Given the high visibility in the media of overcrowding and mistreatment at the border, child separation, attempts to eliminate DACA (deferred action for childhood arrivals), and Congress's failure to enact immigration reform, it's not surprising that undocumented immigration is getting a lot of attention in the book world. Villavicencio's account of the lives of the undocumented stands out for her deep connections to the immigrant communities that she writes about.
The Undocumented Americans is part personal narrative and part journalism. Villavicencio interweaves her own story of being undocumented with the stories of the undocumented immigrants that she has spoken to. The book has a loose narrative arc divided according to situations - exploited labor cleaning up after Hurricane Katrina, 9/11, being locked out of the healthcare system, and growing old and being unable to retire despite spending years paying into social security. Each sections reveals how much undocumented labor has propped up the economy and individual communities alongside how much these workers have been exploited in return.
Like Jose Antonio Vargas and Reyna Grande, Villavicencio's advocacy is bound up with her own story of being undocumented. She focuses on undocumented Latinx immigrants, to whose stories she has been granted access through her connections, persistence, and support of the community. She is at turns angry, saddened, and inspired by what she hears, taking an intense personal interest in each person she talks to and drawing parallels to her own struggles. This is a powerful book that delves into the repercussions of a broken immigration system.I received an arc of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
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