"Day-to-day life in immigrant communities is described with refreshing clarity and heart by Michael Kagan in The Battle to Stay in America.... He provides an unusually accessible primer on immigration law and a valuable guide to the ways it currently works to perpetuate an excluded immigrant underclass with diminished rights."
—The New York Review of Books
"This is the immigration story that needs to be told: the disappearances of neighbors, the breaking up of families, the parents who are forever relegated to working jobs below their potential because immigration laws prevent them ever being free and equal .... The Battle to Stay in America could not be more timely; with a changing Administration it's time not just to rethink America's immigration policy, but change how we think about immigration entirely."
—New Books Network
“Can’t recommend it highly enough ... Riveting, horrifying, raw, and personal. Kagan uses real people who make up the unseen fabric of Vegas to tell harrowing stories. ... Kagan shows the toll the system has taken on him and society. He also has ideas for solutions.”
—Jon Ralston, Editor, The Nevada Independent
“Converts headlines into personal tales of struggles to circumvent and survive immigration policing in the modern era. . . . That’s a story that should be told, and Kagan does it remarkably well.”
—César Cuauhtémoc García Hernández, author of Migrating to Prison
“The Battle to Stay in America provides a compelling set of narratives and combines these stories with accessible explanations as to the legal underpinnings behind them. . . . An excellent book!”
—Shoba Sivaprasad Wadhia, Esq., author of Banned: Immigration Enforcement in the Time of Trump
“Michael Kagan has written one of the most straightforward guidebooks to our complicated, illogical, and often cruel immigration system I’ve read. Drawing from his deep personal experience as the director of the Immigration Clinic at the University of Nevada Las Vegas, Kagan offers readers an up-close view of immigration enforcement and the progressive political response in the Trump era. Those repelled by our polarized immigration debate dominated by voices of the shrill and uninformed can look to Kagan for nuance, reflective analysis and understanding.”
—Roque Planas, senior reporter, HuffPost
“Kagan's narrative and personal style adds to the immigration law literature what so many other books lack: compassion. Kagan shows us that immigration law is ultimately about the neighbors who disappear and the inhumane system of immigration laws that makes it possible."
—William D. Lopez, author of Separated: Family and Community in the Aftermath of an Immigration Raid
“This book is unlike any other immigration book I have ever read.”
—Dr. Doris Marie Provine, co-author of Policing Immigrants: Local Law Enforcement on the Front Lines
