Hello, I'm Timbedermius, and this is NPR's Book of the Day. We're in the full swing of

another presidential election cycle, and once again, immigration is a major issue among voters.

And all that attention usually comes with charged language about border crossings, deportations, and what criminality looks like.

Legal scholar Cesar Quaitemot Garcia-Garcia Hernandez is trying to change that by encouraging

Americans to think differently about how we treat immigrants who've committed crimes.

It's the subject of his new book, Welcome the Wretched, in Defense of the Criminal Alien.

In it, he argues for American criminal law to be decoupled from immigration law,

that just because an immigrant commits a crime doesn't mean that we should automatically deport.

Hernandez spoke about the book with here and now host Deepa Fernandez.

In the U.S., national security news can feel far away from daily life. Distant wars, murky

conflicts, diplomacy behind closed doors on our new show, Sources and Methods. NPR reporters

on the ground bring you stories of real people helping you understand

why distant events matter here at home. Listen to sources and methods on the NPR app or wherever

you get your podcasts. Congress continues to debate legislation that would limit immigration across

the southern border. Now, a new book envisions a very different change to

immigration law. In Welcome the Wretched Immigration Lawyer and Ohio State University Professor

Cesar Huatemoc Garcia-Arndes argues that immigration policy should be separate from the

criminal justice system, that criminal offences should not automatically

lead to deportation. And crossing the border without permission should not in itself be considered

a crime. As he writes, those policies run contrary to the history of immigration in the country.

The book, Welcome the Wretched, is out today. And joining me now is author

Cesar Guademoc, Garcia-Arndez. Cesar, welcome. It's my pleasure to be here. What you're

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