Undocumented: How Immigration Became Illegal

A longtime immigration activist explores what it means to be an undocumented American in this “impassioned and well-reported case for change” (New York Times).
 
In this illuminating work, immigrant rights activist Aviva Chomsky shows how “illegality” and “undocumentedness” are concepts that were created to exclude and exploit. With a focus on US policy, she probes how people, especially Mexican and Central Americans, have been assigned this status—and to what ends.
 
Blending history with human drama, Chomsky explores what it means to be undocumented in a legal, social, economic, and historical context. The result is a powerful testament of the complex, contradictory, and ever-shifting nature of status in America.

Aviva Chomsky is professor of history and coordinator of Latin American Studies at Salem State University. The author of several books, Chomsky has been active in Latin American solidarity and immigrants’ rights issues for over twenty-five years. She lives in Salem, Massachusetts.

Contents
 
PREFACE    ix
INTRODUCTION    1
 
CHAPTER 1
Where Did Illegality Come From?    23
 
CHAPTER 2
Choosing to Be Undocumented    40
 
CHAPTER 3
Becoming Illegal     71
 
CHAPTER 4
What Part of “Illegal” Do You Understand?    87
 
CHAPTER 5
Working (Part 1)    113
 
CHAPTER 6
Working (Part 2)    130
 
CHAPTER 7
Children and Families    152
 
CHAPTER 8
Solutions    181
 
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 209
NOTES 210
INDEX 238