Linda DAKIM-GRIMM. Dignity and Justice: Welcoming the Stranger at Our Border. Orbis Books, 2020. pp xiv+192. $24.00pb. ISBN 978-1-62698-381-6. Reviewed by John T. FORD, Logansport, IN.

There are four components to this book. The first and most interesting—indeed captivating and compelling—consists of five personal histories: Gilberto, a Guatemalan teenager fleeing gang violence; Gabriela and Javi, Mexican siblings running away from an abusive father; Liliana, an Honduran youngster escaping a dysfunctional family; the Flores family abandoning their Guatemalan home after being targeted by gang members; Martha, a bilingual American volunteer, serving as a translator and guardian for refugees. These “case studies” provide a human face to the “stranger at our border.”

A second and quite useful component are brief historical sketches of Guatemala, Mexico and Honduras, which provide background information about the economic and social problems,  government corruption, police indifference and gang activity that have prompted many of these countries’ citizens to flee to the United States for safety and asylum. The living circumstances in these countries unfortunately verify the adage: sal si puedes: “escape if you can.”

This book’s third component is theological, including biblical reflections about immigration, teachings of the natural law, and papal doctrine as expressed by Pius XII, John Paul II, and Francis. This material is presented in three different sections and so lacks the cohesion that might have been provided by a unified theology of immigration. In addition, the theological presentations are a rather prosaic catena of quotations and the tone is often peremptory, rather than persuasive.

The fourth component is legal: the ambiguities and complexities of American immigration law are all too evident in the personal histories of people seeking to find their way through the thicket of immigration legislation. An appendix on “U.S. Immigration Law and the Immigration System” (153-176) describes in some detail laws that are so complex that refugees and asylum-seekers need expert legal counsel to guide them through a system that is designed to keep people out rather than let people in. Were it not for the pro bono service of many lawyers, very few immigrants would receive their “papers.” Parenthetically and rather surprisingly, the information about constitutional amendments (136, n.1.) is incomplete.

One finishes this book with mixed reactions. First and foremost, the personal histories demonstrate the need for “welcoming the stranger”: who but the most hard-hearted would deny help to people like Gilberto, Gabriela, Javi, Liliana, and the Flores family? Yet unless readers have the talent and time of a person like Martha, they are left wondering: how can I help a refugee or an asylum-seeker?

Similarly, unless refugees somehow gain access to expert legal advice, deportation is practically inevitable: the system is stacked against them. One must then applaud the lawyers like the author who handle such cases pro bono: they expend numerous hours in interviewing immigrants, preparing documents and appearing before judges: a single case requires an enormous amount of work—but work that can only be done by people with the requisite legal training. Again, readers are left wondering: how can I help a refugee or an asylum-seeker?

Finally, the immigration system is extremely dysfunctional. First of all are the requirements for documentation: is it realistic to expect asylum-seekers to be able to document the threats that caused them to flee their country in haste and usually without resources? Then there is the question of time; for example, given the various quotas, sometimes it takes twenty years to process an application through the government bureaucracy! In addition, are legal fine points; for example, asylum seekers must be able to show that their flight was motivated by specific threats and that return to their home-country would be life-threatening. Given the maze of immigration regulations, it is not surprising that many asylum-seekers and refugees are rejected; what is surprising is that that some immigrants finally manage to gain legal status. This book makes unequivocally clear that American immigration law is in urgent need of revision, yet for decades politicians have been unable to formulate clear and consistent immigration legislation.