Six Americans have volunteered to take part in a border experience they will never forget. They have little in common except for their strong opinions about illegal undocumented immigrants.
Over the next four weeks, the six will embark on an arduous and often heart-breaking journey to Guatemala, El Salvador, and Chiapas, southern Mexico, but only after they first explore illegal immigration on the US side of the border. They join an Arizona sheriff in Cochise County, visit ranchers furious that Mexican cartels now smuggle people and drugs across their land, and finally the group camps out in the Sonoran deset with humanitarian aid group No More Deaths. Confronted with two sides of the story, the six Americans start to realize that the world of immigration may not be as black and white as they originally thought it was.
Borderland, presented in 4 episodes, is accessible through the Libraries’ subscription to the database Films on Demand.
Meet the six American volunteers:
Alison Melder, from the Arkansas Young Republicans.
ALISON MELDER: We don’t know who these people are. We don’t know if they’ve murdered somebody, if they raped a child. We don’t know. They’re absolutely undocumented.
Lis-Marie Alvarado, immigrant rights campaigner from Florida.
LIS-MARIE ALVARADO: The estimated 11 million people that have no documents should have a pathway to citizenship.
Gary Larsen, a farmer from Washington state.
GARY LARSEN: People say immigrants are coming and stealing our jobs. It’s not true.
Kishana Holland, a fashion blogger from Las Vegas.
KISHANA HOLLAND: If I knew I had a neighbor that was an illegal immigrant for a fact, I would turn them in.
Retired Marine, Randy Stufflebeam, from Illinois.
RANDY STUFFLEBEAM: We need to have a moratorium on all immigration. Legal, illegal — stop it all right now. Illegal immigrants bring a culture that is not conducive to the American way of life.
New York City artist, Alex Seel.
ALEX SEEL: There’s no such thing as illegal immigration, especially in America.
I want to watch this!!