MIBF Book Club

This fall, we thought we’d take our supporters back to school with an abolitionist immigrant rights reading list sure to inspire and educate you! Our board has put together a short list of books that have informed our own approaches to our work, and if you order them through the links below, 10% of the proceeds will go to supporting MIBFs mission of helping people get out of immigration detention. Our secretary, Alejandra Oliva, is hosting this fundraiser on her Bookshop.org page—you can see the full list of books, or read through for individual descriptions below! Purchase Through November 1st!

Unbuild Walls by Silky Shah—written by the executive director of Detention Watch Now, Unbuild Walls unpacks the relationship between the U.S. immigration system and the carceral state, and argues for an abolitionist perspective built from years of experience. 

Everyone Who is Gone is Here by Jonathan Blitzer—How have decades of U.S. foreign policy in Central America affected both people and their immigration? Jonathan Blitzer, a long-time immigration reporter for the New Yorker writes a book that takes on questions of policy but keeps the focus personal. 

Border and Rule by Harsha Walia — A book with a global view on immigration and borders—and one that shows that the same issues of capitalism, racism and nationalism that fuel U.S. xenophobia are present around the world. 

The Undocumented Americans by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio—From Ground Zero to Flint, Michigan, Karla Cornejo Villavicencio tells her own story alongside those of undocumented people caught in the complex sites of American tragedy and failure.

Life and Death of the American Worker by Alice Driver — Based on years of reporting among the immigrant workers of Tyson chicken, Driver tells the story of how COVID-19, labor deregulation, and the marginalizations of migrants all contributed to harming workers in Arkansas—and how they fought back.