Reece Jones Bücher

“This powerful and meticulously argued book reveals that immigration crackdowns … [have] always been about saving and protecting the racist idea of a white America.” —Ibram X. Kendi, award-winning author of Four Hundred Souls and Stamped from the Beginning“A damning inquiry into the history of the border as a place where race is created and racism honed into a razor-sharp ideology.” —Greg Grandin, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The End of the MythRecent racist anti-immigration policies, from the border wall to the Muslim ban, have left many Americans How did we get here? In what readers call a “chilling and revelatory” account, Reece Jones reveals the painful although the US is often mythologized as a nation of immigrants, it has a long history of immigration restrictions that are rooted in the racist fear of the “great replacement” of whites with non-white newcomers. After the arrival of the first slave ship in 1619, the colonies that became the United States were based on the dual foundation of open immigration for whites from Northern Europe and the racial exclusion of slaves from Africa, Native Americans, and, eventually, immigrants from other parts of the world.Jones’s scholarship shines through his extensive research of the United States’ racist and xenophobic underbelly. He connects past and present to uncover the link between the Chinese Exclusion laws of the 1880s, the “Keep America American” nativism of the 1920s, and the “Build the Wall” chants initiated by former president Donald Trump in 2016. Along the way, we meet a bizarre cast of anti-immigration characters, such as John Tanton, Cordelia Scaife May, and Stephen Miller, who pushed fringe ideas about “white genocide” and “race suicide” into mainstream political discourse. Through gripping stories and in-depth analysis of major immigration cases, Jones explores the connections between anti-immigration hate groups and the Republican Party. What is laid bare after his examination is not just the intersection between white supremacy and anti-immigration bias but also the lasting impacts this perfect storm of hatred has had on United States law.

The book critically examines the historical and ongoing influence of white racial politics on American immigration policies, tracing the evolution from the Chinese Exclusion Act to contemporary restrictions under the Trump administration. It highlights how these policies reflect systemic racism and explores the implications for immigrant communities and American society as a whole. Through this lens, the author sheds light on the complexities of race, immigration, and national identity in the United States.

Late one July night in 2020, armed men, identified only by the word POLICE written across their uniforms, began snatching supporters of Black Lives Matter off the street in Portland, Oregon, and placing them in unmarked vans. These mysterious actions were not carried out by local law enforcement or even right-wing terrorists, but by the US Border Patrol. Why was the Border Patrol operating so far from the boundaries of the United States? What were they doing at a protest that had nothing to do with immigration or the border? Nobody Is Protected: How the Border Patrol Became the Most Dangerous Police Force in the United States is the untold story of how, through a series of landmark but largely unknown decisions, the Supreme Court has dramatically curtailed the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution in service of policing borders. The Border Patrol exercises exceptional powers to conduct warrantless stops and interrogations within one hundred miles of land borders or coastlines, an area that includes nine of the ten largest cities and two thirds of the American population. Mapping the Border Patrol's history from its bigoted and violent Wild West beginnings through the legal precedents that have unleashed today's militarized force, Reece Jones reveals the shocking true stories and characters behind its most dangerous policies.

The book explores the alarming actions of the US Border Patrol during the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests in Portland, where agents operated far beyond their typical jurisdiction. It reveals how the Border Patrol, legally allowed to act within a vast "Constitution Free Zone," has increasingly curtailed Fourth Amendment rights. The narrative delves into the agency's troubling history, highlighting its culture of violence and racism, and the implications of its unchecked power in policing, making the case for urgent scrutiny of its role in American society.

A major new exploration of the refugee crisis, focusing on how borders are formed and policed