No Justice in the Shadows

Each year in the United States, 400,000 people are arrested, detained, and deported, trapped in what leading immigrant rights activist and lawyer Alina Das calls the 'deportation machine.' They are people who politicians like President Trump would have us believe are 'bad hombres.' But while we're debating border walls, travel bans, child detention, and quotas, these individuals are banished from their homes, their families, and their communities, and by a country that celebrates itself as a 'nation of immigrants.'As Das explains in her urgent book, we cannot break the pattern of the abuse and marginalization of immigrants in the U.S. until we understand fully how the system works. And in this country, that means understanding how racism and criminalization intersect to doubly punish communities of color. Das traces the history of immigration policy, showing how its evolution has always been linked to racist exclusion. Combining these systems exacerbates the flaws in both-and when 1 in 3 Americans has a criminal record, millions are caught in the crosshairs. Das weaves the history of immigration with moving narratives of those who have been caught up in the deportation machine, including Aba, a hardworking mother of four young children; Ely, a survivor of the crack epidemic in the 1980s; and Alonso, a DACA recipient. In deconstructing the 'criminal alien' narrative, No Justice in the Shadows offers an essential path forward: an inclusive immigration policy premised on human dignity, due process, and respect for all people.

“"Alina Das has written a riveting account of the cruelty and inhumanity of our immigration system. You can no longer say you did not know or sit on the sidelines. This book is powerful, informative, moving, and most importantly, a call to action to protect our immigrant neighbors and commit to building a country that respects the dignity of all people."-- Linda Sarsour, activist and author of We Are Not Here to Be Bystanders: A Memoir of Love & Resistance”

"A one-stop shop for anyone who wants to know how the Age of Mass Incarceration fueled the rise of the Deportation Nation, and a stellar unmasking of how legacies of white supremacy continue to stoke the criminalization of non-white immigrants today."--Kelly Lytle Hernandez, Thomas E. Lifka Endowed Chair in History, UCLA, and author of City of Inmates: Conquest, Rebellion, and the Rise of Human Caging in Los Angeles, 1771-1965
"Alina Das has written a riveting account of the cruelty and inhumanity of our immigration system. You can no longer say you did not know or sit on the sidelines. This book is powerful, informative, moving, and most importantly, a call to action to protect our immigrant neighbors and commit to building a country that respects the dignity of all people."--Linda Sarsour, activist and author of We Are Not Here to Be Bystanders: A Memoir of Love and Resistance
"Alina Das' book is a necessary and compelling read to understand how the immigration system in the United States targets Black and Brown immigrants. Das writes with compassion about her clients whose lives are altered by cruel and arbitrary immigration policies that aim to exclude, ban, separate, detain and deport millions of people. Das' book urgently reminds us that ending white supremacy requires the dismantlement of the structures and policies that undergird today's immigration system."--Deepa Iyer, author of We Too Sing America: South Asian, Arab, Muslim, and Sikh Immigrants Shape Our Multiracial Future
"This insightful, accessible book from the trenches of deportation defense connects the reader deeply to the actual human beings who suffer, fight and -- win or lose -- assert their own dignity and that of all migrants. Das' breakdown of punitive 1990s policies reveals not only how harmful and discriminatory each is on its own, but also their devastating effect when stacked on top of each other. There is no victory over a racialized immigration system without challenging the hierarchy of 'good' and 'bad' immigrants, a framework that even well-meaning advocates have accepted. There is another way, if we have the courage and the vision to pursue it."--Rinku Sen, former publisher, Colorlines

Alina Das is an immigrant rights activist, lawyer, and professor. A professor at New York University School of Law, Das is the Co-Director of the New York University Immigrant Rights Clinic, a leading institution in national and local struggles for immigrant rights. Her legal scholarship has been published by leading law journals, and she is a frequent commentator on immigration policy for outlets including MSNBC, CNBC, PBS, WNYC, PRI, The Atlantic, Democracy Now!, The New York Times, The Nation, and VICE News. Das was previously a Soros Justice Fellow and Staff Attorney at the Immigrant Defense Project, which works at the intersection of immigration and criminal law. She has been awarded the national LexisNexis Matthew Bender Daniel Levy Memorial Award for Outstanding Achievement in Immigration Law, the Immigrant Defense Project Champion of Justice Award, the NYU Law Podell Distinguished Teaching Award, the NYU Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Faculty Award, the NYU Center for Multicultural Education & Programs Nia Faculty Award, and the NYU Women of Color Collective Woman of Distinction Award. Das lives in New York City.

Each year in the United States, 400,000 people are arrested, detained, and deported, trapped in what leading immigrant rights activist and lawyer Alina Das calls the 'deportation machine.' They are people who politicians like President Trump would have us believe are 'bad hombres.' But while we're debating border walls, travel bans, child detention, and quotas, these individuals are banished from their homes, their families, and their communities, and by a country that celebrates itself as a 'nation of immigrants.'As Das explains in her urgent book, we cannot break the pattern of the abuse and marginalization of immigrants in the U.S. until we understand fully how the system works. And in this country, that means understanding how racism and criminalization intersect to doubly punish communities of color. Das traces the history of immigration policy, showing how its evolution has always been linked to racist exclusion. Combining these systems exacerbates the flaws in both-and when 1 in 3 Americans has a criminal record, millions are caught in the crosshairs. Das weaves the history of immigration with moving narratives of those who have been caught up in the deportation machine, including Aba, a hardworking mother of four young children; Ely, a survivor of the crack epidemic in the 1980s; and Alonso, a DACA recipient. In deconstructing the 'criminal alien' narrative, No Justice in the Shadows offers an essential path forward: an inclusive immigration policy premised on human dignity, due process, and respect for all people.

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