Recent changes in deportation policy and practice have harmed the economic and social lives of undocumented immigrants in the U.S. and intensified the atmosphere of racism that surrounds immigrants from Latin America.

Tanya Golash-Boza, Associate Professor of Sociology at U.C. Merced, will speak on this subject, with a discussion to follow.  

The Peace and Social Justice Committee invites you and your friends and families to hear Prof. Golash-Boza describe how the imiigration policies under George Bush and Barack Obama have caused a massive increase in the numbers of undocumented workers in detention centers and their subsequent deportation.  In 2001, the number deported was 186,000; in 2012 it was 409,849.  The number of immigrants held in detention increased from about 190,000 in 2005 to just under 400,000 in 2010.  Those masses of workers are about 76% Latino and a great majority (73% in 2008) have families who are residents or U.S. citizens.  Their arrest, detention and departation leads to disruption of family life, loss of income, and impoverishment, and provides an excuse for racist treatment by police, in employment, and in social services.

Ms. Golash-Boza is the author of Due Process Denied (2012), which describes how and why non-citizens in the United States ahve been detained and deported for minor crimes, without regard for constitutional limits on disproportionate punishment, and Immigration Nation (2012), which provides a critical analysis of the impact that U.S. immigration policy has on human rights.  She has written for scholarly journals and popular magazines and newspapers, such as The Nation and Counterpunch.  Her website is radprof.weebly.com.

For more information, contact Peggy Rhoads.