A Tale of Justice, Need, and Anxiety - My Thoughts on Crossing Arizona

This week, we have our first non-Frontline documentary. You will notice as we go through the semester that many of the documentaries from sources aside from PBS will have a stronger point of view. Of course, you are always welcome to discuss any biases in your reflection papers and discussion comments. That being said, this may be one of my favorite documentaries that I have assigned this semester. I don't often work on immigration policy, but in Arizona we have all had some first-hand experience with this policy issue. In my opinion, Crossing Arizona highlights the diverse voices of individuals affected by immigration policy, many of whom often go unheard in our immigration policy debates.

You'll notice that the reading on immigration policy focused as much, if not more, on policies affecting legal immigrants, while the documentary focuses primarily on illegal or undocumented immigration across the U.S. Mexico border. Of course, both are intimately related. As we learned, not all immigrants are created equal when it comes to our immigration policies. One of the great points that this documentary makes is that human rights groups, anti-immigration groups, public servants, politicians, and residents of border communities all see the current immigration policies as problematic. Despite this, we have been unable to change our policies. As the law stands, we essentially pose a high risk of death to anyone who risks crossing the border, while simultaneously benefiting from the cheap labor of those who make it across. Certainly, this creates a lot of ethical questions and quandaries for people who live on the border and for our policymakers.

The documentary presents a question that is relevant for our readings this week. What are the possible unintended consequences of policies when we do not fully understand, or are afraid to acknowledge, the causes of problems? In this case, by not acknowledging our demand for cheap labor and our trade policies as push and pull factors affecting immigration, we have instead created "a solution" that does not solve the problem. If a 40 hour walk through the desert in 110 degree heat is not enough to keep people from crossing the border into Arizona, perhaps we need to re-think our understanding of immigration policy.

This documentary also highlights some of the topics we will be discussing next week when we talk about implementation. If you were paying attention at the beginning of the documentary, you may have noticed that the Border Patrol agent talked about policy changes that occurred in 1993 and 1994. If you remember, the readings discussed bills that were passed in 1990 and 1996. The policy change discussed in the documentary is a change in implementation or the carrying out of policies of the border patrol to stop immigration. This change locked down the easiest places through which immigrants could pass, filtering them through the most difficult terrain. I believe that Matt, who will be taking the reins and leading the class next week, will also discuss co-production, or citizen engagement in public service delivery. In this documentary we saw many examples of co-production from the samaritans providing water to the Minutemen camping out on the border. Normally, we think of co-production as a positive thing, but depending on your point of view, you may have seen some examples that made you uncomfortable.

So, what do you think? Did the documentary bring to light a point of view that you did not previously know about or understand? How do you think the various activists and public servants came across? Could you put yourself in "the shoes" of any of the individuals featured?