French (a licensed clinical psychologist) and Manzanarez (emer., political science, Western New Mexico Univ.) provide a timely examination of the relationship between immigration, capitalism, and racism in the US, and how this relationship shapes the current immigration debate, particularly the crisis along the US-Mexico border. The authors lay out their argument in the first chapter, and in subsequent chapters they provide a detailed history of how economic conditions in the US--beginning with aboriginal trade routes, colonial capitalism, and Manifest Destiny--tripled the size of the US because the country required a new labor source, particularly with the end of slavery, to take advantage of its vast natural resources. The authors contend that market conditions in the US create a cycle where migrants are needed to ensure economic growth, but the presence of migrants leads to racist actions and policies against them. The authors note that although the Trump administration's policies concerning immigrants seem extreme, in fact much US immigration policy has had a racist foundation. The authors emphasize how the power of collective attribution bias exacerbates the problem: immigrants are treated as outsiders, which allows such policies to persist. Summing Up: Recommended.

Upper-division undergraduates through faculty.