The Shadow of the Wall: Violence and Migration on the U.S.-Mexico Border - Softcover

"The authors use a unique data set and multimethod approach to document the criminalization of migration and demonstrate the futility of deportation as a tool for deterrence. This book should energize activists, inspire academic researchers, and challenge policy-makers to rethink this failed approach."--Wayne A. Cornelius, Director Emeritus, Mexican Migration Field Research and Training Program, University of California, San Diego "This book shows how U.S. immigration policy has changed over the years and generated unintended, undesirable outcomes: tearing families apart, fueling violence, and failing to keep deported unauthorized immigrants from attempting to immigrate anew."--Susan Eva Eckstein, Boston University

Mass deportation is at the forefront of political discourse in the United States. The Shadow of the Wall shows in tangible ways the migration experiences of hundreds of people, including their encounters with U.S. Border Patrol, cartels, detention facilities, and the deportation process. Deportees reveal in their heartwrenching stories the power of family separation and reunification and the cost of criminalization, and they call into question assumptions about human rights and federal policies. The authors analyze data from the Migrant Border Crossing Study (MBCS), a mixed-methods, binational research project that offers socially relevant, rigorous social science about migration, immigration enforcement, and violence on the border. Using information gathered from more than 1,600 post-deportation surveys, this volume examines the different faces of violence and migration along the Arizona-Sonora border and shows that deportees are highly connected to the United States and will stop at nothing to return to their families. The Shadow of the Wall underscores the unintended social consequences of increased border enforcement, immigrant criminalization, and deportation along the U.S.-Mexico border. Contributors: Howard Campbell, Josiah Heyman, Alison Elizabeth Lee, Daniel E. Martinez, Ricardo Martinez-Schuldt, Jeremy Slack, Prescott L. Vandervoet, Matthew Ward, Scott Whiteford, Murphy Woodhouse.