No Human Is Illegal

Starred review from January 1, 2019
Sep�lveda, an immigration lawyer with University of California-Davis' Law Clinic, describes his firsthand legal experiences on the front lines of America's immigration system. In his timely first book, he captures the challenges and intricacies of the system and explains how the issue of immigration has been amplified and polarized over recent years. Sep�lveda navigates the system through his interactions with immigration officers, judges, government attorneys, and immigrants themselves: people from everywhere, from Iran to Honduras, who are caught in a legal web that has become highly political and dependent on the presiding judge or court's precincts. This memoir also draws on Sep�lveda's own complex, courageous journey as he, the son and husband of immigrants, fights for human rights and dignity in uncertain times. Readers will get an even deeper sense of the convoluted policies and nature of the U.S. immigration system from his experiences. Sep�lveda's perspective as an immigration attorney makes his book especially inspiring and eye-opening, as he shares many harrowing and brave stories of people fighting for asylum, safety, and the very right to live in America.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)