Undocumented Consequences: Life on Both Sides of the Border

City Lights in conjunction with Duke University Press, Harvard University Press, and The Woman’s Building present

Beth C. Caldwell and Ana Raquel Minian

This event will be held at:

Woman’s Building, 3543 18th St #8, San Francisco, CA 94110

Admission is Free, seating limited, reservations required.

E-mail: staff@citylights.com to inquire about seating availability.

This event will explore the history of undocumented migration from Mexico to the United States, and the consequences of the current save of mass deportation from the U.S. to Mexico. Beth C. Caldwell and Ana Raquel Minian are two exceptional scholars working in the field. If you are an activist, policy maker, or simply interested in the current situation regarding migration, this event promises to cover important ground. There will be an open discussion after the lectures and panel talk.

Beth C. Caldwell is Professor of Legal Analysis, Writing, and Skills at Southwestern Law School and was formerly an attorney in the Los Angeles County Office of the Public Defender. She is the author of Deported Americans: Life after Deportation to Mexicopublished by Duke University Press.

Ana Raquel Minian is Assistant Professor of History and of Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity at Stanford University. She is the author of Undocumented Lives:The Untold Story of Mexican Migration published by Harvard University Press.

about Deported Americans: Life after Deportation to Mexico

When Gina was deported to Tijuana, Mexico, in 2011, she left behind her parents, siblings, and children, all of whom are U.S. citizens. Despite having once had a green card, Gina was removed from the only country she had ever known. In Deported Americans legal scholar and former public defender Beth C. Caldwell tells Gina’s story alongside those of dozens of other Dreamers, who are among the hundreds of thousands who have been deported to Mexico in recent years. Many of them had lawful status, held green cards, or served in the U.S. military. Now, they have been banished, many with no hope of lawfully returning. Having interviewed over one hundred deportees and their families, Caldwell traces deportation’s long-term consequences—such as depression, drug use, and homelessness—on both sides of the border. Showing how U.S. deportation law systematically fails to protect the rights of immigrants and their families, Caldwell challenges traditional notions of what it means to be an American and recommends legislative and judicial reforms to mitigate the injustices suffered by the millions of U.S. citizens affected by deportation.

about Undocumented Lives:The Untold Story of Mexican Migration

In the 1970s the Mexican government acted to alleviate rural unemployment by supporting the migration of able-bodied men. Millions crossed into the United States to find work that would help them survive as well as sustain their families in Mexico. They took low-level positions that few Americans wanted and sent money back to communities that depended on their support. But as U.S. authorities pursued more aggressive anti-immigrant measures, migrants found themselves caught between the economic interests of competing governments. The fruits of their labor were needed in both places, and yet neither country made them feel welcome. Ana Raquel Minian explores this unique chapter in the history of Mexican migration. Undocumented Lives draws on private letters, songs, and oral testimony to recreate the experience of circular migration, which reshaped communities in the United States and Mexico. While migrants could earn for themselves and their families in the U.S., they needed to return to Mexico to reconnect with their homes periodically. Despite crossing the border many times, they managed to belong to communities on both sides of it. Ironically, the U.S. immigration crackdown of the mid-1980s disrupted these flows, forcing many migrants to remain north of the border permanently for fear of not being able to return to work. For them, the United States became known as the jaula de oro—the cage of gold. Undocumented Lives tells the story of Mexicans who have been used and abused by the broader economic and political policies of Mexico and the United States.