Tejano author Rodriguez has compiled numerous essays and articles written over about the past 12 years for this work. His book is divided into four parts: Immigration and Border Security, Race and Politics, Grassroots Politics, and Liberal Politics and the Media. All these topics meld into a few signature dynamics: legal versus illegal immigration, the effect of mass migration into border areas such as the author’s home state of Texas, cultural assimilation among immigrant populations, and the bias of media sources that have the power to distort key issues.

Rodriguez shows how immigration can affect even non-border regions and how previous groups of immigrants, such as the Irish, voluntarily assumed the American mindset and contributed to our shared prosperity without the impetus to do otherwise by large-scale media disseminating anti-American ideas in the immigrants’ home language. In essence, the author believes that legal immigrants should have all rights of citizenship, and illegals should have none.

A political appointee, news commentator, and blogger, Rodriguez is well placed to express his avowedly right-wing views, having served in political positions with Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush and having led the Texas Tea Party. Too, he is of Mexican heritage and a resident of the nation’s largest border state, seeing firsthand how the influx of very needy migrants can downgrade the overall prosperity of a settlement region. The short pieces presented are cogent and fact-based, at times displaying a mild, politically tinged sense of humor along with a sharpness of viewpoint that Rodriguez refers to as chile picoso. Material for this collection appears to come partly from his active eponymous blog, with no attribution noted from other publication sites. Outspoken, topically astute, and informed, Rodriguez doubtless has a coterie of avid followers who will appreciate this new platform for their shared ideals.

RECOMMENDED by the US Review

Return to USR Home