Starred review from December 1, 2014
Twenty million immigrants entered the United States, both legally and illegally, between 1990 and 2010. As Regan (The Death of Josseline) passionately and eloquently argues, the related increase in detainment and deportation has been treated as a business opportunity, leading to grievous mistreatment. In this well-documented study, Regan recounts the stories of undocumented immigrants, focusing on those in Arizona. According to the book, the Federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE) has, in the course of deporting hundreds of thousands of people yearly, separated families and forced American-born children with loving parents into the foster system, charged immigrants with overly serious felonies, and allowed abusive conditions to fester in detainment centers. Moreover, deportees often wind up in unfamiliar, even dangerous circumstances when they leave the U.S. Regan is a skilled interviewer, making the stories included here intimate and heartbreaking. She critically examines the failure of U.S. immigration policies while also highlighting efforts to help, both from individuals and non-profit organizations. For those who have been searching for an authentic look at people caught between borders, this is it.
December 15, 2014
A timely look at the inhumane effects of immigration policies in the United States. Tucson Weekly columnist Regan, who told harrowing tales of immigrants trying to cross from Mexico into Arizona in her previous book, The Death of Josseline (2010), here turns to the treatment of undocumented immigrants who succeeded in making it across the border. As before, the author relates individuals' specific experiences while revealing the policies and the institutions that impact their lives and determine their fates. She is deeply sympathetic to the plight of undocumented workers caught in a system that profits from their incarceration and treats them with indifference at best and inhumanity at worst. The first portion of the book focuses on detention, the next on deportation and the last on resistance to the system. While the author writes of outrageous conditions, this book is not a rant. The facts she straightforwardly presents inform readers of the harsh, prisonlike conditions at detention centers operated by the for-profit Corrections Corporation of America, specifically ones at Eloy and Florence, Arizona. It comes as no surprise to learn that the Eloy center has the nation's highest rate of inmate deaths due to suicide or medical neglect. Regan also reveals the anguish of parents abruptly separated from their children-legal citizens of the United States-and deported to Mexico, where they have not lived in years and have no ties. The book's few bright spots include accounts of pro bono lawyers trying to untangle the web of immigration laws and of volunteer groups like Casa Mariposa, which provides food and shelter to newly liberated detainees dumped by authorities at Tucson's isolated bus station. Together, Regan's books bring into focus the fates of undocumented people fighting against the odds to make it into America and then, if they get here, struggling, and often failing, to build a life.
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March 1, 2015
The issues surrounding immigration in the United States are current and contentious--thousands of undocumented immigrants live, work, and raise families here and hundreds of thousands are detained and deported annually. Focusing on the Sonora Borderlands near Tucson, AZ, Regan (editor & writer, Tucson Weekly; Death of Josseline) seeks to share these immigrants' narratives and raise awareness of topics such as poor detention-center conditions; the slow and complicated justice system many immigrants must navigate; and the corruption, neglect, and abuse present among some of the organizations and officials handling these dilemmas. Through multiple accounts, Regan also offers a sociological and humanitarian examination of the detainment and deportation of undocumented immigrants, discussing the hardships and dangers of border crossing, the difficulties facing immigrants in their home counties, and the realities of families torn apart. VERDICT Heartbreaking, thorough, and insightful, Regan's work gives readers an important view into the challenges faced by undocumented immigrants. Recommended for readers interested in sociology; immigrant studies; or the social, legal, and ethical subjects involving this country's current treatment of immigration.--Jennifer Harris, Southern New Hampshire Univ. Lib., Manchester
Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
February 15, 2015
Not for nothing was Eloy named for Jesus' cry of despair, journalist Regan writes in this scathing review of current detention and deportation practices involving undocumented immigrants in the U.S. Beginning with the Eloy Detention Center, operated by the for-profit Corrections Corporation of America, Regan gives detailed accounts of the inhumane conditions, inadequate care, and unjust treatment detainees receive at the hands of hostile staff and predatory prosecutors. Take the case of Yolanda, who tried to escape an abusive relationship, then was forced into sex slavery, only to get arrested and charged with running a prostitution ring. It took the intervention of several lawyers and two years of appeals for Yolanda, separated from her three children, to receive a T visa, given to victims of human trafficking. Together with other horrifying case studies, Regan provides discomfiting statistics to document the rise of the detention-industrial complex. (In 1995, the Eloy facility held only 395 bunks. By 2014, it had 1,596.) This important work should be read together with Regan's previous expose, The Death of Josseline (2010).(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)