The Devil's Highway Chapter Summary

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Immigration and crime can often time combine due to the laws that are continuously created. The membership theory presented by Juliet Stumpf in chapter 2 of Governing Immigration Through Crime. Membership theory proposes that a person’s rights and privileges are only obtainable to those who are a part of a social contract with the government (Dowling & Inda, 2013, p. 60). It is believed that positive actions can occur when this takes place. Now, the membership theory uses two tools of the sovereign state for this to be achieved: the power to punish and the power to express moral condemnation (Dowling & Inda,2013, p. 60). When applying this belief to immigration law, legal and illegal have stringent explanations between them. As stated …show more content…

The book allowed for the readers to place themselves in the shoes of the Mexican migrants by painting a picture of the hardships they face on their journey to having a better life. However, though the book allows the reader to submerge themselves in the migrants’ perspective, it does not take into account the American attitude regarding the recent influx of Mexican migrants but only alludes to the negative commentary and focus on the harsh moderations of Border Patrol, who were represented as “tonks” in the book. Urrea used this reference to express the actions or shall I say forces border patrol applied when taunting and causing harm to the migrants along their journey. Even though Urrea showed Border Patrol in a negative light, he referenced the formation of BORSTAR, which helped migrants in distress. For instance, he made a note of the rescue of the Wellton 26 and the massive forces that were used to save …show more content…

Urrea wanted to paint these migrants in a manner that no one has ever done before. He wanted to show readers that these migrants though faced with hardships are just like you, they are striving for a better life and will do whatever it takes to reach their goal even if it means giving money and trusting a coyote to help them cross the border. Earlier in the paper, I discussed how Urrea showed that migrants are beneficial for the U.S. economy and do not weaken the economy, that many falsely assume but what he failed to do was give credibility to his claims. Throughout the book, he touched basis on how these migrants can play a decisive role in our economy, but he did not have the support to back him up or lacked credible sources. In turn, this created a bias solely based on heresy compared to that of Dowling and Inda for Governing Immigration Through

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