A moving memoir of a family’s struggles as undocumented immigrants. A very important read for anyone, and a beautifully written exploration of a very difficult circumstance.

Book Review for The Illegal by Laz Ayala.
The Illegal is a memoir, following the success story of Laz Ayala who fled El Salvador at just 14.
First of all, I want to commend Ayala on his bravery, hard work and determination.
I found this a really quick read, a little too quick maybe. I felt the timeline jumped around alot and at times the writing lacked clarity and structure.
However, this was clearly an honest retelling of some of the horrors witnessed in war torn countries, as well as the complexities associated with moving away and settling somewhere different. Especially as an undocumented person.
There is also alot of facts in this book which are incredibly eye opening and interesting, I would highlight however that there were no listed sources available on this ebook, but these may be included in the finished book.
Overall, I'm rating this 3.5 stars, which I feel slightly uncomfortable doing as I don't want to take away from the amazing story of Laz Ayala, the reason this is not a 5 star is simply the writing and writing style.
I would still recommend this book, it's such a quick read but remains insightful and eye opening.
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"Illegal" by Laz Ayala is the true story of the author's migration from El Salvador to the United States and his life here both as a new arrival and adulthood. In my opinion, what doesn't get much attention United States history, which was covered in the book, is the U.S. government's role in providing military aid to Central American countries and how this negatively impacts these countries to this day. We don't learn about how our complicity in Central American politics leads people to endure a harrowing experience to come to a country that isn't always welcoming. This is a short and really interesting read that is just one in an untold number of stories about immigration to the United States.

Thank you to BookBaby and NetGalley for the Advanced Reader's Copy!

Available July 21st 2020.

A short monologue, "Illegal" contains the ponderings of a man at the pinnacle of his career pontificating about the harrowing journey he had to take to make it in America. Being a fellow immigrant, I empathize deeply with Laz Ayala's story. I know how difficult even filling out the basic visa applications can be, how rigid the renewal schedules are. However, underlying this extraordinary journey, is a sense of "pulling yourself up by the bootstraps" mentality, a "if I can do it, so can you" mentality which I want to parse out. It's not that these mentalities are bad, they certainly have their value in motivating the population. It's that an immigrant life, or a human life, should not have to be equal to capital to be worthwhile of entry.

At one point, Ayala states, "Of course there should be a lawful immigration system." Personally, I disagree. Lawful for who? As we clearly see in the US today, the law only applies and works for a certain population and disadvantages all others. What is the purpose of establishing these clear borders? What is the purpose of then enforcing these boundaries at the cost of human lives? Can there ever be a lawful immigration system? What would it look like? Who would be the enforcers and how can we breakdown the power differential between the enforcer and the enforcee, between the border patrol and the immigrant, between the UCIS worker and the refugee begging at his door? These are questions I wish Ayala delved into, though perhaps they are slightly outside of the scope of the book.