be addressed yesterday!
This book contains many different voices that flow together to allow the reader to understand the situation from a different perspective. The haves against the have nots. The unnecessary barbarism inflicted on men, women and children that get caught up in the continuing struggle of life in the U.S.A. A must-read for all Americans whose ancestors were riding the waves of migration back when it was a free for all.
Stories of Immigrant Families Under Fire
Author: Margaret Regan
Isbn: 978-0-8070-7983-6
This book was published in 2015, but it is certainly not out of date! The political temperament of the day makes this book necessary reading, though I wish that the ones reading would step
Sadly, that is where the greatest challenge is.
You see, I lay a charge against the church in America today. I charge that the sin of American Christianity is that it sees itself as American first and Christian second. This church embraces Romans 13:1 and forgets all about Acts 5:29!
This charge is one I will write more on in a more appropriate place. For now, it comes to mind because Margaret Regan has written about a real tragedy. This book is about the treatment of immigrant families at the hands of our authorities and the suffering being endured by fellow human beings. It is comprised of story after story of men, women, and children who face terrible conditions, inhumane treatment, and institutional neglect.
It is about children left behind and alone when parents are arrested and imprisoned for the crime of working and trying to provide. It is about husbands and wives torn apart from the over zealous persecution of a crime that does not merit or call for the severe response it seems to elicit.
Look, I know how some (sadly, even Christians!) will argue here. These people are committing crimes! These people should come by legal means! These people are taking jobs from Americans and keeping wages low!
I can appreciate the concerns even if I don’t care for the manner in which they are presented. And this is an issue I will be writing on again.
All I can say is read this book. Look upon the people it speaks of as fellow human beings and have some empathy for the suffering of those around us.