Amazon.com description: Product Description: "Inside the State" takes the reader behind the scenes inside the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) - one of the most secretive agencies in the federal government, and one which wields enormous discretionary power. Kitty Calavita documents the internal decision-making processes of the INS that have shaped US policy, and places the current reform movement in historical and theoretical perspective. Connecting structural contradictions in the political economy to the details of agency decision-making, "Inside the State" aims to provide in-depth analyses of the links between abstract theories of the state and real-life political actors and institutions.