Who’s the Illegal Alien, Pilgrim?

Proceeding from the ideas held within a well-known poster art by Chicana artist and activism Yolanda Lopez, chapter 7 explores how the CCR rose to international prominence by criticizing President Jimmy Carter’s 1977 proposal to further militarize the border (alongside a limited amnesty) while calling attention to an announcement by the infamous Ku Klux Klan who planned on implementing a Border Watch Program to assist the Border Patrol in apprehending migrants. Focusing on the years 1977 to 1979, this struggle revealed that the nationalization of the immigration issue led to a widening notion of Chicano/Mexicano transnational community from beyond the borderlands in relation to other Latino communities throughout the country and beyond the context of the U.S. to further engagement with Mexico and Mexican civil society.