Reform Without Justice

Placed within the context of the past decade's war on terror and emergent Latino migrant movement, Reform without Justice addresses the issue of state violence against migrants in the United States. It questions what forces are driving draconian migration control policies and why it is that, despite its success in mobilizing millions, the Latino migrant movement and its allies have not been able to more successfully defend the rights of migrants. Gonzales argues that the contemporary Latino migrant movement and its allies face a dynamic form of political power that he terms "anti-migrant hegemony". This type of political power is exerted in multiple sites of power from Congress, to think tanks, talk shows and local government institutions, through which a rhetorically race neutral and common sense public policy discourse is deployed to criminalize migrants. Most insidiously anti-migrant hegemony allows for large sectors of "pro-immigrant" groups to concede to coercive immigration enforcement measures such as a militarized border wall and the expansion of immigration policing in local communities in exchange for so-called Comprehensive Immigration Reform. Given this reality, Gonzales sustains that most efforts to advance immigration reform will fail to provide justice for migrants. This is because proposed reform measures ignore the neoliberal policies driving migration and reinforce the structures of state violence used against migrants to the detriment of democracy for all. Reform without Justice concludes by discussing how Latino migrant activists - especially youth - and their allies can change this reality and help democratize the United States.

Autorentext

Alfonso Gonzales is Associate Professor in the Department of Ethnic Studies and the Director of the Latin American Studies Program at the University of California Riverside.

Inhalt

Preface Introduction Chapter 1: The State-Civil Society Nexus and the Debate Over the Border Protection, Antiterrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Act of 2005 Chapter 2: The 2006 Mega-Marches in Greater Los Angeles: A Counterhegemonic Moment and the Limits of Mass Mobilization Chapter 3: Race, Globalization, and Migration Control in Riverside County Chapter 4: The Geo-Politics of the Homeland Security State and Deportation in El Salvador Chapter 5: Resisting "Passive Revolution": The Migrant Rights Movement in Washington, DC, and New York City Chapter 6: Beyond "Immigration Reform": The Latin Americanization of Latino Politics, Authoritarian Statism, and Democracy from Below Appendix: Toward a Neo-Gramscian Approach to Latino Politics Research: Theory and Methods Notes Bibliography Index