Lock Out: Why America Keeps Getting Immigration Wrong When Our Prosperity Depends on It

Mrs. Wucker's stance on immigration is a breath of fresh air. She understands these complicated issues better then most politicians, and helps dispel the nativist sentiment that is spreading over our country. I applaud her efforts.

Finally an author has put out a book that puts the entire immigration debate into perspective. Instead of pandering to partisans on either the right or left, Wucker's book explains how we got to the strange place we're in today without trying to score any political points in the process. This is the kind of dispassionate analysis that we see all too infrequently in today's journalism. Lockout is worth buying and reading. Somebody should give Lou Dobbs a copy for Christmas!

You see many books in immigration. I have personally read dozens lately and there are views that go all over the road from extremists who irrationally operate on perpetuating our fears of immigrants, to those who would have you believe that there is no immigration problem and an open border is the solution. Its truly hard to know what to believe. The more you explore this complex issue, the more there is to understand because you realize that the hardliners on immigration are truly coming from a place of ignorance, regardless of their side. The reality is that we need to look at the actual facts of this issue and find a middle ground starting with what is not working now, and start looking at the end solution we want and take steps as a nation to get there. Michelle Wucker has done an excellent job in this straight forward book of giving us that roadmap and not just reacting to the voices in the media with the loudest megaphones, but instead she comes to a thoughtful place of well-researched and carefully contructed views that if heeded by our legislators might help to get us a bit more on track with what is happening regarding immigration in this country. Take a couple hours and read this important book, it will really help you understand this complex issue, and is an important contribution to the debate.

If you only read one book about immigration this year read Lockout. It does have a bias towards allowing immigration but both sides of the argument are explored. She quotes John F. Kennedy saying: "Immigration policy should be generous; it should be fair; it should be flexible." Lockout is filled with very good historical data about how we got into the immigration mess that we are in today. It is not primarily about the low skilled Mexican illegal immigrants. It is focused much more on the difficulties encountered by skilled, highly educated people who would like to work in the United States. Michelle Wucker makes a very good argument that the labyrinth of immigration law that we have created is hurting our competitiveness in the world. Her argument that encouraging "Americanization" of immigrants during the first half of the 20th century set the stage for the immigrant battle of this era is interesting and definitely worth considering. With regard to undocumented immigrants she argues that we must "Accept responsibility for the wink-wink-nod-nod policies that created a large, marginalized population." "The only fair thing to do" she concludes "is to provide a way for them to apply for legal status" with some sort of penalty. Although I didn't agree with all of Wucker's arguments or policy proposals I felt that she supported them with good data and reason. People on both sides of this debate will disagree with her but they should all read her book.

My favorite camera store in Tucson, AZ had two wonderful Mexican-American women employees who became close confidants and surrogate mothers of mine. We spent hours discussing not only photography, but also politics and immigration, noting with much dismay, the porous border existing between southern Arizona and the adjoining Mexican state of Sonora (For example I can recall at least two instances where young pregnant Sonoran women had moved into my apartment complex, staying long enough to deliver their babies in a Tucson hospital, before returning, almost immediately, to Sonora.). Both were proud to be American citizens, recognized the necessity of speaking in English in public, and were strongly opposed to government funding of bilingual education in public schools (But in private, amongst themselves, their families, and close friends, they enjoyed speaking the Mexican Spanish they had known since their youth.). If theirs were views widely held by Tucson's Mexican-American community - and I have much reason to believe that they were - then I'm not surprised that eight years after I had moved back to New York City, the citizens of Arizona voted in favor of Proposition 120 by a 56% to 44% margin, requiring public officials to verify the legal status of those seeking public assistance or the right to vote, and to deny them to those unable to offer such proof. I have no doubt that my Tucson friends would greet Michele Wucker's "Lockout: Why America Keeps Getting Immigration Wrong When Out Prosperity Depends On Getting It Right" with ample interest, but also harbor some reservations about her positive, somewhat practical, view of immigration to the United States, both now and in the future. These may be reservations that I too might share, but I would also add that Wucker's latest book is one deserving of wide readership, regardless of how one perceives this issue. Journalist Michele Wucker, a senior fellow at the World Policy Institute of The New School, has written eloquently on the dismal histories of the Dominican Republic and Haiti in her first book, "Why the Cocks Fight", in which she contends that the disastrous immigration policies of successive Dominican Republic regimes towards Haitian immigrants are reminiscent of our own complex, often conflicted, immigration history. So, in a sense, which Wucker herself admits, "Lockout" can be regarded as a sequel to her previous book, but here, she treats the topic of immigration on a much broader canvass devoted solely to the United States's history. However, her book is most certainly not the last word, nor should it be, with respect to immigration to the United States, even though she makes a persuasive, often compelling, case in favor of a sensible United States immigration policy. Regrettably "Lockout" provides too brief a historical perspective on this issue, which, I might add, has been covered far more extensively by Stanford University economist Thomas Sowell, most notably in his book "Ethn