Netflix's 'Immigration Nation' is a must
Six hours of a stranger’s time is a big ask, especially if you’re vouching for a show you haven’t seen yet. But leading up to the August 3 release of Netflix’s Immigration Nation, plenty of people ventured out on that limb to promote the series on social media. This came after one of its main subjects, U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE), sought to block the project's release and threatened legal action against its creators. Now, it’s all too clear what the agency took issue with — and the series' amplification has become even more important.
'Immigration Nation' is most threatening to Trump because it is fair, thorough, and true.
Directed by Christina Clusiau and Shaul Schwartz, the six-part docuseries began production shortly after the Trump administration took office and, for a time, had the rare support of ICE and other administration officials. Unlike other impactful documentaries released in recent years, Immigration Nation didn't purport a specific agenda during production; even its title is ambiguous enough to make one believe the project could fall on either side of the contentious debate it covers.
The belief that such objectivity would promise ICE a kind of fair shake is likely what gained Clusiau and Schwartz their unprecedented access, allowing the pair to witness immigration operations firsthand across the country for over two and a half years. And yet, the message that Trump’s “zero-tolerance” immigration policy has become an egregious violation of human rights is so astonishingly apparent in the finished series that it’s difficult to argue any other interpretation of the evidence Clusiau and Schwartz gathered. ICE feared their people looked bad in this film, and it is true that they do. But the question of whether that portrayal is a result of the filmmakers' agenda or the agency's actions is unlikely to be asked by anyone who's actually seen it.
CARD ID: 506870
From 2017 to 2020, Clusiau and Schwartz documented the United States’ labyrinthian immigration process thoroughly and appear to have upheld journalistic standards with watertight integrity as they did so. In the first episode, viewers witness evidence of this as they are entrenched in ride-along footage of New York City and El Paso ICE raids, the kind you could easily see underscored by COPS's “Bad Boys” theme if it weren’t peppered with sympathetic officer interviews discussing the emotional toll that comes with immigration enforcement. It’s an hour that stands to make many uncomfortable, as it seems to almost defend the work of an organization many have likened to domestic terrorism. Some may even argue it offers a humanizing platform for people who do not deserve one considering their voluntary participation in a system that hurts so many.
But in that episode, as scenes of detainees humiliated, bystanders harmed, families shattered, and officials celebrating their role in that destruction mount, the teeth of this project begin to show. Over the next five hours, Immigration Nation drags viewers through every feasible corner of immigration policy in the Trump era. We see the separation and reunification of families, deportation of alleged criminals and unlucky “collaterals,” the abhorrent exploitation of many people under ICE "care," and an inherent cruelty that seems to find its way into even the most mundane aspects of the system.
Episode 1 of 'Immigration Nation'Credit: netflixAlthough Clusiau and Schwartz make liberal use of text slates for statistics,Immigration Nation is mostly devoid of other context and narration. Instead, interview subjects of all kinds recount their personal experience with Trump's ever-changing tactics to deport undocumented immigrants and deny entrance to asylum seekers. There are the emotional narratives viewers will likely already be familiar with, namely those of parents separated from their children at the border, families mourning the deaths of loved ones who attempted journeys to the U.S., and individuals sent back to countries where they will face certain peril. Tragically, these accounts aren't what stand out.
It's a consistent passing of the buck that not even thousands of hours of footage could find an end to.
Instead, it is the perspective of the enforcers that are the most damning. Those who acknowledge the inherent flaws in the system while insisting they're just "doing what they're told" and "following the law" make up the majority of sentiments in every episode — a consistent passing of the buck not even Clusiau and Schwartz's thousands of hours of footage could find an end to. As one man claims through embarrassed mumbling, "It's not personal, it's business."
But there are also stark moments of abuse and misconduct that tell a bleaker story of intentional harm being done on immigrant families. From one officer gleefully describing raids as being "like Christmas" to another picking the lock on a private residence, Immigration Nation offers a plethora of bad PR moments for ICE. The frequency of these occurrences in the series substantially support, if not entirely prove, the notion that this is a systemic problem that has risen to the level of a human rights crisis. The disparity between these groups, in terms of power and compassion, is so powerful it's no wonder ICE couldn't manage the narrative they thought they were helping craft. There was simply too much to hide even when the storytellers were being as even-handed as expected. (That said, the fact that Clusiau and Schwartz were willing to redact the last names of many ICE officials to protect them from public backlash seems to be the sort of kindness only an attorney could buy.)
A brief moment of reprieve in 'Immigration Nation'Credit: netflixThe greatest frustration viewers are likely to find inImmigration Nationis not its lack of reliable reporting, but its lack of emotional catharsis. Still, that's a price worth paying for rigorous journalism in a nation seized by post-truth politics — even if it doesn't change any minds. This series is most threatening to the present administration not because it employs a rhetoric too powerful to be ignored, but because it is fair, thorough, and true.
Immigration Nation is now streaming on Netflix.
TopicsNetflixImmigration
(责任编辑:新闻中心)
- The Wonderful World of Christmas Trees
- Wikipedia cofounder Jimmy Wales's quest to fill the internet with real facts and stories
- The world's largest battery is about to get even bigger
- North Korea threatens China, too: Moon
- How to watch 'Kinds of Kindness': When is it streaming?
- Apple Watch 10 rumors: Everything we know so far
- Robots at Amazon warehouses linked to more serious workplace injury
- Mourinho raises further doubts over future
- Bizarre night
- 实干担当抓落实 多措并举促发展
- EAT's Si+ lightweight hydrogen powder: Your questions answered
- Inter win UCL final warm
- Presidential candidates clash over NK policy, missile defense
-
SCOTUS: The courts implementing Project 2025, without Trump.
Earlier this month, the Supreme Court refused to allow a new rule issued by the Department of Educat ...[详细] -
Now we can talk treble: Guardiola
LONDON:Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola urged his players to seize the opportunity of a lifetim ...[详细] -
Last week Ford thought it played it coy only revealing the name of its first all-electric vehicle (t ...[详细]
-
Diplomacy with US, China not a 'zero
By Kim Jae-kyoungThis is the fifth in a series of interviews with international experts on Korea to ...[详细] -
老街社区“爱心助老餐吧”供应午餐8月21日下午,雨城区东城街道水中社区内,不少居民早早来到课堂,准备参加瑜伽课。这是水中社区开办的社区学堂,除了瑜伽,茶艺、书法、古琴等课程也深受社区居民的喜爱,人气火 ...[详细]
-
'Game of Thrones’ fans need to enroll in this college course right now
The newest season of Game of Thrones isn't the only reason to get excited about summertime.SEE ALSO: ...[详细] -
Spalletti confirms Napoli exit after making history
MILAN:Luciano Spalletti confirmed Monday that he will leave Napoli at the end of the Serie A season ...[详细] -
White House snubs Tillerson's offer for talks with North Korea
The White House said Wednesday that now is not the time for talks with North Korea, a day after the ...[详细] -
Campbell highlights Washington Declaration amid security concerns over Putin
U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell, center, speaks during a joint press conference at the ...[详细] -
Wikipedia cofounder Jimmy Wales's quest to fill the internet with real facts and stories
Jimmy Wales may be the reason you survived college, or book club, or a date. Wikipedia, which he cof ...[详细]