Borders and immigration are topics dominating world affairs during the 21st century including North America. This book examines the historical antecedents to the current crisis notably along the U.S.A./Mexico border under the Trump administration. Both the immigration and border issues transcend the current Administration with a history as long as that of America itself. Market demands often determined the influx of immigrants into the United States resulting in periods of anti-immigrant backlash based on race and ethnic factors. The geo-politics of market factors and immigrant backlash is rooted in both de jure and de facto politics. These factors are examined in detail with particular attention to the treatment of indigenous peoples of the Americas.

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French (a licensed clinical psychologist) and Manzanárez (emer., political science, Western New Mexico Univ.) provide a timely examination of the relationship between immigration, capitalism, and racism in the US, and how this relationship shapes the current immigration debate, particularly the crisis along the US-Mexico border. The authors lay out their argument in the first chapter, and in subsequent chapters they provide a detailed history of how economic conditions in the US—beginning with aboriginal trade routes, colonial capitalism, and Manifest Destiny—tripled the size of the US because the country required a new labor source, particularly with the end of slavery, to take advantage of its vast natural resources. The authors contend that market conditions in the US create a cycle where migrants are needed to ensure economic growth, but the presence of migrants leads to racist actions and policies against them. The authors note that although the Trump administration’s policies concerning immigrants seem extreme, in fact much US immigration policy has had a racist foundation. The authors emphasize how the power of collective attribution bias exacerbates the problem: immigrants are treated as outsiders, which allows such policies to persist. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty.