Pam, this looks great!  I had just logged in to do something of the sort, so am thrilled to see you already have done.

 Burt, I think your idea of planning activates when no speaker is mentioned is a good one.  A different speaker for each session might get monotonous, plus I think it eliminates opportunities for class members to discuss issues among themselves.

Having said that, though, maybe we should consider someone from INS speaking.  They would know the details of immigration/naturalization well, and could perhaps indicate hardships in the process. 

Also, for the education portion, we might add Nusha Shishegar, our international coordinator.  She could explain all the paperwork required to study in the U.S. (this isn’t quite immigration, but many of the students who begin with visas apply for citizenship while here).

Finally, Emma Sepulveda is another potential quest speaker.  Born in Chile, she immigrated to the U.S. and is now a Spanish professor at Univ of NV, Reno.  A few years ago she ran for city mayor (I think).  She’s written a book entitled From Border Crossings to Campaign Trail: Chronicle of a Latina in Politics.  She is a wonderfully charming speaker!

I’ll try to think of some activities . . .

In case this doesn't stand out in the list, this book invloves Mexican immigrants in the Inland Empire.  The author might be a possible speaker candidate.  Because I don't have wings: Stories of Mexican immigrant Life by Philip Garrison.

A little reading related to . . .

History / Religion:

Chinese American voices: from the gold rush to the present / edited with introductions by Judy Yung, Gordon H. Chang, and Him Mark Lai

Encyclopedia of immigration and migration in the American West / edited by Gordon Morris Bakken & Alexandra Kindell

A companion to American immigration / edited by Reed Ueda

Other immigrants: the global origins of the American people / David M. Reimers

Immigrant faiths: transforming religious life in America / edited by Karen I. Leonard ... [et al.]

Latino religions and civic activism in the United States / edited by Gastón Espinosa, Virgilio Elizondo, and Jesse Miranda

Religion in the borderlands, Thomas M. Lessl

Horizons of the Sacred: Mexican Traditions in U.S. Catholicism, Timothy Matovina and Gary Riebe-Estrella

Disagreeing cultures:

Preventing youth violence in a multicultural society / edited by Nancy G. Guerra and Emilie Phillips Smith

Immigration and the alien gang epidemic: problems and solutions: hearing before the Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security, and Claims of the Committee on the Judiciary, House of Representatives, One Hundred Ninth Congress, first session, April 13, 2005

Economics:

Labor movement: how migration regulates labor markets / Harald Bauder

Bordering the future: the impact of Mexico on the United States / John A. Adams, Jr

Illegal migration from Mexico to the United States [electronic resource] / Gordon H. Hanson

The economics of illegal immigration / by Chisato Yoshida and Alan D. Woodland

Why does immigration divide America? : Public finance and political opposition to open borders / by Gordon H. Hanson

American dream:

Decade of betrayal: Mexican repatriation in the 1930s / Francisco E. Balderrama and Raymond Rodríguez

The Promised Land? : The lives and voices of Hispanic immigrants in the new South / Patricia L. Goerman

Americanism: new perspectives on the history of an ideal / edited by Michael Kazin & Joseph A. McCartin

Because I don't have wings: stories of Mexican immigrant life / Philip Garrison

(This book is situated in the Inland Empire – possible speaker?

Trailing clouds: immigrant fiction in contemporary America / David Cowart

Haunted in the New World: Jewish American culture from Cahan to The Goldbergs / Donald Weber

Geography / demographics:

Beyond Cannery Row: Sicilian women, immigration, and community in Monterey, California, 1915-99 / Carol Lynn McKibben

Because I don't have wings: stories of Mexican immigrant life / Philip Garrison

Puerto Ricans in the United States: a contemporary portrait / Edna Acosta-Belén, Carlos E. Santiago

The liberty of strangers: making the American nation / Desmond King

The Chinatown trunk mystery: murder, miscegenation, and other dangerous encounters in turn-of-the-century New York City / Mary Ting Yi Lui

Displacements and diasporas: Asians in the Americas / edited by Wanni W. Anderson and Robert G. Lee

Latino Los Angeles: transformations, communities, and activism / edited by Enrique C. Ochoa and Gilda L. Ochoa

The Salvadoran Americans / Carlos B. Cordova

Education:

Teaching Mikadoism: the attack on Japanese language schools in Hawaii, California, and Washington, 1919-1927 / Noriko Asato

Immigration in high-skill labor markets [electronic resource]: the impact of foreign students on the earnings of doctorates / George J. Borjas

How immigrants fare in U.S. education / Georges Vernez, Allan Abrahamse; with Denise Quigley

Politics:

Lobbying for inclusion: rights politics and the making of immigration policy / Carolyn Wong

Transforming politics, transforming America: the political and civic incorporation of immigrants in the United States / edited by Taeku Lee, S. Karthick Ramakrishnan, and Ricardo Ramírez

True faith and allegiance: immigration and American civic nationalism / Noah Pickus

Immigration and crime: race, ethnicity, and violence / edited by Ramiro Martinez, Jr. and Abel Valenzuela, Jr

The three U.S.-Mexico border wars: drugs, immigration, and Homeland Security / Tony Payan; foreword by Ed Williams

The 50% American: immigration and national identity in an age of terror / Stanley A. Renshon

NAFTA revisited: achievements and challenges / Gary Clyde Hufbauer and Jeffrey J. Schott; assisted by Paul L.E. Grieco and Yee Wong

Race & Gender:

Queer migrations: sexuality, U.S. citizenship, and border crossings / Eithne Luibhéid and Lionel Cantú, Jr., editors

The qualities of a citizen: women, immigration, and citizenship, 1870-1965 / Martha Gardner

Working toward whiteness: how America's immigrants became white; the strange journey from Ellis Island to the suburbs / David R. Roediger

The Ellis Island snow globe / Erica Rand

Borderlands:

Dying to cross: the worst immigrant tragedy in American history / Jorge Ramos; translated from the Spanish by Kristina Cordero

Borderlands = La frontera / Gloria Anzaldúa; with an introduction by Sonia Saldívar-Hull

Border women: writing from la frontera / Debra A. Castillo and María Socorro Tabuenca Córdoba

Forging the tortilla curtain: cultural drift and change along the United States-Mexico border, from the Spanish era to the present / by Thomas Torrans

Mexican coal mining labor in Texas and Coahuila, 1880-1930 / Roberto R. Calderón

The Flight of the eagle: poetry on the U.S.-Mexico border / edited by Harry Polkinhorn, Rogelio Reyes, Gabriel Trujillo Muñoz