Abstract
Illegal, Alien, or Immigrant: The Politics of Immigration Reform by Lina Newton offers a comprehensive analysis of the rhetorical strategies used by legislators in crafting immigration reform over the past few decades. This study of rhetoric reveals the biases within immigration policies and debates, and illuminates how rhetoric has shaped and shifted the tone and focus of immigration reform. While other studies may draw similar conclusions, the format of Illegal, Alien, or Immigrant makes it unique. In comparing the narratives that were developed during the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) and the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRAIRA) debates, Newton simultaneously tests the social construction of target population theory, while challenging the pervasive narratives that have dominated immigration debate in the last 30 years. According to social construction of target population theorists, Anne Schneider and Helen Ingram, this theory argues that social constructions influence the policy agenda, the selection of policy tools, and the rationales that legitimate policy choices.
Newton devotes the heart of her book to comparing immigration narratives constructed in the debates of the 1986 IRCA and the 1996 IIRAIRA. By using the Schneider–Ingram framework to analyze the rhetoric of the debate and outcomes of these policies, Newton reveals that the Schneider and Ingram theory is an accurate predictor of the policy tools that will be used given the type of narrative portrayal of the legislation’s target group(s).
Within the first few pages of the text, Newton draws the reader’s attention to the dichotomous perspective that the United States holds about immigrants. This notion, that immigrants play the role of both villains and heroes in the national narrative of the United States, arises repeatedly throughout the text. This dichotomy has led to the construction of what Newton calls the “right kind of immigrant,” which is almost exclusively characterized by someone of European ancestry. While Whites represent the ideal and heroic immigrants in U.S. history, there exists a construction of the undesirable immigrant.
In the opening chapter of Illegal, Alien, or Immigrant, Newton provides a brief overview of the evolution of immigration policy. She traces the history of immigration reform from policies that were overtly exclusionary on the basis of race, gender, and national origin, to more modern policies that intend to reunite families. A particularly important and counterintuitive characteristic of immigration policy change that this text highlights is that reform occurs without “significant alteration in scientific knowledge about the social phenomenon of illegal immigration, why the problem occurs, or why it persists” (p. 9). Without a significant change in understanding about immigration, Newton suggests that the politics of this subject are based almost entirely upon emotional appeal. As she later explains, emotional appeals play upon the fears and insecurities of legislators and the public to gain support. With such emotionally charged myth-based arguments being the norm for immigration policy, Newton proposes the creation of a counter-narrative as an effective tool to shift the social construction of immigrants, thereby creating new reform opportunities.
To explain why the need for immigration reform has arisen, Newton points to the spread of different causal narratives. She then artfully draws a comparison between the causal narratives of two major immigration reform policies, IRCA and IIRAIRA. Newton offers the reader valuable insight into how the specific context of the U.S. economy and the perceived cause(s) of immigration shaped the content of these two pieces of legislation. Although the rhetoric of these two policy debates included narratives that framed immigrants as criminals, Newton explains that the crucial distinction between them is that the discussion of IRCA—unlike that of IIRAIRA—featured some narratives and counter-narratives that emphasized the humanity of immigrants and how they contribute to the economic success of the nation. In this way, she articulates that the social constructions of immigrants are not fixed and can be challenged by an appropriate counter-narrative. Narratives can change public opinion toward immigrants, which allows policymakers to consider a wider range of options in crafting immigration reform policy.
While Newton herself, staying true to academic objectivity, does not pass judgment on the immigration policies that she analyzes, her book does offer future immigration reform advocates the knowledge they need to challenge negative narratives of immigrants. By identifying how the social construction of immigrants influences the policy tools that are used by legislators, Newton impresses upon her reader that negative constructs are the greatest barrier to lasting policy change. For, as Newton states in the concluding line of Alien, Illegal, or Immigrant, “those immigrants who seek permanence and protection of their stake in the United States, it is likely that their political advancement and participation will be stymied if political activity persistently entails challenging a negative construction” (p. 170).
The core strengths of the book lie in its structure and multidisciplinary approach to understanding immigration politics. The extent of Newton’s analysis of the primary documentation of congressional and house debates regarding immigration policy is unparalleled. In a society where overt racism and nativism are taboo, Newton’s analysis of political rhetoric enlightens her audience by demonstrating the more subtle ways that immigration policy is racialized, or otherwise covertly discriminatory. She impresses upon the reader that to gain a more holistic understanding of what influences immigration reform; to learn how, why, and which immigrants are considered to contribute to or selfishly drain the resources of U.S. society; and to “understand why immigration politics is prone to degenerative policymaking requires an exploration of how assumptions about class, gender, and national origin combine with discussions of status to delineate which people are the most problematic for the nation” (p. 136).
The principal weakness of this text can be found in Newton’s explanation of what contextual factors influence immigration policy. While she describes, at length, the role of the state of the U.S. economy in influencing public opinion about immigration reform, Newton could have elaborated further on the impact of American foreign policy on the narratives of immigration policy. To be fair, Newton does briefly mention the fear that legislators had about the spread of socialism and communism in Central and South America, but she does not explain how American involvement in the financial and military backing of Latin American dictatorships influenced immigration policies, particularly those regarding the admittance of refugees. Although there are certainly gaps in the contextualization of Newton’s analysis, Illegal, Alien, or Immigrant is a significant contribution to the literature on immigration policy, and a vital read for all those studying, advocating for, and constructing immigration reform.