Blockading the Border and Human Rights

[Guest guest]

Thought some of you would be

interested in this book by Tim Dunn. (2009). Blockading

the Border and Human Rights:

The El Paso Operation that Remade Immigration

Enforcement. It’s now available at UT Press

http://www.utexas.edu/utpress/books/dunblo.html

Here’s a brief review of the book by

Massey:

" How on earth did the

United States end up deploying tens of thousands of armed personnel to defend a

border with a friendly nation that poses no conceivable military threat and

which is, in fact, a close ally and trading partner? In this fascinating case

study, Dunn shows that it all began in 1992 with a successful lawsuit

that Mexican Americans brought against the Border Patrol to end discriminatory

enforcement practices in El Paso, Texas. The unintended consequence was a new

enforcement strategy that ultimately became the model for the entire border,

transforming what had been a local violation of civil rights into a massive

infringement of international human rights. Dunn's brilliant analysis is

essential to understanding the origins of a flawed border policy that went on

to turn a relatively small, circular flow of seasonal workers going to three

states into a huge population of settled families living in fifty

states—all at a cost of more than 4,000 lives and billions of taxpayer

dollars. This book should be required reading for policy makers and the public

alike. "

— S. Massey, Henry G.

Professor of Sociology and Public Affairs, Princeton University; president of

the American Academy of Political and Social Science and past president of the

American Sociological Association; lead author of Beyond Smoke and Mirrors: Mexican Immigration in an Era of Economic

Integration