6 movies Trump should watch to learn about immigration

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A product of the new wave of U.S. independent film, which included directors like Jim Jarmusch, Spike Lee, and David Lynch, El Norte is a low-budget indie directed by Gregory Nava (Mi Familia, Selena). The first of its kind, this 1984 film tells the story of a brother and sister who embark on a journey from their home in Guatemala to Los Angeles. The film puts a face to the word “immigrant,” and illustrates the harsh conditions they have to endure when traveling to the U.S. These aren’t Trump’s rapists and drug dealers—they depict the average immigrant coming to the country for economic or political reasons.

Donald Trump wants to build a wall pretty badly, but he rarely acknowledges that there is a rather significant wall along the U.S.-Mexico border already. Directed by John Carlos Frey, The 800 Mile Wall says it all in the title, addresses the impact the wall has had since the mid-1990s—built with the intent to discourage migrant traffic by funneling it to harsher terrain. It has, instead, resulted in thousands of deaths and done little to quell undocumented immigration.

Sleep Dealer, directed by Alex Rivera, is a sci-fi narrative that tells the story of a dystopian future, where the world’s water supplies are controlled by private companies and the Southern border is heavily policed by drones. Mexican laborers, or Cybraceros, are able to connect to virtual reality networks, a la The Matrix, and transport their labor, but not their bodies. Not too far off from today’ reality, Sleep Dealer interrogates the American demand for migrant labor and the increasing militarization of the southern border.

Despite all of his anti-immigrant talk, Donald Trump still relies largely on migrant labor to construct his hotels, and has been known to exploit undocumented workers in the process.  In that light, Made in L.A. is an Emmy award winning PBS documentary directed by Almudena Carracedo and Robert Bahar. It follows three Latina immigrants who work in the Los Angeles sweatshops for an American retailer. The film documents three years in which these women banded together and fought for basic labor protections. The New York Times calls Made in L.A. a “rousing...story of solidarity, perseverance, and triumph.” The film shows that Latin America’s best are here, and they deserve the same basic protections as any other American.

Repealing birthright citizenship has moved from the fringes into the mainstream political discourse in the GOP primaries; but efforts already existed in the late ‘60s and ‘70s to sterilize Latina women without their informed consent. No Mas Bebes, directed by Renee Tajima-Peña, tells the story of 10 women who were unknowingly put through this process when they went into the hospital to give birth, and their subsequent lawsuit against the LA County USC Medical Center. The fight led to major change in health care regulations, and the film stands as a harrowing account of how a group of marginalized and disenfranchised women fought for a woman’s control over her reproductive health.

Marion Cotillard and Joaquin Phoenix star in this intense film that portrays the harrowing nature of the immigrant’s journey, and although fictional, works as a reminder that not every unauthorized immigrant is from Mexico. Cotillard plays a Polish immigrant who faces deportation at Ellis Island for being marked as a “woman with questionable morals,” as A.O Scott puts it. She becomes entangled with Phoenix’s character who runs a burlesque show and brothel, and forced into sex work. The Immigrant strips away the romanticization of the classic immigrant experience and explores the ways in which immigration is complicated, frightening, and at times and insurmountable endeavor.

This list should provide Trump and his supporters a solid starting point for understanding the realities, complexities, and overall history of immigration in the United States. Immigration isn’t a monolithic concept, the people coming into the country aren’t all entering from a single point, and they are not all entering the country for the same reasons. Any comprehensive immigration reform should acknowledge those complexities. Otherwise, they are going to foster a more harmful environment for newcomers and a less perfect union.