A Country for All: An Immigrant Manifesto by Jorge Ramos (English) Paperback Boo

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In this timely and clear-eyed look at immigration in the United States, an award-winning journalist shows that reform is desperately needed--and long overdue. He argues that the choice is between a pragmatic approach that deals with the reality of immigration, or the continuation of a cruel, capricious, and ineffective system.

FORMATPaperback LANGUAGEEnglish CONDITIONBrand New Publisher Description

For decades, fixing the United States' broken immigration system has been one of the most urgent challenges facing our country, and time and time again, politicians have passed the buck. With anti-immigrant sentiment rising around the country, and presidential elections on the horizon, it's no surprise immigration reform is on every candidate's agenda. While some candidates offer viable solutions, others perpetuate negative stereotypes and unpractical resolve. Ramos fearlessly questions political tactics, and has undoubtedly become the voice of the Latino vote in the US. It is now more important than ever to remember the role immigrants play in enriching our economy and culture, and to find a way to incorporate the millions of productive, law-abiding workers who have been drawn to the United States by the inexorable pull of freedom and economic opportunity. In this timely book, award-winning journalist Jorge Ramos makes the case for a practical and politically achievable solution to this poignant issue. Ramos argues that we have a simple choice: to take a pragmatic approach that deals with the reality of immigration, or to continue a cruel and capricious system that doesn't work, wastes billions of dollars, and which stands in direct opposition to our national principles.

Author Biography

Jorge Ramos is an Emmy Award winning journalist, syndicated columnist, and author of nine previous books. Hailed by Time magazine as one of "the 25 most influential Hispanics in the United States," Ramos anchors the nightly news and hosts a weekly political show on Univision, the country's largest Spanish-language television network. He regularly appears on ABC, CBS, NBC, and CNN to discuss immigrant rights. Born in Mexico City, Ramos has lived in the United States for more than twenty-five years.Visit the author's website at

Excerpt from Book

One THE INVISIBLES Nobody notices them. Sometimes they pass right in front of us, and we look through them as if they were not there. But they are here, and the United States would be a very different country without them. People don''t realize just how important they are to our way of life. Those who go through each day unseen are undocumented immigrants. The invisibles. They go out of their way not to be noticed by authorities or counted by census takers. It''s not always easy to distinguish exactly who is an immigration agent. In order to avoid the risk of making a mistake, they talk to no one. They stay away from the police. The invisibles keep their distance from them, even though many times they need protection from the violence of those who want to do them harm. The less they''re seen, the greater the chance that they will be left alone to work and earn their wages in peace. They live in the shadows. Being seen is a great risk and could mean deportation from the country that they have called home for years, the country where their children were born and, for many, their grandchildren too. They live in silence. They don''t often complain, though they certainly have reasons to. Complaints lead to questions. Questions lead to trouble. When we cross paths with them on the street, they quickly avert their eyes. Not being is their way of being. For them, not having an identity is their identity. Nevertheless, the United States could not function without their labor. They do this country''s most difficult, least desirable, lowest-paying work. They clean what nobody else will clean, harvest the crops no one will harvest, cook our food, and build our houses. It''s likely that you''re hardly aware of their presence in hotels and restaurants. But they''re there. They''re like ghosts. They walk without making noise and speak only when it''s absolutely essential for them to do so. They work behind the scenes, in kitchens, doing anything from washing dishes to preparing the finest cuisine. They learn quickly, and they are adept at making things--anything--because they are determined to survive. Their getting through the day gives their children opportunities they never had. They accept working conditions that no legal citizen can imagine. They don''t have the benefit of minimum wage; it''s unheard-of for most. They don''t get health insurance, do not have labor organizations to support them, and operate under the perennial threat of being unjustly fired or reported to Immigration Services and thus deported--often forced to leave children behind. They clean up after us in public bathrooms, spending as many as ten hours a day steeped in filth for virtually no money. And though they are taken advantage of by so many, they continue to believe in the dreams that brought them here. Without them our lives would be far less comfortable. They are forced to sleep in trailers, or entire families are piled into a single bedroom. Mom, dad, and the children share a single ramshackle bed, because it''s all they have. Many times they are forced to make room for an aunt or grandmother or the cousin of a neighbor''s friend who just happens to show up one day. And they do so gladly, because to them family is all-important. They take care of their own. No one else will. Despite all the negative things that are said about them--that they''re criminals and terrorists--we let them into our homes, we allow them to clean up after us, and we even let them care for our children. They are the nannies nurturing future presidents, governors, lawyers, doctors, mayors, actors, inventors, football players, Broadway and Hollywood stars. They care for the next generation so that these children''s parents can work and go out at night. They take our children to the park, they feed them, they protect them, and they care for them as if they were their own, because--as is so often the case--circumstances made it necessary for them to leave their children behind in their home country. It may be only a few hours away by plane, or a phone card or a mouse click away, but for these immigrants their children might as well be on another planet. They''re here because they were dying of hunger in their countries of origin, or because they don''t want to condemn their children to the lives of poverty that their parents and grandparents had no choice but to endure. They came here in search of opportunities that are absent in their native lands. And that is exactly why, even though many Americans don''t realize that they exist, these immigrants are the strongest, bravest, most innovative, most persistent, most courageous, most devoted individuals you will ever meet. And each is fully committed to doing whatever it takes to succeed in the United States. But the cost is great. They become invisible. And now the time has come to offer them the recognition, respect, and, eventually, the visibility they deserve: the opportunity to coexist with us. There is no better source of self-esteem than being seen, and being recognized for your labor, without feeling fear and without being forced to avert your eyes. It''s difficult to estimate exactly how many undocumented immigrants are currently living in the United States, precisely because they are undocumented. But the Pew Hispanic Center offers the most realistic statistics: nearly twelve million. The undocumented immigrant population continues to grow: In 2000, it was 8.4 million; in 2004, 10.2 million; and in 2008, 11.9 million. On average, 450,000 undocumented immigrants arrived each year between 2000 and 2004. This figure dropped to 425,000 per year between 2004 and 2008. Without a doubt, the U.S. economic crisis, coupled with the rise of anti-immigration measures, has had an impact on the number of people who are coming here for work. Increasingly, police across the country are being forced to act not only as local law enforcement but also as immigration agents. And there is a growing effort to criminalize the undocumented. The 1996 passage of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act increased the reasons for deportation, increased the penalties for immigrants found in the United States without legal documentation, and generally made the life of undocumented workers, who beyond being undocumented are not criminals, much more difficult. Instead of simply calling for the arrest and deportation of undocumented workers, this act encouraged that they be charged with additional crimes such as falsifying documents, making their already fragile legal situation even more difficult. This can mean months and even years in prison before they are actually deported back to the countries of their birth. Not only does this cause a great deal of suffering for the immigrants themselves, but prosecuting and jailing them costs the United States an untold amount of money. Every year it gets harder to find work and becomes more likely that families will be torn apart, yet they continue to come. Even with the reduced numbers of undocumented immigrants, for every one deported out of the United States, at least one more is entering. What sort of immigration policy is this? It could be described many ways, but efficient and inexpensive are not among them. On average, one undocumented immigrant enters the country every minute. One per minute. Hunger is stronger than fear. Undocumented immigration follows the simple economic relationship between supply and demand. As long as unemployment remains high and pay remains low in Mexico, Latin America, and developing countries throughout the world and work continues to be available in the United States, where one can earn five dollars an hour rather than five dollars a day, undocumented immigration will continue to be a problem. The vast majority--four out of five--of undocumented immigrants leave Latin America for the United States. And out of the 9.6 million undocumented Latinos estimated to be in the United States in March of 2008, 7 million were from Mexico. Fifty-nine percent of all undocumented immigrants are from Mexico, 22 percent are from other Latin American nations, 12 percent are from Asia, 4 percent come from Europe and Canada, and the remaining 4 percent are from Africa and other areas around the globe. Clearly, U.S. immigration policy is not working. According to the Pew Hispanic Center, undocumented immigrants represented one-third of the roughly 39 million foreign-born people living in the United States in 2008. Their numbers are growing at a prodigious rate, with an increase of 5.3 million since the year 2000. We are so accustomed to turning a blind eye to these workers that even Michael Chertoff, the Homeland Security secretary under George W. Bush and the man responsible for administering U.S. immigration policy, failed to realize that undocumented immigrants were working in his own home. According to a 2008 report by the Washington Post, five undocumented workers were employed by the service that cleaned Secretary Chertoff''s house in Maryland for four years.3 He paid $185 for their services every other week for four years. Secret Service agents regularly reviewed the cleaning company''s employees'' identification and never reported any problems. This issue came to light only when U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents discovered that the owner of the business had not properly verified his employees'' documentation, nor had

Details ISBN0307475549 Short Title COUNTRY FOR ALL Series Vintage Language English ISBN-10 0307475549 ISBN-13 9780307475541 Media Book Format Paperback Translator Ezra E. Fitz Residence Miami, FL, US Birth 1958 Year 2010 Publication Date 2010-06-29 Subtitle An Immigrant Manifesto Country of Publication United States Place of Publication New York AU Release Date 2010-06-29 NZ Release Date 2010-06-29 US Release Date 2010-06-29 UK Release Date 2010-06-29 Author Jorge Ramos Pages 176 Publisher Random House USA Inc Imprint Vintage Books DEWEY 342.730873 Audience General We've got this

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