Undocumented: How Immigration Became Illegal

By Aviva Chomsky

Book Overview

A longtime immigration activist explores what it means to be an undocumented American in this "impassioned and well-reported case for change" (New York Times).

In this illuminating work, immigrant rights activist Aviva Chomsky shows how "illegality" and "undocumentedness" are concepts that were created to exclude and exploit. With a focus on US policy, she probes how people, especially Mexican and Central Americans, have been assigned this status--and to what ends.

Blending history with human drama, Chomsky explores what it means to be undocumented in a legal, social, economic, and historical context. The result is a powerful testament of the complex, contradictory, and ever-shifting nature of status in America.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 080702628X
• ISBN13: 9780807026281
• Release Date: July 2026
• Publisher: Beacon Press
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 1.25 lbs.