Book Review

Book Review

The book, Immigration Nation, is written by Tanya Maria Golash-Boza and has proven to be one of the widely read and appreciated books in the domain of political science. The book primarily provides the readers with a critical analysis of the impact of immigration policy of United Sates on the context of human rights. Subsequent to the tragic incident of 9/11, the Americans were safeguarded by the Department of Homeland Security from any more upcoming threat and dangers of the attacks by terrorist. However, the communities, citizens and families bore the costs of this protection along with a tremendous increases in the enforcement of immigration law policies; for instance, there has been an increase in the incidents of detentions, raids, and deportations by almost six-fold within last team years or so. Though, the immigration policy of United States holds the family reunification as its basic core component officially, the same policies are usually responsible for tearing the well established families apart. This debate has always been framed by the politicians and pundits with regards to the economic and security needs, however, the same debate has been addressed by Tanya Maria Golash-Boza with keeping the families and human rights of the migrants as the primary focus of here critical analyses.

Tanya Maria Golash-Boza, in her book, facilitates the readers with a thorough and complete summary regarding the present situation that is faced by the immigrants in the US especially with reference to its dimensions, origin and the design and development of the policy of immigration. She presents the argument that there are around 11 million people who are living undocumented in the United States, and the country has a rate of deportation standing at 3% every year (p.83). She mentions that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) does not, at all, possess any capability to have any sort of impact on this negative phenomenon, and it fails to understand that the chosen and designed actions of intimidation costs them 50.5 billion dollars (p.48) under the excuse of maintaining national security; these costs are borne by the communities, families, and society of the United States.

The author examines the surge, in particular, that has occurred in the in the immigration laws and their interior enforcement and captures the heights that detentions and raids have taken. According to her the tough securities imposed on the border makes it even tougher for the reunification of the families and this fact penalizes the very nature of the policies of immigration that have been developed to serve the United States. This is because, according to Tanya, these actions are likely to create, and are creating, 'an unstable tension between the human rights and citizenship rights' (p.6).

The additional incorporation of the human rights perspective, in the Immigration Nation, is made into the critical analysis that has been provided throughout the book. The writer mentions that the human rights approach basically makes the presumption regarding the dignity and universal equality that all the people lives ...