Sonia Nazario in PBPL 20 & PBPL 84.4

 
Pulitzer award winning journalist and author Sonia Nazario visited the Rockefeller Center on October 23rd to speak to students and give a public talk on issues related to immigration.  Nazario, a former reporter for the Los Angeles Times, is the author of Enrique’s Journey, a book that follows the journey of a young boy making the dangerous illegal trek from Central America through Mexico and into the U.S. to join his mother.  Nazario’s book explores all facets of the current American immigration issue, including the economic forces that motivate large scale migration from Mexico and Central America into the U.S. and the various policies that have been tried in recent decades to deal with immigration pressures.

Nazario met with the students in Public Policy 20, Contemporary Issues in Policy and Politics and PBPL 84.4, Immigration and Security Policy at the U.S.-Mexico Border, to discuss possibilities for a bipartisan comprehensive immigration reform.  She expressed skepticism about efforts to stem the flow of undocumented immigrants as long as the wage and opportunity gap remains so large between the U.S. and its southern neighbors.  Nazario gave a public talk in which she recounted the details of the perilous journey documented in her book Enrique’s Journey.  As part of the research for the book, Nazario spent weeks riding on top of freight trains, traversing Mexico, and recreating other parts of the migration story that she tells.