Fantastic information, incredibly compelling and horrifying stuff… could have been half as long.

four stars just cause i like mike davis.

Very interesting contribution to the debate on immigration. Essential for anyone who does not see the debate as black and white. Very quick read, entertaing and extremely informative.

Reflecting on my time in the ISO, this is one of the few Haymarket books I read that is worth slightly more than the paper it is printed on. Even so, after Mike Davis' section on the history of vigilantism in California, the rest of the book is the typically party-linish fluff that you could hear from the mouth of any ISO apparatchik. That Justin Akers Chacon wrote the second half of this book is irrelevant, it could have been any member who has been around the organization long enough for the process of osmosis to allow them to adequately regurgitate the ISO's position on this issue. Not to say that the analysis is wholly bad (it is useful, for example, in debunking many of the right wing myths regarding immigration and undocumented workers), it is just that the ISO's approach to organizing informs its conclusions making it seem more like a party line handbook than a genuine piece of historical or political analysis.

Even so, kudos to Mike Davis for not making me completely regret spending 20 bucks on this book.

Have read about half so far. Is interesting to find out about the history of white vigilantism against migrant workers who dared to organise themselves in the early US west coast days through to current day fascist groups putting the lives of immigrants at risks, immigrants who have come to the US thanks to the pursuit of neoliberal policies from their governments pushed by the US government.

This book tells the history of immigration in the US in sometimes excruciating detail. I’ve always wondered why so many immigrants flocked to the US, and this question seemed more nuanced than the overarching dismissive excuse that it was for economic opportunity and fleeing bad circumstances.

As someone interested in the role the US played in drawing in tremendous numbers of immigrates, to use for economic exploitation, I found this book absorbing, fascinating, and often horrifying to read. History classes have often failed to recount the racist atrocities committed against immigrants, and the role the US has played in displacing them in the first place, as well as the hypocrisy of being “the land of the free” when really, we systematically discriminate against vast numbers of people, and have for a long time.

The book is a heavily researched description of the the systematic oppression of immigrants, presenting a convincing argument for immigration. Written in the modern context of the Trump wall construction, the historical accounts are eerily similar to current racism we see today. The militarization of the border is definitely overkill, and something US corporations profit tremendously off of.

Whatever party you align with, this book critiques the actions of both, and presents logic and evidence in defense of immigrants, promoting further understanding of the immigration situation and contextualizing the difficulties immigrants undergo. I’d recommend this to anyone wanting to better understand the immigration situation. Both historical and modern, political and logical, Chacón and Davis’ book is an informative and articulate read.

I have learned SO MUCH about the history of our immigration laws as well as how all different kinds of immigrants have been treated since the birth of the United States. As I'm trying to shape my own views on the whole immigration issue that has been circling the main stream media lately this book has really helped me understand where the issues are coming from, the history behind them. I've always heard that the knowledge of history helps an individual keep from repeating the bad parts. Maybe it should be a government mandate that all employees must read a few books (including this one) on the HISTORY of immigration in different parts of our country.

I'm having a hard time finishing this book because 1. it is very sad and 2. it is technically a history book. I can only read one chapter at a time or else it's hard for me to grasp what's going on and keep my emotions at bay.

This book is not for people who enjoy ignorance.

No One is Illegal is a superb analysis into the long history of immigration and immigrant working class struggle in the United States. Reading this book in the age of Trump and blatant white supremacy is utterly jarring as the book explores traditional tropes that have fueled backlash and damning policies against working class immigrants through the last hundred years, particularly undocumented agricultural workers. The book is divided in two parts, with the initial chapters focused on the first several decades of the 1900s in California and the waves of violence and racist policies inflicted upon immigrant agricultural workers, including Chinese, Indian, Filipino, Japanese, and Mexican nationals. This terrifying portrait of California migration highlights the extent to which white wealthy landowners colluded with local authorities through vigilantism to suppress any efforts for workers to unionize or gain basic labor rights. It is astounding to learn about the violence enacted upon radical union organizers such as the IWW by fascist vigilantes and the white hysteria caused by false narratives perpetuated in local newspapers. Part II of the book continues its focus on migrant history and shines a light on the massive contributions of Mexican agricultural immigrant workers to build infrastructure and the economy in the US as well as their heroic efforts to try to gain better working conditions. To set the scene, the author contextualizes the harm inflicted by sweeping neoliberal policies like NAFTA and its subsequent displacement of Mexican farmers. In this trajectory, the author debunks tropes about immigration and argues that a heavily militarized border, which happened post 9/11, are only succeeding in causing the deaths of migrants rather than deterrence. The book humanizes immigrant workers and concludes with the recent efforts by undocumented immigrants to fight for their right to remain in the US and live with dignity. Written in 2006, this book is fundamental in understanding labor history, US policy, ruling class vigilantism, and very much relevant today in a divided country, where nativist narratives fuel hysteria and dehumanize the millions of hardworking immigrants.

Definitely should have taken notes.

It is important to realize that this book was put out by Haymarket Books a radical socialist publisher so the information within is presented with an anti-capitalist lens. It wasn't exactly what I was looking to learn about immigration and racism but it's important to shake up my perspective (as a white lady consumer) every once in a while. It was simultaneously heartening and discouraging to read that the rhetoric being employed today has a long history. None of this "they're gangsters and rapists and will steal our jobs" is new and the methods to prevent and criminalize immigration and isolate and disenfranchise immigrants also have a long history in the US. (Heartening because it's not that the US has suddenly had a moral downturn but we've always been d**ks.)

I will say the the first half of the book was very repetitive. There were some annoying typos throughout. And more substantially the timeline was often unclear and the data could have used more digestion. (For example, yes Obama deported more people than any other previous President but what did that look like per capita?) Also, the book assumes a working understanding of NAFTA and trade agreements and unions and had no explanation of how the government defines illegal or undocumented.

Anyhoo, an important read.

This book reads like it was someone's college term paper that they decided to expand into a book. I was and still am highly interested in the topic. The way this book was written, however, was not the least bit engaging. Most of it is simply a dry delivery of facts or impersonal relaying of history. The book frequently revisits events or points previously made while not building or expanding on the event or fact in any way, making it very repetitive. I have read many social justice oriented books that were enthralling and engaging to read. This one isn't. Still rating it 3 stars because I feel the topic is important to address. I just wish it were written in a more engaging manner.

In no way was this book a bad book. The authors have a progressive bias; Davis and Chacon used to book to argue, as the title suggests, that no one is illegal. The book was also used to argue for a borderless nation: capitalism needs and wants borders whereas the working class doesn't and suffers because of it. The authors also demonstrate how immigration and the rapid militarization of the border isn't just a Republican issue. Both Democrats and Republicans militarized the border fully aware of the cost of human lives. The authors also drew parallels between the treatment of Mexican immigrants to the treatment of other racial and ethnic minorities within America. Even though the book was a good read, I ultimately gave it only three stars because it didn't give every matter equal attention. Some chapters were too short and others were too long. The first fifth of the book could have been significantly cut down as it was the bulk of the book's fluff. Some chapters had an excessive amount of fluff and I questioned how necessary certain details were to the book's argument. Whether or not you agree with the ultimate argument of the book, there is much to learn from it.

Immigration law and deportation have been crafted and implemented over the years not to streamline citizenship or stop immigration but to permanently fragment the working class. The comprehensive appropriation of the state apparatus of immigration control by capital has created the “illegal” worker, and entirely artificial construction whose sole purpose is to deprive the international “American” working class of its democratic rights.
p 199

Their main goal is not to “protect” the physical borders of the United States: their primary political objectives have more to do with protecting the borders of white privilege and the notions of citizenship that are being transcended by a global society –Robert Lovato
p 254

through 2002, undocumented migrants have contributed up to $463 billion to Social Security.
p 166