Dear friends,
Today’s pick, a look at ICE and immigration policies in the U.S., carries substantial political implications. The Trump administration threatened legal action against its makers and according to the New York Times “fought mightily to keep it from being released until after the 2020 election.”
Immigration Nation
Now streaming, new on Netflix this week.
For three years, the makers of this docuseries gained in-depth access to ICE and other government agencies to document the current state of the U.S. immigration system.
Immigration Nation looks at how ICE functions from within, but it also focuses on the human toll of its methods. When a migrant freezes to death, an officer calls his distraught father to notify him. It quickly becomes apparent that the officer is using the same call to try to establish if the father is in the U.S. legally or if he should be deported.
The show also makes an important point of noting that the harshness of the U.S. immigration system didn’t start with the current administration. “Prevention through deterrence” Clinton-era policies, for example, forced migrants towards desert routes, killing around 10,000 people from dehydration.
Alternatives you might like
Living Undocumented on Netflix follows eight undocumented families who live with the fear of being detained and deported.
In Human Flow on Amazon Prime, Ai Weiwei travels the world to document the ongoing refugee crisis, which forced over 65 million people to leave their homes.
Talk on Friday,
Bilal
If you can, please support this newsletter by subscribing or giving it as a gift: