Unity in the Community in collaboration with George Mason University, Prince William Campus
University Life presents – Crossing the Line: An Immigration Film Series at the Verizon Auditorium at George Mason University’s Prince William Campus

Saturday, August 16 at 7:30 pm – a double feature
Alienated: Undocumented Immigrant Youth
This film is about undocumented immigrant youth facing the challenges of life after high school without options for legalized work or college
Beyond the Border
Latinos seeking a better life have migrated to Kentucky, for low-paying jobs in the tobacco, manufacturing and horse racing industries. As Latino communities swell, so does the xenophobia and discrimination they face.

Sunday, August 17 at 2:30 pm
Under the Same Moon
The reunion of 9-year-old Carlitos and his mother Rosario, Who works as an illegal domestic in Los Angeles.

69 Thoughts to “Immigration Film Series this Weekend”

  1. DB

    emma I do trully understand where you are going as far as US military are concerned. My brother is a SGT in the army, ten years in, and 2 two tours in Iraq. Current housing allowance is 900.00, so he went to Korea to avoid a third tour, and his wife is living in a a dog-pee ridden home. Yes, adults commit crimes but their children are innocents.

  2. Emma,

    People’s actions have consequences, don’t they? …People dump themselves into a foreign country in hopes that that country will simply take care of the needs of their families, and that has consequences, too. Having to return to one’s country of birth, assuming you are not going to be killed or persecuted as a result, does not seem to be the end of the world for these kids.

    Outside your door is the real world. Have you ever been out there?

    They built our roads. They built our homes. They built our office buildings working 12-14 hour shifts in one of the most dangerous jobs in the country.

    And now the people who work in the office cubicles, whose greatest work hazard is finding a nice place to eat lunch, in their air conditioned cubicles, with their steady paychecks, and their secure medical benefits…now those over privileged brats want to deny the children of these immigrants…the children who are the VERY reason why these immigrants risked their lives building those office buildings…now these loud office worker brats want to deny the immigrants’ children the one thing their fathers and mothers sacrificed so much and so long for…hope.

    People’s actions have consequences, don’t they?

    What actions did this 16 year old innocent boy take to have his jaw broken? None, besides having black skin. And he’s lucky that the cop ran away after breaking his jaw. A more seasoned cop, who knew how to play the game, would have charged the kid with felony assault on a police officer to cover his tracks.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=61lb7_sHrMU

    And if you doubt that a cop would lie like that, here are two cops (a twofer) doing exactly that because they thought they could get away with it.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9eIlr0UGcI0

    Emma, outside your door is the real world. Have you ever been out there?

  3. Emma

    It just makes me sick when I see disabled vets scrambling for the medical and mental-health care they need and deserve, military families living in substandard housing and unable to get a break on tuition for their kids, and then I’m supposed to worry about the quality of services that illegal immigrants feel they are entitled to.

    You’re right, DB.This is a sore spot for me.

  4. Emma

    Mackie,why does every discussion turn to your abject hatred for law-enforcement? I used to find you interesting and occasionally entertaining, but you’ve lost all credibility with your incessant cop-bashing. Yes, I do live in the real world, Click yourself out of YouTube and join in.

  5. info

    City trio bound over in Manassas murder. All three men are also being held on Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainers, prosecutors said.
    http://www.insidenova.com/isn/news/crime/article/city_trio_bound_over_in_manassas_murder/19839/

  6. Moon-howler

    Emma, It makes me ill also to see any vets living on the street and not getting medical and mental health care that they need. It made me sick to see the sub-standard facilities they had to endure at Walter Reed several years ago.

    It also makes me sick to see that our troops don’t always have the supplies they need while in harms way over seas. It makes me sick that the hired guns of blackwater make so much more money than our own military personnel and and have state of the art equipment.

    However, this has nothing to do with how the throw away kids of the illegal immigrants are treated. It almost reminds me of that story, A Man Without a Country. Can you imagine being all grown up and facing the prospects of either going to a country where you barely know the language and customs or staying in a country illegally where you cannot work and cannot continue your education? Sort of explains gangs doesn’t it?

  7. Elena

    Lucky Duck,
    You have now stated why there is a “stand off” in this debate about illegal immigration. We all have “our” facts to support our beliefs on this issue. So, the question thus remains, how will we come up with a solution if we can’t come to some consensus on the “problem” ?

    In the meantime, human beings suffer, those in neighborhoods who feel abandoned by their local government, state government, and federal government. While in turn many see the need for immigration, legal AND illegal in the broader context of an economic dilema and finally, there are those who see this as a basic human rights issue.

    I really believe that history should serve as our best teacher. How do we learn from the past of our immigration “solutions”, the solutions that worked and the ones that did not. Therein lies our answer to the future. I would really like to have a credible panel, with immigration experts, share their knowledge with us.

  8. Emma

    I don’t see the kids as “throw away.” I have trouble understanding how parents can be willing to gamble with their childrens’ lives and futures. Unfortunately, that gamble pays off enough for this to happen over and over again, and it will keep happening as long as the incentives are there.

    A Man Without a Country–Were you referring to the Kurt Vonnegut essays, or the story about the man who renounced the U.S. and was exiled to live on naval warships for the rest of his life?

  9. Why would anyone complain about the fact that people want to come to be part of our country and want to raise their families here?

    Don’t take this blessing for granted.

    Wait until the day that people can’t wait to leave our country en masse for greener shores. Perhaps after Al Queda detonates weapons of mass destruction in multiple american cities.

    Who is going to come here to help rebuild?

  10. Moon-howler

    Emma,

    I see any child who approaches adulthood without hope of a decent job or further education, regardless of what they do as a ‘throw away.’

    I don’t think you or I can speak to the conditions some of these people come from. Some of the countries are war-torn. Some of the people come from extreme poverty where chickens run through the house, there is no running water, the homes have dirt floors, and nutrition is poor at best. Some people come from areas where they need to escape gangs and extreme criminal behavior.

    I don’t know what is gambling with your children’s lives: staying or going to America illegally. I would need to walk a mile in someone else’s moccassins before I would know the answer to that one.

  11. Lucky Duck

    Elena, I do believe that there is a political stand off when it comes to immigration reform. Both sides have hardened agendas and won’t seem to give an inch. When the Kennedy/McCain bill was presented it was endorsed by the Republican President and shot down by Republican and Democratic members of Congress. So even the bill that had at least some bipartisian support failed because of members on both sides.

    What do I think it will take? It will take a super majority of one party to gain a filibuster proof number that will ultimately make a decision and force the other party to go along. There is simply no cross party majority that seems to work. Its failed twice in the last three years. What will be different the next time the issue comes up if its the same people in Congress?

    A lot of people on this blog have stated that wait until either Obama or McCain get into office because they are both for immigration reform and it will pass. Well, whatever your feelings on Bush, he too, was for immigratin reform it still DID NOT pass. So even if the President is for reform, until a filibuster proof or veto proof majority is elected in Congress, I don’t think you’ll see much change in people’s agendas or outlooks or a bill passed. Its a stale mate in which only big business wins.

  12. Moon-howler

    Emma, I was actually thinking of the short story written by Edward Hale that was written in 1863, during the Civil War. It was actually written as pro-union propaganda but the whys and wherefores are irrelevant as to why I am reminded.

    The protagonist can never set foot on US soil and dies at sea. The point is that he belongs no where. I see children of illegal immigrants as being in the same boat, so to speak, even though they may not have cursed the United States as Nolan did.

    I am not familiar with Kurt Vonnegut’s Man Without a Country. Sorry.

  13. Moon-howler

    Lucky Duck,

    I don’t see anything really changing so that legislation will pass to reform immigration. Both sides seem entrenched in their own agendas. The closest thing we had to a compromise was shot down last year, mainly because of conservative talk shows giving a call to arms over it, before the average person had an opportunity to digest it.

    Unfortunately, the anti-immigration crowd got hold of it and defined its contents before it had a chance. Any pathway to citizenship or even legal residency was decried as AMNESTY regardless of how many hurdles were placed before those here illegally. Compromise is needed but I do not see the anti-immigration crew as compromise kind of people. (and I call them anti-immigration without apology)

    Lucky Duck, I see your words as being right on the money.

  14. “I have trouble understanding how parents can be willing to gamble with their childrens’ lives and futures.”

    Emma, if you saw some of the conditions these people live in, you might understand more. What’s worth? Gambling or death? I would choose the gamble myself.

    We have so many choices in this nation that we take them for granted. We expect to be able to have privleges. We expect that if we don’t like one place, we can do something about it or go to another place. Most of the world does not hold this assumption because they do NOT have choices. We saw this in the movie over the weekend.

  15. Rick Bentley

    Now you have to admit, in terms of sheer vulgarity it would be funny if someone snuck this in and showed it as a short before one of the main features – it would so thoroughly horrify the crowd. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rr800IK_aVI

  16. Moon-howler

    It is hard to have a comment for that, Rick. Now do YOU think that is a funny video?

  17. Rick Bentley

    I think it would have been slightly funny if he had not made the racist remarks he did.

  18. Rick Bentley

    Lucky Duck said : “A lot of people on this blog have stated that wait until either Obama or McCain get into office because they are both for immigration reform and it will pass. Well, whatever your feelings on Bush, he too, was for immigratin reform it still DID NOT pass. So even if the President is for reform, until a filibuster proof or veto proof majority is elected in Congress, I don’t think you’ll see much change in people’s agendas or outlooks or a bill passed. Its a stale mate in which only big business wins.”

    Exactly right. But the status quo is causing so much friction that I think they’ll have to say Uncle eventually. Amnesty’s a dead duck though, you’re right about that. If Obama or McCain has the balls to try to push it, they’ll get a s***storm like no other.

  19. Rick Bentley

    The issue hasn’t yet defined the two men yet to many Americans, the way it has to me. But if they actually push for Amnesty as President (the way Bush did), it will become a defining issue, way beyond Gays in the Military for Clinton and Stem Cell research for Bush.

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