Book Review: Latino mass mobilization: Immigration, racialization and activism

DOI10.1177/1057567720946433
Published date01 December 2020
Date01 December 2020
AuthorKevin Zevallos
Subject MatterBook Reviews
Zepeda-Milla
´n, C. (2017).
Latino mass mobilization: Immigration, racialization and activism. Cambridge University Press. 306 pp. $29.99
(paperback), ISBN: 9781107076945.
Reviewed by: Kevin Zevallos , University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, USA
DOI: 10.1177/1057567720946433
Zepeda-Milla´n examines why and how immigrant rights activists across the United States mobilized
against an anti-immigrant bill, H.R. 4437, in 2006 and what factors led to the protest wave’s decline.
The Sensenbrenner bill (H.R. 4437) aimed to change the penalty for being undocumented from a
civil violation to a federal felony and punish any individuals who assisted undocumented persons
with monetary fines and incarceration, criminalizing almost everyone (e.g., teachers, employers, and
social service providers). Prior anti-immigrant bills were proposed and enacted without any public
uproar, which made the 2006 immigrant protest wave all the more unique. To examine the
“motivations, [resources], experiences, tactics and strategies that activists used to coordinate and
organize the demonstrations” (p. 20), Zepeda-Milla´n interviewed 131 protest organizers and parti-
cipants between 2006 and 2009. He also use d “survey and census data and statistics fr om the
Department of Homeland Security and in- depth interviews with D. C. based immigrant refor m
lobbyists and organization leaders” to examine what, if any, consequences the marches had on
policymaking and national electoral politics (p. 20). Zepeda-Milla´n uses three cases, Los Angeles,
New York City, and Fort Myers to study how threats shape mass mobilization; examining, “why do
threats lead to large-scale collective action in some instances, yet in other instances contribute to the
decline or suppression of that action?” (p. 136).
Zepeda-Milla´n argues that activists are more effectivewhen they have a clear target (singlesource),
in this case U.S. Congress, and ample time to organize; legislative threats are slow to materialize,
allowing coalitions to form. Furthermore, the broader the scope, in terms of severity and number of
individualsimpacted, of a threat, the morelikely it is to gain media coverage(visibility). H.R. 4437 was
a single-sourcethreat that was broadin scope, highly visible,and offered ample time to organizeagainst.
H.R.4437 triggered feelingsof linked fate and racial groupconsciousness among Latinosand, to a lesser
extent, membersof other marginalized groups with a large immigrantpopulation, making them recep-
tive to large-scale collective action. While there is nothing inherently racial about one’s citizenship
status, Latinoshave become synonymous with being undocumentedand vice versa. Consequently, the
racialization, the process through which racial meaning is ascribed to social groups, practices, or
policies, of illegality, the socially produced condition of immigrants’ legal status and deportability,
is a central concept in Zepeda-Milla´n’s analysis.
Chapter 1 provides an overview of the origins and evolution of the U.S. immigrant rights
movement. Zepeda-Milla´n discusses how the confluence of neoliberal economic reforms, specific
immigration policies, prior social movement activism, state and societal nativism, and changes in
Latino migration patterns laid the groundwork for a national immigrant rights movement, setting the
stage for the marches in 2006 (p. 22).
Social movement theorists contend that a supportive electoral base, influential elite allies,
and established social movement organizations are essential to movement building and mobi-
lization processes; yet, these factors were absent in Fort Myers, FL. Chapter 2 describes how
unconventional political actors (e.g., nannies, agricultural workers, ethnic small business own-
ers) utilized preexisting community resources to mass mobilize in Fort Myers. The emergence
of a racial group consciousness coupled with nativist legislation that threatens the collective
identities and personal interests/identities of immigrant community members can lead to mass
mobilization.
476 International Criminal Justice Review 30(4)

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