Immigrants Walk The Line

Documentary Film Raises Awareness Of 'War Zone' Of Immigration On Mexican-American Border

By: John Bailey

Posted: 10/18/07

Every day, hundreds of illegal immigrants cross the border from Mexico into the United States. Some are driven by poverty and hunger, while others are running illicit drugs. They come by truck, by the guidance of the "coyotes" and by the hellish desert wastes. Many will die, and an even greater number will be sent back. Is this "a human disaster of unprecedented proportions," as John Fife, a pastor who has been charged with three felonies for helping refugees escape to America, described it? Or is it "an invasion with hostile intent," as Glenn Spencer, an American who is against Mexican immigration, said?

"Walking the Line," a film by Jeremy Levine and Landon Van Soest, was screened Thursday night in the Andrew Schenker Lecture Hall, with the directors present for questions afterward. The screening was cosponsored by the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies and the Institute of Puerto Rican and Latino Studies. The film attempts to examine the matter and explore "the uncertain line between what is patriotic, what is moral, and what is just," according to the film's Web site.

As the film quickly shows, however, the line wavers daily from ranch to compound and from person to person. The border isn't merely a political boundary, asserts the movie. It is a war zone.

The border vigilantes, American citizens who take matters into their own hands, stand on one side of the conflict. Men like Jack Foote of Ranch Rescue, an organization dedicated to "private property rights," and Chris Simcox of the Tombstone Militia patrol the lands around the border daily, searching for signs of illegal immigrants. Some, like Simcox, have little more than the help of locals and a pair of binoculars, while Ranch Rescue is equipped with assault rifles, Kevlar and camouflage uniforms. To these vigilantes, the border dispute is a clear case of their rights being violated.

However, as the film delves deeper, it becomes obvious that this apparent clarity is anything but. Fife works to bring food and water to immigrants trying to cross the forbidding desert.

"There is a humanitarian exception to any kind of criminal charges brought against anyone," Fife said.

Mike Wilson, a citizen of the O'odham reservation in the Sonora Desert, works toward the same end. With a pickup truck and coolers of water, he treks across the wasteland to refill water stations for thirsty migrants.

"Nobody deserves to die in the desert," said Wilson as he struggled with an overloaded wheelbarrow full of water jugs.

This humanitarianism strikes a different chord with some, such as Spencer. Aside from his beliefs that the immigration of Mexicans is a subversive takeover of the Southwest, he describes the work of Wilson and Fife as "an act of treason."

The film was mindful to balance the perspectives shown, although the audience couldn't help but scratch their heads at some of the viewpoints. Nervous laughs greeted Casey Nethercott's statement: "You screw with America, you're gonna get shot ... [Other nations] have no morals. "

There are moments that throw the already confused issues into even murkier waters. A migrant group is shown being stopped and sent to Border Patrol by Simcox's militia, and self-described "redneck with a rifle" Richard Kozal described the burns he suffered after gunfire from drug dealers shattered his tea kettle. These scenes are poignant and serve to remind the viewer that there is no clear, immediate end to the problem.

The film, which lasted slightly over an hour, was an enthralling and unnerving look at an issue relatively unknown to many Americans.

The checkpoints, compounds, and men with M-16s bear a striking resemblance to images from the Middle East flashed through the news every day, except these scenes are happening in America. Sadly, little attention seems to be paid to the problem, and after the film the directors described government policy as limited to "giving more money to Border Patrol". The resounding statement of the movie is that this issue needs to enter the public eye.

As stated by an O'odham tribal official, "If this happened anywhere else in America, it would be a crisis."

Contact John Bailey at

John.C.Bailey@UConn.edu.