Film heats up immigration debate

'Arizona' documents deadly border-crossings

By Amelia Nielson-Stowell
Deseret Morning News
Published: Monday, Jan. 23, 2006 10:22 p.m. MST
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PARK CITY — A battle involving frustrated ranchers, watchful Minutemen, local activists, desperate migrants, humane workers — and even the Border Patrol and policymakers — is raging along the Mexico-Arizona border.

Each year, more than 1 million undocumented migrants attempt the dangerous journey across the border and through the deserts of Arizona, seeking higher-paying jobs in the United States. At least 464 died last year making the quest — some officials estimate two to three times that number — mostly from dehydration.

"People get the impression that the border is wide open and anyone can walk through it," said Joseph Mathew, director of the documentary "Crossing Arizona," which made its debut at the Sundance Film Festival. "It's not open. It's hard to get through."

Although opinions differ on whether migrants feed the economy or deplete taxes, the various sides agree on one thing: Nobody deserves to die in search of a better life.

The film took Mathew and his crew two years to create and was finished weeks before the festival. It premiered one month before a Border Patrol bill will be heard by the U.S. Senate in February. That bill was passed last year by the U.S. House.

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"I think it's the most Draconian bill the House has passed. It's a terrible idea. It doesn't tackle the rights of the immigrant at all. Building a wall is not the solution," Mathew told the Deseret Morning News from the Sundance filmmakers lodge in Park City. "It will just make it worse. It will make the humanitarian crisis even worse."

After Operation Hold the Line in El Paso, Texas, in 1993 and Operation Gatekeeper in San Diego in 1994 closed huge border crossings, Arizona has been the immigration focal point.

Many take remote, rural trails to avoid the Border Patrol, including trails on the Tohono O'odham Indian Reservation, private ranches and other areas along the thousands of miles of Arizona borderlands. Most walk four to five days in 100-degree heat — a trek "Crossing Arizona" looks at closely through the eyes of numerous characters, including:

• Native American Mike Wilson, who replenishes water stations each week that he maintains on the tribal lands for migrant travelers.

• A rancher who laments he's spent $1 million repairing fences, patching water lines and buying new cattle destroyed by migrants.

• A young Mexican couple that expresses the urgency of the travel they will make to America for a richer life — the wife is two months pregnant.

• Chris Simcox, the leader of Civil Homeland Defense and founder of the Minuteman Project, who sits with the armed citizen group near the border, waiting to turn illegal immigrants in to the Border Patrol.

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Joseph Mathew's "Crossing Arizona" features Mike Wilson, a Native American who replenishes water stations each week on the tribal lands for immigrant travelers. (Sundance)
Sundance
Joseph Mathew's "Crossing Arizona" features Mike Wilson, a Native American who replenishes water stations each week on the tribal lands for immigrant travelers.