The Making of a Dream: How a Group of Young Undocumented Immigrants Helped Change What It Means to Be American (Paperback or Softback)

“A sweeping chronicle of the immigrant rights movement. . . . Wides-Muñoz reminds us that thanks to the ability of young people to dream, what seems impossible today may yet prove achievable tomorrow.” —New York Times Book Review

A journalist chronicles the next chapter in civil rights—the story of a movement and a nation, witnessed through the poignant and inspiring experiences of five young undocumented activists who are transforming society’s attitudes toward one of the most contentious political matters roiling America today: immigration.

They are called the DREAMers: young people who were brought, or sent, to the United States as children and who have lived for years in America without legal status. Growing up, they often worked hard in school, planned for college, only to learn they were, in the eyes of the United States government and many citizens, "illegal aliens."

Determined to take fate into their own hands, a group of these young undocumented immigrants risked their safety to "come out" about their status—sparking a transformative movement, engineering a seismic shift in public opinion on immigration, and inspiring other social movements across the country. Their quest for permanent legal protection under the so-called "Dream Act," stalled. But in 2012, the Obama administration issued a landmark, new immigration policy: Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, which has since protected more than half a million young immigrants from deportation even as efforts to install more expansive protections remain elusive.

The Making of a Dream begins at the turn of the millennium, with the first of a series of "Dream Act" proposals; follows the efforts of policy makers, activists, and undocumented immigrants themselves, and concludes with the 2016 presidential election and the first months of the Trump presidency. The immigrants’ coming of age stories intersect with the watershed political and economic events of the last two decades: 9/11, the recession, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Obama presidency, and the rebirth of the anti-immigrant right.

In telling their story, Laura Wides-Muñoz forces us to rethink our definition of what it means to be American.

Based on years of immersive reporting, The Making of a Dream details the human stories behind the headlines:

• The Birth of the DREAMer Movement: Follow five young undocumented activists as they risk their safety to ‘come out’ and spark a national conversation.
• A New Civil Rights History: Explore two decades of struggle and triumph, from the first Dream Act proposals after the turn of the millennium to the political realities of the Trump presidency.
• The Creation of DACA: Go behind the scenes of the Obama administration’s landmark immigration policy, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, and the political battles that shaped it.
• Poignant Coming of Age Stories: Witness the personal journeys of the DREAMers as their lives intersect with watershed events like 9/11, the Great Recession, and the ongoing fight for their place in America.

Laura Wides-Muñoz ​is the author of The Making of a Dream: How a Group of Young Undocumented Immigrants Helped Change What it Means to be American, based on more than a decade of reporting on immigration, much of it done while a staff writer for The Associated Press.

Previously, she served as Vice President for Special Projects & Editorial Strategy at Univision’s English-language Fusion Network, and as a senior story editor for the network's TV and digital investigative teams.

Laura has reported from Cuba and throughout Central America and has written for The Miami Herald, The Washington Post, and the Los Angeles Times, among other outlets. She has won the Associated Press Managing Editors Award and multiple Society of Professional Journalists awards.

​The Making of a Dream is her first published book. She conceived of the project during a 2013 Harvard University Nieman Foundation for Journalism fellowship. She lives in Washington, D.C. with her family.