Becoming America: Selected readings on immigration from The Selective Echo

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As the U.S. Congress considers the most comprehensive proposals for immigration reforms in decades, The Selective Echo, a Salt Lake City-based news and feature blog that has extensively followed the immigration debate since 2007, has released a Kindle book, ‘Becoming America: Selected articles on immigration from The Selective Echo.’
Written by Mark Alvarez and Les Roka, the book examines technical aspects of immigration law and policy and recent political debates as well as, most importantly, individual stories of undocumented immigrants. Shaun Gilchrist also served as editor.
“Central to the anthology is the optimism that appreciation of the discrete systemic, societal and individual challenges can guide conversation and debate that spurs reform,” Alvarez says. “The context ranges from an article that accepts the label ‘illegal’ for purpose of argument to another with words from Vanessa [one of the immigrants profiled in the book]: ‘We are all humans and immigrants in this world.’”
Several articles also specifically chronicle the deep-rooted flaws in state-based legislation. This includes a broad analysis of HB 116, more commonly known as Utah’s guest worker program, and examples of enforcement legislation resembling Arizona’s SB1070.
“The issues of immigration and how our nation’s immigration system evolves have fit well in The Selective Echo’s scope of exploring the phenomenon of the American hybrid,” Roka explains. “With the extensively informed contributions by Mark [Alvarez], The Selective Echo has established a unique, comprehensive voice in the dialogue and discourse about immigration – not only in terms of how we go about crafting humane, compassionate and constitutionally legal policy but also in sharing the stories of immigrants who compellingly remind us of our greatest, essential historical strengths.”
Alvarez is an attorney and host of Sin Rodeos, a Spanish-language radio show. He writes biweekly columns in Spanish for Nuestro Mundo and La Bala Magazine. He has written guest commentary for The Salt Lake Tribune, and Standard-Examiner. Roka has worked extensively in public relations for a variety of organizations including a major metropolitan university, college of osteopathic medicine, and community college. He also has written for numerous publications, including academic journals, business magazines and other publications dealing with the arts and cultural criticism.