Brokered boundaries

Anti-immigrant sentiment reached a fever pitch after 9/11, but its origins go back much further. Public rhetoric aimed at exposing a so-called invasion of Latino immigrants has been gaining ground for more than three decades, and fueling increasingly restrictive federal immigration policy. Accompanied by a flagging U.S. economy, record-level joblessness, bankruptcy, and income inequality, as well as waning consumer confidence, these conditions signaled one of the most hostile environments for immigrants in recent memory. In this book the authors untangle the complex political, social, and…