Book Review: Policing immigrants: Local law enforcement on the front lines

• DOI: 10.1177/1057567718773866
• Published date: 01 December 2020
• Date: 01 December 2020
• Author: Zahra Shekarkhar
• Subject Matter: Book Reviews

Book Reviews
459
discrimination and their claims of immigrants civil rights were dismissed as separatist and excessive
by officials and media.
In fact, refusal to acknowledge the real, lived experiences of Latinos reinforced Latino Threat
Narrative and Hazleton’s collective identity was reaffirmed as the majority added proimmigrants
activists to the list of enemies who threated Whites’ injury and loss of their way of life, according
to White innocence rhetoric. Also litigations about the ordinance, alleged to violate equal pro-
tection and due process rights and to usurpate the federal power to regulate immigration, followed
White innocence/Latino abstraction script, prompting a vitriolic political debate inside and outside
of the courtroom.
The fourth chapter focuses on the evolution of proimmigrant efforts to build a bridge between
recent immigrants and established residents and institutions. Rather than challenging racialized
criminalization of immigrants steadily, a less antagonistic and less militant approach was taken,
working to improve the image of immigrants community in general and to integrate them in the
whole society. However, despite such postracial approach dominant ideologies posed serious
challenges and limits to activists, as Latino degradation/White affirmation mechanism remained
taken for granted.
In his passionate conclusion, the author argues that, as immigration law and politics localize,
top-down constructions of community identity, such as divide and conquer politics, must be con-
trasted and replaced with historical bottom-up reengagement that authentically and democratically
confronts racial and economic inequality toward collective liberation.
The book has several strengths, notably its original blend of thought and action. Moreover,
Longazel’s work marks an excellent attempt to discuss Latino Threat Narrative roots and connec-
tions with national immigration patterns and neoliberal depoliticization. Also, several references and
numerous appendixes demonstrate the issue is extensively researched and in-depth scrutinized.
Although complexity is one of the brightest point of the work, it also turns into its weakest point.
The book...