Immigration Outside the Law

In Immigration Outside the Law, acclaimed immigration law expert Hiroshi Motomura, addresses the fraught issue of illegal immigration to the United States, which has become one of the most controversial political and social issues in contemporary America. The book revolves around two basic questions. First, what explains today's intense disagreements about immigration outside the law? And second, what should we as a nation do about it? After beginning the book with a discussion of a landmark Supreme Court case--Plyler v. Doe (1982), which held that children have a constitutional right to attend public elementary and secondary schools even if they are in the United States unlawfully--he offers a reasoned and a careful discussion of what illegal immigration actually is and how the state (federal, state, and local) deal with it. He then looks at the ways in which unauthorized immigrants are becoming part of American society. In the final section of the book, Motomura focuses on durable and politically viable solutions to the problem in three public policy areas: international economic development, domestic economic policy, and educational policy.