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Unsettling

The El Paso Massacre, Resurgent White Nationalism, and the US-Mexico Border

Gilberto Rosas

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Analyzes how border and immigration enforcement culminated in a mass shooting in El Paso, Texas.

On August 3, 2019, a far-right extremist committed a deadly mass shooting at a major shopping center in El Paso, Texas, a city on the border of the United States and Mexico. In Unsettling, Gilberto Rosas situates this devastating shooting as the latest unsettling consequence of our border crisis and currents of deeply rooted white nationalism embedded in the United States.

Tracing strict immigration policies and inhumane border treatment from the Clinton era through Democratic and Republican...

Analyzes how border and immigration enforcement culminated in a mass shooting in El Paso, Texas.

On August 3, 2019, a far-right extremist committed a deadly mass shooting at a major shopping center in El Paso, Texas, a city on the border of the United States and Mexico. In Unsettling, Gilberto Rosas situates this devastating shooting as the latest unsettling consequence of our border crisis and currents of deeply rooted white nationalism embedded in the United States.

Tracing strict immigration policies and inhumane border treatment from the Clinton era through Democratic and Republican administrations alike, Rosas shows how the rhetoric around these policies helped lead to the Trump administration's brutal crackdown on migration—and the massacre in El Paso. Rosas draws on poignant stories and compelling testimonies from workers in immigrant justice organizations, federal public defenders, immigration attorneys, and human rights activists to document the cruelties and indignities inflicted on border crossers.

Borders, as sites of crossings and spaces long inhabited by marginalized populations, generate deep anxiety across much of the contemporary world. Rosas demonstrates how the Trump administration amplified and weaponized immigration and border policy, including family separation, torture, and murder. None of this dehumanization and violence was inevitable, however. The border zone in El Paso (which translates to "the Pass") was once a very different place, one marked by frequent and inconsequential crossings to and from both sides—and with more humane immigration policies, it could become that once again.

Reviews

Reviews

Rosas unpacks 30 years of divisive border rhetoric, ever-punishing immigration enforcement, and inhumane treatment at the border

Gilberto Rosas situates this devastating shooting as the latest disturbing consequence of our border crisis and the currents of a deeply rooted white nationalism that is embedded in the United States.

Unsettling powerfully illustrates the cruelty of the immigration enforcement system on the US-Mexico border during the Trump administration. Rosas's personal connection to El Paso, to the border, and to the violence he documents is a major strength of a book that is as deeply emotional as it is intellectual.

This book offers a searing analysis of life on and around the southern border today.

About

Book Details

Publication Date
Status
Available
Trim Size
6
x
9
Pages
296
ISBN
9781421446165
Illustration Description
2 b&w photos
Table of Contents

Acknowledgements
Introduction
Kindling
Interlude: White Supremacy in El Paso before August 3, 2019 by Diana Martinez
The Lloronx
Witnessing Torture
Witnessing in Brown
Grief and Border Crossing Rage
On the

Acknowledgements
Introduction
Kindling
Interlude: White Supremacy in El Paso before August 3, 2019 by Diana Martinez
The Lloronx
Witnessing Torture
Witnessing in Brown
Grief and Border Crossing Rage
On the Banality of Crossing
Selected Interview and Testimonies
Virginia Raymond Interview
Statement of Barbara Hines, JD
Declaration of Luis H. Zayas, PhD
Father Robert Mosher Interview
Bibliography

Author Bio
Gilberto Rosas
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Gilberto Rosas

Gilberto Rosas (CHAMPAIGN, IL) is an associate professor of anthropology and Latina/o studies at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He is the author of Barrio Libre: Criminalizing States and Delinquent Refusals of the New Frontier.