Opening the Floodgates: Why America Needs to Rethink its Borders and Immigration Laws

by Kevin R. Johnson

Overview

Seeking to re-imagine the meaning and significance of the international border, Opening the Floodgates makes a case for eliminating the border as a legal construct that impedes the movement of people into this country.
Open migration policies deserve fuller analysis, as evidenced by President Barack Obama’s pledge to make immigration reform a priority. Kevin R. Johnson offers an alternative vision of how U.S. borders might be reconfigured, grounded in moral, economic, and policy arguments for open borders. Importantly, liberalizing migration through an open borders policy would recognize that the enforcement of closed borders cannot stifle the strong, perhaps irresistible, economic, social, and political pressures that fuel international migration.
Controversially, Johnson suggests that open borders are entirely consistent with efforts to prevent terrorism that have dominated immigration enforcement since the events of September 11, 2001. More liberal migration, he suggests, would allow for full attention to be paid to the true dangers to public safety and national security.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780814743096
Publisher:	New York University Press
Publication date:	12/01/2009
Series:	Critical America , #80
Pages:	304
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Kevin R. Johnson is Mabie-Apallas Professor of Public Interest Law and Chicano/a Studies at the University of California Davis. His books include Mixed Race America and the Law: A Reader (NYU Press, 2002) and The “Huddled Masses” Myth: Immigration and Civil Rights.

Table of Contents

Preface and Acknowledgments vii

1 A Call for Truly Comprehensive Immigration Reform 1

2 A Brief History of U.S. Immigration Law and Enforcement 45

3 Bordering on the Immoral: The Moral Consequences of the Current System of Immigration Regulation 87

4 The Economic Benefits of Liberal Migration of Labor Across Borders 131

5 Why Open Borders Are Good for All Americans 168

6 The Inevitability of Permeable Borders 200

Notes 213

Index 275

About the Author 289

Editorial Reviews

"Finally, an unflinching response to immigration alarmists! This brilliant, challenging book outlines an immigration proposal based on the reality that migration flows are not regulated by border enforcement but by social, economic, and political pressures."

Mary Romero

"A highly readable argument for more permeable borders. . . Johnson offers a comprehensive case for more open borders, responds to a few important criticisms effectively, and presents some thoughtful arguments along the way."

Choice

"No book could be more timely than Opening the Floodgates. . . . [Johnson] makes a convincing argument for the policy of open borders, if not with the world, then within North America. . . . This book encourages a broader discussion that is currently circulating in American politics, one that looks to the foundations of immigration policy and imagines a major overhaul."

Law and Politics Book Review