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Millions of immigrants risk deportation and imprisonment by living in the US without legal status. They are living underground, with little protection from exploitation at the hands of human smugglers, employers, or law enforcement. Underground America presents the remarkable oral histories of men and women struggling to carve a life for themselves in the US.

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"In a time when history is told in cheap television reenactments, if at all, and personal tragedy is gobbled up in rapidly digestible magazine photos and reality shows, this project goes against the grain."
- Guardian

"Bold and heartbreaking."
- Miami SunPost

"Average news-watchers who think they have a grasp on the immigration debate may well find these stories, speaking for millions of invisible American residents, no less than revelatory."
- Publisher´s Weekly (starred review)

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Peter Orner is the author of two novels, The Second Coming of Mavala Shikongo and Love and Shame and Love , as well as two collections of stories, Esther Stories and Last Car Over the Sagamore Bridge . For the Voice of Witness series, Orner also co-edited Hope Deferred: Narratives of Zimbabwean Lives with Annie Holmes. Orner has been awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship and holds a law degree from Northeastern University. He is currently a Professor of Creative Writing at San Francisco State University. He lives in Bolinas, California.

Luis Alberto Urrea was born in Tijuana, Mexico and is a member of the Latino Literature Hall of Fame. He is the author of numerous books, including The Hummingbird´s Daughter and The Devil´s Highway , a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. His latest novel is Into the Beautiful North. Urrea is a professor at The University of Illinois-Chicago.

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