Illegal Immigration: A Reference Handbook

Illegal Immigration: A Reference Handbook examines the flow of unauthorized immigration to the United States, largely since 1970, and the policy attempts to grapple with this vexing political issue. It documents the unanticipated consequences of legal immigration policy and shows how gaps and failures in those laws and in policy implementation have fed the unauthorized immigration flood. It discusses how immigration policy both influences and reacts to the flow of immigration, whether legal or unauthorized. It emphasizes the struggle among competing interests in U.S. politics and society to determine the nature and content of illegal immigration policy. Finally, it examines the issue within the context of increasing globalization: how world wide events, agreements, and organizations and the effects of policy enacted by other nations influence the illegal immigration problem for U.S. domestic policy-making.