Spring Break
Immigrants Walk The Line
Documentary Film Raises Awareness Of 'War Zone' Of Immigration On Mexican-American Border
John Bailey
Issue date: 10/18/07 Section: Focus
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.
"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.
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Glenn Spencer
posted 10/20/07 @ 12:36 PM EST
This is a little dated. Jack Foote hasn't been active on the border since he was arrested in Sierra Vista on Sept. 22, 2004.
As for Nethercott, Front Page Magazine said the following about his run in with illegal aliens in March of 2004. (Continued…)
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