Legal Passing: Navigating Undocumented Life and Local Immigration Law

Synopsis

Legal Passing Offers A Nuanced Understanding Of How Undocumented Mexicans Constantly Negotiate The Vexed Conditions Of Their Us Receiving Locales As Shaped By A Spectrum Of Federal, State, And Local Immigration Measures. Leveraging Differences Between Cities And States That Accommodate Immigrants And Those That Aim To Drive Them Away, García Shows That Undocumented Mexicans In Restrictive Locations Are Not More Likely To Leave, But, Instead, Learn To Pass As 'legal' By Carefully Choosing How To Dress, Where To Travel, When To Speak, And Even What To Name Their Children. Legal Passing Combines Social Theory On Race And Immigration With Place And Law, Using Interviews, Surveys, And Ethnography To Show The Everyday Failures And Long-term Human Consequences Of Anti-immigrant Legislation--provided By Publisher.