I recently finished reading Justin Akers Chacón’s book No One is Illegal: Fighting Racism and State Violence on the U.S. – Mexico Border. Although the book was published in 2006, I felt like it would be an appropriate read, particularly in today’s culture with the government attempting immigrant bans (which are really just thinly-veiled Muslim bans) and the whole discussion of “the wall.” The book also discussed undocumented immigrants and some of the problems they face, both while traveling here and while here.

Well, I was right. This book had A LOT of information to unpack, and so much of it was painfully relevant to today’s society. Rather than give a whole recap of the book – which I think y’all should seek out and read, even if you have to go through interlibrary loan like I did – I’m going to share a few key quotes I plucked out, all from the book and credited to the author.

“This is the demand now emanating from the streets that is sending chills through corporate America. But this time around, the new movement must resist any compromising logic that legitimizes criminalization of the undocumented, or border militarization. And the movement has to reject the logic of border enforcement. Borders serve only to divide people and reinforce the power of capital over all workers.”

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