Dangerous Migration

About the Book

This book examines the historical relationship between immigrants—especially the undocumented—and established Mexican American and Latino communities in the United States. It argues that while in the post-war period, most Mexican Americans viewed migration as a threat to their communities, the social and political consequences of the dreaded “invasion” of undocumented immigrants, itself the result of unintended consequences of an altered immigration policy, ultimately produced a vibrant, Mexican American-led immigrants’ rights movement. Beginning in the 1960s, activists came to understand immigration policy and debates as central to their own struggle for both civil rights and human rights. These activists—from labor-based leftists to Chicano students and Catholic social justice allies—fought on various fronts and used numerous strategies: creating direct action, antiracist networks; building alliances with transnational, working- class movements; developing self-help organizations; waging legal battles locally and nationally; engaging human rights discourses learned from other global struggles; and otherwise blending anti-discrimination and anti-exploitation efforts. Yet, while this shift was significant and defining, it was never definitive. Many remained ambivalent or even hostile toward immigrants, revealing that disagreements, tensions, and restrictionist impulses remained components of a complex, dynamic, and ever-changing Latino political identity.