Analysis of Border War Film

More illegal immigrants cross the United States border through Arizona than California, Mexico, and Texas combined. The movie Border War illustrates the controversy over illegal immigration through documenting the lives of five people affected most by the rise of illegal immigration. The documentary focuses on the lives of people mostly affected by the rise of illegal immigration due to vulnerable United States southern border with Mexico. The movie begins with the documentary of the Field Operations Advisor at the United States Border patrol in Nogales, Arizona, Agent Jose Maheda. The audience gets to witness firsthand what Agent Maheda has to do deal with every day. The audience witnesses him engaging in a pursuit and capturing a van full of illegal immigrants attempting to cross the border. This is something that he does on a daily basis in order to disrupt smuggling across the United States southern border. The next documentary shifts to United States Representative J.D. Hayworth. The Congressmen introduced the Enforcement First Immigration Act. He represents Arizona’s 5th Congressional District and utilizes this Act as a source that he refers when talking about anti-illegal immigration and developing new proposals. Lupe Moreno, a volunteer citizen that belongs to The Minutemen Project is the focus of the next documentary. She was the daughter to a former safe house smuggler for illegal immigrants. A Latino herself, Lupe Moreno’s documentary illustrates her fight for Immigration Reform. The documentary shows her attending rallies and siding against the protesters whom believe border control is wrong. The fourth documentary is about the death of Deputy Dave March, gunned down by an illegal immigrant that fled to Mexico. It illustrates how Widow Teri March attempts to answer the question about Armando Garcia’s legal surrender to the jurisdiction of Mexico.
The final documentary poses as the counterargument towards illegal immigration and border control. Enrique Morones is the president of Border Angles. He along with many others helps illegal immigrants crossing the border by giving them water, blankets, and food. Prior to his group’s aid, illegal immigrants crossing the border would go without food or water and end up dying in the extreme desert conditions. Enrique claims to be the first dual citizen of the US and Mexico. Enrique states in the movie that “we didn’t cross the border, the border crossed us.” Enrique, as well as many of his supporters, believes that the United States stole rather than purchased northern areas of his countries land centuries ago. He believes that the US intruded on Mexico rather than the other way around. He is anti-border control because he believes it only leads to death and heartache. He believes that the illegal immigrants crossing the border will continue to cross because they see it as the only solution to better their lives.
Border War illustrates, by virtue of documentaries, the firsthand accounts of how the struggle over illegal immigration affects people most affected by it. I believe that this movie has more cons than pros considering how it argued for border control. There were five documentaries of which four of them focused on why border control of illegal immigrants was a necessity. There was only one documentary that illustrated the counterargument of border control of illegal immigrants. The movie is convincing about how border control of illegal immigrants should be more strictly enforced. The four documentaries supporting this claim demonstrate clearly how illegal immigrants can be at times harmful in the US society. However, in the fifth documentary with Enrique Morones, it does a poor job of elaborating on what Enrique Morones believes should be initiated by the government in order to keep illegal immigrants from dying in the southern border deserts. Too much time is spent on supporting their claim against illegal immigration than validating a counterargument. I believe this movie was a bit too bias when it came to supporting its claims. I didn’t feel like there was objective arguments made on both sides of the conflict. I believe this film did a poor job of convincing an audience that supports the counterargument to border control on the US southern borders to side with them on the matter.