I was at Cinema 21 on Friday evening to participate in a Q & A session with Eric Byler, the co-director of 9500 LIBERTY. The film chronicles the birth and death of a law in Prince William County, Va., that required police to arrest people if they had “probable cause” to believe the person was an illegal immigrant. The bill was written by some of the same national groups that had a hand in Arizona’s SB 1070.
Eric’s friend Jonah, a film professor at PSU, saw my article on the Secure Communities program and asked me to participate. I spoke a little about how the process works: although Portland police aren’t allowed to involve themselves with anybody’s immigration status, after booking the process goes directly into the county’s (and ICE‘s) hands.
I mentioned a friend of mine who got pulled over for drunk driving in Beaverton, spent a month in the Washington County Jail, and was sent up to the ICE detention center in Tacoma. I got word yesterday that he was flown down to Tijuana in the middle of the night, and as I write this he’s on a bus back to his native Yucatan.
Byler and his co-director/girlfriend Annabel Park don’t pretend to be objective. The film clearly takes a side, yet it’s not propaganda. This is something I’d like to see more of: factual, omnipresent reportage that has a spine and an opinion. One of the right-wing bigots in the film says that protesting is for “the fringe left and third world countries.” Part of me sort of agrees. I’ve had a lot of fun covering, and participating in, big rallies around Portland with signs and solidarity and “Sí se puede.” That’s an important way of getting people involved and excited, especially when you’re looking to get idealistic young white people allied with immigrant families. But there’s not much discussion at those things, and little indication of how to usefully direct the swell of outrage or excitement.
I almost regret calling the film “slow and wonky at times” in my 100-word capsule review. When it comes to what’s driving policy, I’ll take slow and wonky over outraged and passionate any day of the week.