Unti9780063583269

On June 12, 2025, United States Senator Alex Padilla was forced to the ground and handcuffed by federal agents as he attempted to question Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem during a press conference. In the year and a half since, assaults like this and worse have become all too common, as the Trump administration’s militant immigration enforcement has mostly targeted law-abiding immigrants and their citizen defenders with brutal tactics. Yet lost in the cruelty of this immigration strategy is an argument that even many Democratic politicians have been unwilling to make: Not only does the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement violate the rule of law—it is bad policy for the United States. Immigration is not a problem; it is a source of our national identity and strength. In The Case for Immigration, Senator Padilla offers a spirited defense of American immigration, arguing that immigrants don’t just make our country great, they make our country better. In ten concise yet sweeping chapters, Senator Padilla reveals the practical, often overlooked, ways that immigrants improve life for all Americans, including: Contributing to the nation’s wealth, paying much more in taxes than consuming in public services and expanding the economyDefending the nation through military service and as public servantsMaking communities saferProviding demographic vitality to aging townsEnriching the nation’s culture, food, entertainment, and entrepreneurial spiritBlending the story of his family’s immigration with his own political coming of age amid anti-immigrant fervor, Senator Padilla makes the compelling case that immigration—across races, religions and decades—has been a critical piece of American exceptionalism since our nation’s founding. At a moment when we find ourselves once again debating who gets to be an American, The Case for Immigration is a reminder that no country, in the history of the world, has embraced immigration as successfully as the United States. And in the end, losing that strength isn’t just a rhetorical blow to our national identity—it’s a very real danger to our collective future.