Wetback Nation: The Case for Opening the Mexican-American Border

by Peter Laufer

Peter Laufer's explosive proposals for the U.S.-Mexican border go far beyond President Bush's initiative to ease restrictions on immigration. Mr. Laufer argues that the border with Mexico should be completely open, with a free flow of people between the two countries. He offers a step-by-step blueprint for making it happen. Wetback Nation is also the background to understanding the Bush proposals: the story of how the border has become a fraud, resulting in nothing more than the criminalization of Mexican and other migrants, the bloating of the mismanaged Immigration and Naturalization Service, the deterioration of living standards along the frontier, and the enrichment of American employers. Placing the border in historical perspective, Mr. Laufer shows how circumstances have deteriorated to the present crisis, and why the region and the migration through it cannot be ignored. Over the last several years he has interviewed dozens of authorities as well as men and women in the street while reporting from Mexico, along the border, and in the United States. He demonstrates that the security of America's southern border is a fallacy; offers vivid examples to illustrate how the chain of misery and lawbreaking for migrants heading north is initiated by U.S. employers; traces many of the border problems to the Guatemalan-Mexican border; and explores the abuses of the Border Patrol and the growing presence of vigilantes on the American side. Wetback Nation is sure to provoke a lively debate over the future of Mexican immigration.

Genres: Nonfiction, History

302 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Peter Laufer, Ph.D., is the author of more than a dozen books that deal with social and political issues, including "Mission Rejected: U.S. Soldiers Who Say No to Iraq," "Wetback Nation: The Case for Opening the Mexican-American Border," and "Iron Curtain Rising: A Personal Journey through the Changing Landscape of Eastern Eurpoe." He is the coanchor of "The Peter Laufer Show" on radio station Green 960 in San Francisco. More about his books, documentary films, broadcasts, which have won the George Polk, Robert F. Kennedy, Edward R. Murrow, and other awards, can be found at peterlaufer.com. He lives in Bodega Bay, California.

Reviews

[Juan]

The author should definitely revisit since the wall is in the process of being built.

[Rae]

Laufer really only makes his case in the last (and first) chapter of this quite well-balanced look at illegal immigration. The two issues the author really didn't discuss much are the growing gang and drug problems and the significant cultural differences between Mexico and the United States which make assimilation more difficult.

Although he didn't convince me that the border should be opened, he did give me much more to think about. My viewpoints could change depending on the solutions the politicians propose. This is a convoluted, complicated and volatile issue...and not solving it only exacerbates it. Worth the read.

[Craig Bolton]

Wetback Nation: The Case for Opening the Mexican-American Border by Peter Laufer (2004)

[Cindy]

Very one-sided, but still discusses some important aspects of the issue.

[Susan]

"A border, wrote Ambrose Bierce, is an imaginary line between two nations separating the imaginary rights of one from the imaginary rights of the other."