The Devil's Highway Summary

and Mexico by providing a wealth of information on many different aspects on it. This book was written to cater to a wide and differing audience by providing so much information for different people to pick up on. This information can make it difficult to read the full book, but the author’s purpose is not for everyone to read the full book and comprehend everything. Her book allows for very detailed information to be available on everything imaginable that a person could want to know about the border. This lets people pick and choose the important information to them that they would like to read about and retain.

Chavez examines the assumptions made by the media and the public by drawing in sources like magazine articles and illustrations to provide the audience with exactly how these accusations are made and shared with the public. Chavez questions what it means and what it takes to be considered an American citizen and how Latinos, particularly Mexicans, have many things stacked up against. There are no doubts that the number of undocumented immigrants has steadily increased each year. Leo R. Chavez argues that because of the rise in the numbers, it makes it easier for the media to assume that undocumented immigrants, particularly Mexicans, are a threat to our nation through an invasion. Chavez’s idea of a Mexican reconquest is developed through something he calls the Quebec model.

It all starts with the United States passing the Immigration Act of 1907, which was a law that “required all immigrants entering the United States to pass through an official port of entry, submit themselves to inspection, and receive official authorization to legally enter the United States” (Hernandez pg 1). The United States quickly became a nation severely divided over the issues of illegal immigration. In May of 1924 the border patrol was created to enforce immigration laws and restrictions by preventing illegal border crossings and policing the borderland regions. Despite many possible subjects or ‘suspects’ of illegal immigration, such as Asians, Europeans, and prostitutes, the U.S border patrol almost exclusively focused on Mexican immigrant workers. Then in the 1940s, the focus of the U.S border patrol shifted to the southern border.

Gutierrez explains how the annexation of the Southwest after 1848 and the subsequent marginalization of Mexican Americans led to the forging of a collective ethnic identity that enabled the population to cope with the contradictory messages received from United States society. Large influxes of Mexican immigrants to the United States between 1890 and 1920, however, altered this balance. Consequently, Mexican Americans developed ambivalent attitudes towards this wave of immigration, fearing that the immigrants represented an economic threat. The conflict that emerged during this period set the stage for Mexican/Mexican-American relations for years to

In their work, both George J. Sanchez and Kelly Lytle Hernandez discuss race as well as the black-white paradigm in which Latinos do not have a solid place. In Race, Nation, and Culture in Recent Immigration Studies, Sanchez argues that the future of immigration history depends on the field’s ability to incorporate insights of race, nation, and culture that develop. Meanwhile, in Migra!: A History of the U.S. Border Patrol, Lytle Hernandez discusses how the border is controlled, race, and the racialization of migration control. They both cite past immigration laws in their work and discuss the experiences of whites, blacks, and Mexicans in the United States.

Humans rarely change their ways; they stay in their own worlds and always interact with the same types of people. Unfortunately, this habit often creates unseen barriers that divide and alienate human beings from one another. In Luis Alberto Urrea’s book The Devil’s Highway, Urrea provides a personal perspective to immigration by telling the story of 26 illegal immigrants, known as the Wellton 26, who are abandoned as they cross the Mexico-U.S. border. Through their story, Urrea proves there are invisible borders among people that create prejudice, such as language, ethnicity, and economic status. By reading The Devil’s Highway, it is clear that these barriers must be broken down to ensure harmony within society.

Within the past one and a half centuries, ever since the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848, it allowed the United States to take a large portion of land. Since then, many Mexicans have been trying to emigrate themselves over to America, leaving behind their homelands. Mexican immigration in the early 1900 's was a huge issue that impacted the United State, in areas such as urban population, employment and many other ways. The mass number of Mexican immigrant 's that migrated to the United States from Mexico was at nearly half million in between the years of 1920 and 1929. Mexicans left their native land and moved to the United States not only to achieve financial prosperity, but to get out of the chaotic environment that Mexico was in at

These strategies work on the rhetorical appeals ethos and pathos. Exemplification appeals to pathos by making the audience feel sympathy for the immigrants for what they give up, and authority figures appeal to ethos by giving credibility to an expert, by supporting the argument through strong facts. In this essay, I plan to explore how these rhetorical strategies act on their respective appeals, how this is used to strengthen the Suarez-Orozco’s argument to persuade their audience, as well as explore other sources that may support this claim. One of the key strategies used by the Suarez-Orozcos, was the use of exemplification. An assumption they make is that their audience is a group of Americans who haven’t heard the stories of immigrants and the risks they take, but instead just assume they know the story.

In “The Perpetual Border Battle,” which first publishes on The National Interest, Mark Krikotian pokes New York Times’ daydream on solving illegal immigration issues of the United States. Krikotian claims that, although the number of illegal immigrants is decline during the following years, the government of the United States still lack a comprehensive policy to erase the border battle from tomorrow’s papers. From his perspective, the shrunk of total illegal immigrant number is temporally. It is not solved by policy but caused by three other factors: weakened economy, strengthened enforcement, and movements in Mexico. For economic recession, Krikotian argues it as a direct cause of immigrants’ outflow.

“The virtual personas of Latino immigrants (represented as a threat to the nation) make the authority that has accumulated for real immigrants in their role as workers and consumers vanish” (Chavez 47). In the public eye Latinos are depicted as noncompliant and dangerous citizens and noncitizens of the United States. “The virtual lives of ‘Mexicans,’ ‘Chicanos,’ ‘illegal aliens,’ and ‘immigrants’ become abstractions and representations that stand in the place of real lives” (Chavez 47). It is depressing to understand that the majority of the United States strictly sees Latinos as these distorted images. At the end of the day each individual’s life matters, we all need to become more compassionate for one another.

The border between the United States and Mexico is nearly 2,000 miles long. Over the past few years, the United States had form a policy called Secure Fence Act to prevent drug sellers and terrorists out of America (Clifford). The act constructed fences to cover about one third of the border between Mexico and America along California, New Mexico, Texas and so on. Unfortunately, there were less environmental considerations when making the policy. The Los Angeles Times reported that in additional to build the fences, the United States government has been eluded over thirty environmental and cultural laws (Campbell).

Migrant farm workers are individuals who enter the United State or any other country illegally or legally to work in agriculture farms. Most of these farm workers are temporary and some are seasonal workers. There are many issues and challenges facing migrant workers. Migrant farm workers must survive many challenging conditions so that American can have the best selection of all the fresh foods found in farms. My grandfather was an immigrant that migrated from Yemen in 1970 and was working in a farm in Fresno CA.

According to a study conducted by National Hispanic Media Coalition shows that people who watch entertainment or news programs about Latinos that convey negative images hold the most unfavorable and hostile views” towards them. The study also showed that even the people who are inclined “to hold positive views about Hispanics are adversely influenced when exposed to negative media images.” In addition to this we rarely see Latinos playing a leading role in a film or tv show where we can see them being portrayed positively and even though there are character who are beginning to break the stereotypes there is still a long

The number of immigrant to America reached 1.25 million and had a big tendency to increase. Americans began to doubt the government’s open door policy. Under pressure of the public, Immigration Act was passed on February 1917. Why American started feeling “angry” toward those new immigrants? The answers are: they were often poor; many of them were illiterate and had a big different cultural and religious background.

It is part of human nature to strive to go further, achieve more and become a better person. Many people nowadays decide to leave their country in search for a better life in order to provide positive changes for their future, and that is the main reason as to why people migrate. Reasons for immigration can include lack of educational opportunities, the standard of living is not being high enough, or the low value of wages. Immigration has become a major part of life in the 20th century, and many people see America as the land of freedom, countless opportunities and thus they choose to migrate to the United States whether as naturalized citizens, legal permanent residents, refugees, international students, or even undocumented immigrants. The