Wetback Nation - Peter Laufer

Wetback Nation:

The Case for Opening the Mexican-American Border.

By Peter Laufer. Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, Publisher, 2006. $14.95 Paper 304 pp ISBN: 978-1-56663-670-1 http://www.ivanrdee.com/

Well, here’s a solution to border concerns, not so simply stated since U.S. Senator Sam Houston recommended to the Senate that the U.S. establish a “protectorate” over Northern Mexico.

Peter Laufer, originally a New Yorker but reared, educated and now practicing in California as a journalist, suggests that we ignore the old restrictions implied by traditional definitions of border. Free movement, it’s called.

Among Laufer’s other books are Made in Mexico, A Question of Consent, and Iron Curtain Rising.

Even Robert E. Lee seemed to disapprove of Houston’s protectorate idea, preferring to praise the U.S. Constitution. And this similarly “outrageous” proposal can evoke quick denunciation. Laufer’s case is based on his description of America’s “desperation” in our need for the workers, and it is buttressed by the human rights of the immigrants to be un-subjected to abuses. Among his documentation of many attitudes on the matter, poor Mexican economic conditions, tragic personal events, border guard incidents, and characterization of the recent border “militias” as vigilantes and Nazis, are also accounts of older history of border affairs and a lingering consideration of the concept of borders, both the U.S-Mexican and others around the world. Most of the material may be California based, but some Texana is included, such as the Victoria truck smuggling deaths.

In his final “Epilogue: A Practical Blueprint for Normalizing the Border” Laufer declares that border enforcement is unworkable and that both an autonomous zone and border militarization are politically impossible. Besides, the immigrants will find a way to cross. He offers the option of legalizing crossing freely and thereby solving a myriad other problems. Laufer acknowledges that “I’m prejudiced to favor Mexico and Mexicans,” and he explains that by his rearing in California’s Mexican culture.

The book could be a good one to introduce into book discussion groups.