Illegal: Life and Death in Arizona's Immigration War Zone [Paperback]

Terry Greene Sterling (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1, 2010

Terry Greene Sterling enters the fearful ghettoes of Arizona, the gateway for nearly half of the nation's undocumented immigrants and the state that is the least welcoming toward them, to tell the stories of the men, women, and children who have crossed the border. 

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Terry Greene Sterling puts a human face on a dishonest immigration debate. The sheriff is ugly, the laws harsh and pointless, the people poor, eager, hunted—and the people are our new neighbors regardless of our neighborhoods. Read this moving and surprising book before speaking out on who belongs here and who does not. You’ll be happy you did.”            

—Charles Bowden, award-winning journalist and author of Murder City: Ciudad Juarez and the Global Economy’s New Killing Fields

 

“Immigration is the twenty-first century’s Grapes of Wrath. And, like John Steinbeck, Terry Greene Sterling focuses on the people of illegal immigration—victims and perps—to show us what life is truly like on the frontlines of the immigration issue. From official neglect to rape, murder, kidnapping, and death, Sterling takes the lid off the world of illegal immigration and exposes the whole snake pit.”

—Paul Perry, New York Times bestselling author, documentary filmmaker

 

“What a vivid portrayal of the Arizona immigrant underground. Illegal is not afraid to show the bad decisions immigrants make along with their resilience and strength of spirit. This is the total picture, a heartbreaking one in a state that has chosen to demonize its Mexican residents.”

—Tony Ortega, Editor in Chief, The Village Voice

 

“No one brings you into the illegal immigration underground quite like Terry Greene Sterling. Her gritty descriptions of border crossers, transvestites, and child molesters will linger in your thoughts.  Her achingly beautiful accounts of everyday people and tragic situations really stick with you. From Sheriff Joe Arpaio's bravado to a locked-up mom’s longing for her child, the stories in Illegal are strikingly vivid, and the author’s reporting flawless. No one should even attempt to speak on the matter of illegal immigration in Arizona without reading Illegal first.”

—Ashlea Deahl, editor of PHOENIX magazine

 

“Arizona is ground zero in America’s immigration battles and Terry Greene Sterling writes about the struggles of the people involved with authority, passion and compassion. Her insights and observations are detailed with nuance and substance that can’t be acquired by dropping in when the story is hot. This book and her blog, White Woman in the Barrio, reflect her ongoing commitment to telling stories about the people in addition to the policies that are front and center in the immigration wars. If you want to understand what is going on in Arizona now, Illegal is the book to read.”

—Rick Rodriguez, Carnegie and Southwest Borderlands Initiative professor, Walter Cronkite School of Journalism, Arizona State University

 

“[A] prize-winning journalist’s vivid stories of the real people behind the stereotypes, undocumented immigrants living with the already harsh legal atmosphere of Phoenix.”

—Colette Bancroft, St. Petersburg Times book editor

 

“At times, Sterling’s book reads like Shakespearean tragedy: people making difficult choices in impossible circumstances. And like classic tragedies, the cast of characters here includes opportunists, those who prey on the vulnerable, attention-seekers, and the well meaning. No wonder all of this leads to the extremes of human emotion, such as anger and rage. Throughout the book, Sterling’s telling of these stories is honest and thoughtful.” 

—Sativia Peterson, Phoenix New Times 

 

"...documentation of the heart of an immigration war makes for an involving, thought-provoking survey for any discussion on illegal immigration and immigration and civil liberties in America."

- Midwest Book Review

From the Back Cover

FROM A DEADLY BORDER TO AMERICA’S KIDNAPPING CAPITAL—THE SECRET LIVES AT THE HEART OF THE IMMIGRATION WAR

 

 Arizona’s violent border is the busiest gateway for illegal immigration in America, making the state ground zero for the immigration debate. No state is as hostile to the undocumented, and no city is as unwelcoming as Phoenix. Yet Phoenix is home to thousands who live in the shadows, where civil rights are neglected and lives are lost.
 
Illegal sheds light on the invisible immigrants who persevere despite kidnappings and drug wars, an ongoing recession, and laws barring them from setting foot in Arizona, working, and driving. By profiling these undocumented people, and those—like notorious Sheriff Joe Arpaio—who persecute them, author Terry Greene Sterling courageously exposes the dangerously tattered fabric of a divisive national crisis.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Lyons Press; First Edition, First Printing edition (July 1, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1599218615
• ISBN-13: 978-1599218618
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #815,280 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Terry Greene Sterling
Twitter = @tgsterling
http://www.terrygreenesterling.com
http://www.facebook.com/TerryGreeneSterling
Photo of Terry courtesy Arizona Highways Magazine

For schedule book readings and signings and public talks, please refer to Terry's website http://www.terrygreenesterling.com

Terry Greene Sterling is writer-in-residence at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University and a guest faculty member at the Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg, Florida. She gives workshops on writing and selling writing. Her stories have appeared in The Atlantic, The National Journal, Rolling Stone, The Daily Beast, Salon.com, Newsweek, The Washington Post, Preservation Magazine, High Country News, Arizona Highways and other publications. She was a staff investigative reporter at Phoenix New Times for 14 years.


Sterling is a three-time winner of Arizona's highest journalism award, the Virg Hill Journalist of the Year award, and has received more than 50 national and regional journalism awards.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Human faces on our thorny issue July 4, 2010

By knowtwowaysaboutit

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

I galloped through this book. When I finished, I turned around and read it through again. It is an eye-opener and a heart-opener. The people's stories are as varied as they are moving and through these stories we begin to understand how it must feel to live off-stage, in the shadows in Arizona. We've puzzled over this issue for years but much of the illegal immigration discussion has concentrated on statistics. This book examines the humanity (and lack of same) which have to be considered in this discussion. The integrity and talent of Terry Greene Sterling, one of our best investigative journalists, is evident in the thorough research behind every page. The reader is assured these words are true.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Well written romatic orientalism, the noble "other" of the xxi c. September 30, 2011

By Elizabeth Ashe

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

This is sentimental orientalism. I know it is not about the east. It is east of no place but San Diego. But there is no equivalent term about the south). The author has set out to create an "other" than will be appealing and touch the heartstrings of a Western, middle class, secular audience. It's an easy thing to do. Hell. I've done it myself. Lots of times. But that does not make it right. In the longer term, always take a cold, jaundiced eye on your subject matter, their hopes and dreams, their spouses. their babies, and their puppy dogs. Try and understand everyone, trust no one.

One of the places I learned that trust is not a thing of value is that I used to do immigration law. I even did some criminal defense too. For money. I heard different versions of the stories the author provides from directly from their sources. Trouble is, they always lied. It required extracting the truth in multiple interviews that used to shock me from how close they seemed to PoW interrogations before you extracted anything like the information you needed to effectively represent them. I used to provide them with excuses to assuage their humiliation at having been forced to tell the truth. "Of course, I understand, you are used to the civil law system, but here in the United States", etc. I do not see the author showing evidence of having done anything but allowing the sources to pitch softballs. Whatever the rights or wrongs in a particular case, there is no value in not pushing to establish them.

On the other side of the issue, I am reminded, as Captain Ahab should have said, "why look for a great white whale when you've got a fish in a barrel". Sheriff Arpaio is not an attractive figure to her audience. Few populist elective officials in such a position are.... Focusing on him and his eccentric if painful policies makes it easier a good-guy bad-buy division than reality permits.

This book does give me a reason to trust the author. I resent the author's attempt to claim, as an advocate, moral superiority in a way that would not be sophisticated or convincing in a high school debate. The claim that the "good people" agree with her certainly leads more to an appearance of comic moral sanctity than a persuasive argument. Now, I've written enough political speeches to know a thing or two about making arguments of why you should do what I say and that those who do not are obviously evil. I have been disingenuous, but I've always tried to do better than this.

In some places, I was reminded of ZEITOUN. In this book, as there, the author provides brief background information on the larger international situation that is more biased than accurate (in ZEITOUN, this included an exculpatory reference to the hideous Assad regime that, as we read this, is shooting down its own citizens). ZEITOUN lacked the ring of truth. It presented a successful contractor in America's most corrupt city (beating even my home town of NYC, which must come close) as a faux naif, done in by his own sensitive and touching faith in the American dream (and his kindness to puppy dogs). The lack of credibility in ZEITOUN, I believed, undercut the significant craft elements of the narrative.

If there is a craft lesson here, stick to the facts rather than the special pleading. No prose has ever moved me as much as the column of figures on my 401(k) statement which reduced me to sobbing). It takes nothing away from the seriousness of the problems described and the associated human toll to say they deserve better than this. Read more ›

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars No hype - Just good, solid reporting from Arizona's best July 21, 2010

By D. D'Angelo

Format:Paperback

For those of us living in Arizona, it's been especially difficult to parse fact from fiction, the real people from the caricatures, here at Immigration War Zone Ground Zero. Terry Greene Sterling, a multiple award-winning AZ journalist, goes beyond the political flash points to uncover the real circumstances of immigrants in the underground, as well as those pursuing them. This book is required reading for anyone wondering, "How did things get like this?"

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Must Read This Book July 10, 2010

By Centered Pols

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

Terry Greene Sterling has done an amazing job of showing us the human cost of our broken immigration system to citizens as well as non-citizens.

9 of 12 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Couldn't put it down! Arizonans, please read this book! July 6, 2010

By Laura Libman

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

Terry Green Sterling's treatment of the border issues facing Arizona is truthful, sensitive and epiphanic. I travel often in Mexico and Sonora in particular and have witnessed the accuracy of Terry's account of the people and her experiences. I live in Phoenix and agree with her astute assessments of the conditions she describes on both sides of the border. She does an excellent job of portraying a cross section of the Latino community, the problems they face, the circular logic in laws and enforcement that create a lose-lose situation for us all.

Though her anecdotal stories are persuasive, she backs up her appraisal with hard facts and figures from reliable sources. She presents the arguments used on both sides of the debate and provides the readers with enough evidence to form their own opinion. The reader sees the heartbreak of families torn apart, the frustration of Latinos and Anglos waiting for a solution, and the hate fertilized by fear.

This book was nearly impossible for me to put down. Not only was "Illegal" informative, but she has a beautiful and captivating writing style that draws the reader in and holds you till the very end. You will not soon forget the haunting humanity Terry parades before you, one by one. I wish everyone in Arizona and those affected by these immigration issues would read this book. I also wish our politicians in Washington, who determine immigration reform legislation would read this book too.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Information clears up misconceptions July 21, 2010

By squeaky shoes

Format:Kindle Edition

The anti-immigration movement is fueled by misconceptions that all illegals crossing our border from Mexico are criminals. Who wouldn't support this, if it were true. Terry Greene Sterling has shined a light on this misconception and shown the ugly truth. Living in Arizona, i see the bigger picture. This book is a must read if you want to understand the complexities of the issue. Putting up the "danged fence" does nothing to solve the problems. However, it is politically popular.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Truth at the border July 10, 2010

By K. L. Nolan

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

This book is amazing. I have never read a story about immigration and the border that is both so well informed and written so deeply from the heart. Truth is harsh here, yet is rendered to the reader so tenderly. Terry Greene Sterling is inured to the territory to the point where affectation would be impossible. It is a monumental achievement in both research and narrative. What's next, Terry?