"Patel brings together a humanist-oriented scholarship and participatory action research to learn side-by-side with youth—youth whose voices and experiences remind us that our work as teachers and researchers should be about creating a dignified life for all people.”
—Kris D. Gutiérrez, past president of AERA

“A brilliant policy analyst, biting social critic, and loving biographer of lives, Leigh is—despite herself—a stunning romantic smitten with passion for the vitality, humanity, and creativity of these young immigrant lives.”
—From the Foreword by Michelle Fine, Graduate Center, The City University of New York

“Poignant and insightful….After reading this book it will no longer be possible to use code words like ‘undocumented’ and ‘illegal’ to keep these young people silenced and confined to the shadowy world of fugitives.”
—Pedro Noguera, executive director, Metropolitan Center for Urban Education, New York University

“Lisa Patel is both ethnographer and poet in telling stories of anguish and desperation, but in the end, stories of hope and survival. All teachers, and anyone who cares about the future of our nation, must read this book.”
—Sonia Nieto, professor emerita, School of Education, University of Massachusetts

“Patel brings into compelling focus and with love young people who are all around us yet not wholly seen, making the case that America's race problem of the 20th century is compounded in this one by issues of immigration.”
—Susan E. Wilcox, community and university educator, writer

“Patel’s exceptional research, keen insight, and deep empathy toward one of the most important and vibrant populations in the United States inspires us to seek and create immigration policies that reflect and restore human dignity and justicia.”
—Curtis Acosta, Chicano/Latino literature teacher, founder of Acosta Latino Learning Partnership