Wetback Nation: The Case for Opening the Mexican-American Border

Peter Laufer’s explosive proposals for the U.S.-Mexican border go far beyond President Bush’s initiative to ease restrictions on immigration. Mr. Laufer argues that the border with Mexico should be completely open, with a free flow of people between the two countries. He offers a step-by-step blueprint for making it happen. Wetback Nation is also the background to understanding the Bush proposals: the story of how the border has become a fraud, resulting in nothing more than the criminalization of Mexican and other migrants, the bloating of the mismanaged Immigration and Naturalization Service, the deterioration of living standards along the frontier, and the enrichment of American employers.