Take a photo of a barcode or cover
nuhafariha 's review for:
Thank you to BookBaby and NetGalley for the Advanced Reader's Copy!
Available July 21st 2020.
A short monologue, "Illegal" contains the ponderings of a man at the pinnacle of his career pontificating about the harrowing journey he had to take to make it in America. Being a fellow immigrant, I empathize deeply with Laz Ayala's story. I know how difficult even filling out the basic visa applications can be, how rigid the renewal schedules are. However, underlying this extraordinary journey, is a sense of "pulling yourself up by the bootstraps" mentality, a "if I can do it, so can you" mentality which I want to parse out. It's not that these mentalities are bad, they certainly have their value in motivating the population. It's that an immigrant life, or a human life, should not have to be equal to capital to be worthwhile of entry.
At one point, Ayala states, "Of course there should be a lawful immigration system." Personally, I disagree. Lawful for who? As we clearly see in the US today, the law only applies and works for a certain population and disadvantages all others. What is the purpose of establishing these clear borders? What is the purpose of then enforcing these boundaries at the cost of human lives? Can there ever be a lawful immigration system? What would it look like? Who would be the enforcers and how can we breakdown the power differential between the enforcer and the enforcee, between the border patrol and the immigrant, between the UCIS worker and the refugee begging at his door? These are questions I wish Ayala delved into, though perhaps they are slightly outside of the scope of the book.
Available July 21st 2020.
A short monologue, "Illegal" contains the ponderings of a man at the pinnacle of his career pontificating about the harrowing journey he had to take to make it in America. Being a fellow immigrant, I empathize deeply with Laz Ayala's story. I know how difficult even filling out the basic visa applications can be, how rigid the renewal schedules are. However, underlying this extraordinary journey, is a sense of "pulling yourself up by the bootstraps" mentality, a "if I can do it, so can you" mentality which I want to parse out. It's not that these mentalities are bad, they certainly have their value in motivating the population. It's that an immigrant life, or a human life, should not have to be equal to capital to be worthwhile of entry.
At one point, Ayala states, "Of course there should be a lawful immigration system." Personally, I disagree. Lawful for who? As we clearly see in the US today, the law only applies and works for a certain population and disadvantages all others. What is the purpose of establishing these clear borders? What is the purpose of then enforcing these boundaries at the cost of human lives? Can there ever be a lawful immigration system? What would it look like? Who would be the enforcers and how can we breakdown the power differential between the enforcer and the enforcee, between the border patrol and the immigrant, between the UCIS worker and the refugee begging at his door? These are questions I wish Ayala delved into, though perhaps they are slightly outside of the scope of the book.