Religion, Law, and the Immigration Controversy

Book Talk with Ananda Rose

About the Speaker: 
Ananda Rose holds a doctorate from Harvard University. She is a published poet, journalist, and theologian. Her book, Showdown in the Sonoran Desert, Oxford University Press, was published in June 2012.

Rose traveled to the Sonoran desert, a border region where the remains of some 2,000 migrants have been recovered over the past decade. There she interviewed Minutemen, Border Patrol agents, Catholic nuns, humanitarian aid workers, left-wing protestors, ranchers, and many other ordinary citizens of southern Arizona.

She discovers two starkly opposed ideological perspectives: that of religious activists who embrace a biblically inspired hospitality that stresses love of strangers and a "borderless" compassion; and that of law enforcement, which insists on safety, security, and strict respect for international borders.