The Undocumented Americans by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio

Thank you publisher, Random House for providing me a free copy of this book in exchange for my unbiased opinion.

Illegal immigration is a hot button issue in every election since I can remember. If you don't have any idea what I am talking about then you are either in wrong country or a recluse. It's impossible not to have an opinion on this issue. Anyways, getting back to this book by Karla Carnejo, it is a glimpse into the lives of undocumented immigrants as told by them to the author who also happens to be an undocumented immigrant. It's easy to connect with someone who is in the same shoe as you are and that's the advantage the author has in extracting information that most undocumented immigrants will never share with anyone. It's not just the ethnic similarity  but also similarities with psychological issues. It's no surprise that most of the undocumented immigrants and their children suffer from psychological issues that eventually manifests as physiological issues. They are hot mess to say the least all because of government policies that keeps them paranoid even in their sleep. No surprises that without "papers" you have no access to legal jobs, healthcare insurance, medical care ,driver license , you name it. The things that we you and I as US citizens take for granted are just a dream and something to avoid if you are undocumented immigrants least you will be tracked down by ICE. No wonder this leads to jobs where they are abused such as in day laborers or restaurant workers not getting promised pay or having to work in harsh conditions. They certainly can't get medical care in the US so they resort to care that is based on naturopathy or seek out hidden pharmacies that will give any drug without proper consultation or even voodoo crap. With no social net, there is on such thing as retirement for such people. They are basically left to survive on their own, or go back to their country and die there. The author puts it nicely, this country as in the USA uses these guys when they are young making them do jobs that no American will do no matter how poor they are and then once their bodies give up they are kicked on the side to live out their rest of the years with no social safety net. The children of such immigrants have their own issue they have to deal with. So many families are destroyed because of one of the parents who has been in the US for 10+ years suddenly is caught driving without license and is deported leaving the wife and little kids who are by the way american citizens to care for themselves. It's heart wrenching.

Over all, I think this is some good work by Karla Cornejo who is a Harvard graduate and writes and advocates for undocumented immigrants. 

Narconomics: How to Run a Drug Cartel by Tom Wainwright

I was told about this book by a friend few years ago and I bought the book few months ago at a local library book sale. Eventually I got around reading this book and let me tell you it was very informative and eye opening. Don't let the title of this book make you avert from reading it. It really has nothing to do with what title says. On the contrary this book is a good piece of investigative journalism by Tom Wainwright on the business of illegal drugs and drug cartels if you are to look at a bigger picture. Turns out that legal corporations and drug cartels share quite a bit in common from controlling supply to customer service to everything in middle such as marketing, public relations etc. Knowing how the "system" works can provide useful insight on how to dismantle or weaken the system. The war on illegal drugs isn't new but this book highlights how the efforts are directed where they are least to make any significant impact. For example, rather than attacking supply side the book makes a point how much useful it would be to control the demand side of the business. Rather than allocating more police force to stop the sale of drugs it would be helpful to invest money in public campaigns such as criminal re-education, after school activities, job placements for prisoners after they get out and such. 

There is also the argument of legalizing some of the drugs such as marijuana. Fortunately some states are seeing the point of economists and starting to do that. Not only that will weaken the cartels hold of the drug business but can lead to decrease in violence and more money in taxes and licensing for the states. 

In my opinion this is a well-written book on investigative journalism with arguments backed by statistical data. I recommend highly recommend this book. There are other books in this category one of my favourite is American Kingpin by Nick Bilton.