Borderland (TV series)

Last updated

Borderland
Genre Documentary
Based onUndocumented Immigration
Directed byDarren Foster
Jeff Plunkett
Alex Simmons
StarringAlison Melder
Gary Larsen
Lis-Marie Alvarado
Kishana Holland
Randy Stufflebeam
Alex Seel
Theme music composer Roger Mason
Country of origin United States
No. of seasons1
No. of episodes4
Production
Executive producers
Producers Nial Fulton
Ivan O'Mahoney
Production locations United States
Mexico
El Salvador
Guatemala
EditorsAndrew Cooke
Peter Crombie
Camera setupPeter Alton
Alex Cullen
Nathan Golon
Production company In Films
Original release
Network Al Jazeera America
ReleaseApril 13 (2014-04-13) 
May 4, 2014 (2014-05-04)

Borderland is a limited-run 2014 television documentary series, produced by Australian production company In Films. [1] It was the first original commission for Al Jazeera America's documentary unit, premiering on 13 April 2014. [2] The series followed six Americans as they retraced the fatal journey of three undocumented migrants who died attempting to cross into the United States. [3] [4]

Contents

Background

Following the creation of Al Jazeera America on 2 January 2013, their factual department commissioned three award-winning documentary teams to produce original content for the channel. [5] Newly formed Australian indie production company In Films were approached and despite geographical concerns, agreed to produce a series on undocumented immigration. The producers pitched a loose idea retracing the fatal last journey of an undocumented migrant. [6]

In addition to Borderland, the network also commissioned Joe Berlinger and Radical Media [7] to produce The System - exposing cases of alleged injustices in the US prison system and Alex Gibney to produce Edge of Eighteen, [8] investigating the lives of 18 high school students across the US. [9] [1]

The producers visited the Pima County morgue in Tucson after reading an article [10] about the number of unidentified migrants found every year in the Sonora Desert. Despite being in one of America's smallest cities, Pima County's is the busiest morgue in the nation. It is also home to the largest collection of missing persons reports for undocumented migrants in the United States. Bodies are stacked six high on industry shelves, which reach to the ceiling and stretch 30 feet to the back of the room. On any day, there could be 150 bodies inside the cool rooms and at least one hundred were people who died trying to cross the Sonoran Desert undocumented. [11]

It is Dr. Greg Hess' job to identify and repatriate the remains. [12] Despite the many challenges his team face, they are successful in identifying about two thirds of the border crossers. [13] [14]

With hundreds of possible stories to work with, three were selected and the process of negotiating with their families began. Once all approvals had been obtained, the producers began organising the logistics of moving three separate production teams through some of the most dangerous locations anywhere in the world. [15]

Migrant stories

The three migrant stories selected were:

Omar grew up in the coffee plantations of El Porvenir, Guatemala, a poverty-stricken area just south of the Mexican border. His mother Fermina left her family behind in 2006 to seek employment in the US. In 2010 Omar persuaded his mother to pay a 'coyote' to accompany him and a family friend, Doña Teresa, across the border to join him. [16]

In 2012 the partial remains of Omar and Doña Teresa were found in Pima County. Through the work of Greg Hess' team at the Pima Country Medical Examiner's office, Fermina was finally reunited with her son.

Claudeth was the only daughter out of six siblings. The bright, ambitious young woman made the decision to cross into America to try and earn money for her parents. Her mother begged her not to go but to no avail. Claudeth and her smuggler both died in Pima Country, where her dental records, her clothes and DNA tests confirmed it was her.

Maria had crossed the border before and had spent years living among undocumented Salvadorans in Des Moines, Iowa. In 2009, immigration agents did a sweep of her apartment and although they were looking for someone else, she was deported. Against her mother's wishes, she decided to make the treacherous journey again. Despite the valiant efforts of a fellow traveller who risked his life carrying her to Border Patrol agents, Maria died at the age of 39.

Casting

The Australian producers travelled to the United States, where a production office was established in Los Angeles. [17] The production team were looking to show a cross-section of American society and diverse points of view in their participants. [18]

Casting for the series began in mid-2013 and from over two thousand applicants, twelve participants were eventually vetted, undertook medical and psychological testing and whittled down to a final six. [19]

From Little Rock, Arkansas, Melder is a Republican State Senate aid. A former beautician and bikini model, she had never travelled outside the United States. Melder was angry and frustrated with the immigration system and government, unable to comprehend how there was 11 million undocumented people living in the United States.

From Pasco, Washington, Larsen is a third generation farmer, growing potatoes and asparagus on his 1,000 acre farm. All his 180 employees are Hispanic and while he says they all have paperwork showing their eligibility to work, he admits he has no idea who is in America legally and who is not. Larsen considers himself 'neutral' but leans towards letting more people into America.

From Homestead, Florida, Alvado arrived as a legal immigrant from Nicaragua when she was 12. As the sole Latina and native Spanish speaker in then cast, she said she sometimes felt removed from the group. She believes undocumented immigrants should not be deported and offered a pathway to citizenship.

From Las Vegas, Holland was on the 97th floor of the south tower of the World Trade Center when the plane hit on 9/11. She says the attack has made her a xenophobe and prompted her move to Las Vegas. The fashion blogger said she would deport all illegal immigrants as it makes her fear for her children's future.

From Belleville, Illinois, Randy Stufflebeam is a retired US Marine and runs his own radio talk-show. A former write-in candidate for Governor of Illinois for his religiously conservative Constitution Party, he ran on a platform of cutting off health care, education and other government benefits to illegal immigrants. He had never been to the border.

From Brooklyn, New York, Seel is a street photographer and artist. He believes borders shouldn't exist and says there is no such thing as illegal. Despite having friends who had made the journey, he wasn't prepared for what he saw making Borderland.

Production

Starting at the Pima Country morgue, the series follows the six participants as they visit the López, Sánchez, and Zelaya families, trek through jungles, and cross dangerous rivers, travel on top of El tren de la muerte (The Train of Death) also known as Las Bestia (The Beast), the train many undocumented migrants ride through southern Mexico, and navigate their way through the cartel-controlled city of Culiacán, Mexico. The production team scouted a route through Mexico two months before the shoot and worked closely with security personnel to mitigate the dangers.

The series was shot on location in Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, and the United States. The first unit shot for two weeks in Usulután, El Salvador, home of Maria Zelya and her family, and in the capital San Salvador. The second unit shot in Omar Chilel López's hometown of El Porvenir in Guatemala and at the treacherous river crossing at Tech Uman.

The third unit set up a production base in Tapachula, Claudeth Sanchez's hometown in southern Mexico. All three units reunited in the Mexican town of Arriaga, where they join hundreds of migrants on the cargo train known as El tren de la muerte or La Bestia. Travelling through cartel territory, most women who undertake this journey will be sexually assaulted and many others die, falling from the roof of the train.

The next stage of the journey was Culiacán, a city in northwestern Mexico, controlled by the drug lord Joaquín Archivaldo Guzmán Loera, better known as El Chapo, and his Sinaloa Cartel. Under the protection of the Mexican Army, the participants are taken under armed guard to some recently captured illegal marijuana plantations that were being burned. They group also visited a cartel cemetery, where even in death, the drug lords are protected from their enemies.[ how? ]

At Altar, Mexico, the group observes the industry that has grown around border crossers. This is where you can hire a 'coyote' or people smuggler to help you into the United States. [20]

Broadcast

The series was broadcast on Al Jazeera America on 13 April 2014 [21] [22] and was met with widespread acclaim.

Alessandra Stanley of the New York Times said:

[I]t turns out there is a reason to watch Al Jazeera America.... Borderland is exploitative in a good way, using the ignorance of ordinary Americans to enlighten viewers about a problem so intractable that it's often easier not to look. [23]

Kamaran Pasha, reviewing the series for The Huffington Post, wrote:

Borderland will touch you. It will make you angry. And it will make you weep. And in the process, you will never look at the issue of illegal immigration in the same way again. [24]

International broadcast

Episodes

No.TitleOriginal release date
1"The Morgue"April 13, 2014 (2014-04-13)
Six Americans gather to embark on a haunting and perilous journey that begins inside the Pima County, Arizona morgue, in Tucson, Arizona.
2"The Journey"April 20, 2014 (2014-04-20)
The six Americans are split into three groups, each tasked with retracing the journey of one of Pima County's dead migrants, discovering the grave circumstances that led to them risking everything for a new life.
3"The Beast"April 27, 2014 (2014-04-27)
Things get very real in gang-controlled Arriaga, when the six Americans reunite in an abandoned train station. Like thousands before them, they must now risk everything to ride atop the freight train known as La Bestia (The Beast).
4"The Desert"May 4, 2014 (2014-05-04)
In the final leg of their journey, the six must navigate the cartel-controlled Mexican city of Sinaloa and face the punishing hike across the border, through the sweltering Sonoran Desert.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">People smuggling</span> Illegal transportation of people

People smuggling, under U.S. law, is "the facilitation, transportation, attempted transportation or illegal entry of a person or persons across an international border, in violation of one or more countries' laws, either clandestinely or through deception, such as the use of fraudulent documents".

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is a federal law enforcement agency under the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. ICE's stated mission is to protect the United States from cross-border crime and undocumented immigration that threaten national security and public safety.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Migrant deaths along the Mexico–United States border</span>

The United States border with Mexico is one of the world's "most lethal land borders". Hundreds of migrants die per year as they attempt to cross into the United States from Mexico illegally. The US Border Patrol reported 251 migrant deaths in the fiscal year 2015, which was lower than any year during the period 2000–2014, and reported 247 migrant deaths in fiscal year 2020, lower than any year since 1998. Poverty, gang violence, poor governance, etc. are the main factors as to why migrants cross the US border. US Border Patrol recorded 557 southwest border deaths during fiscal year 2021 and 748 in the first 11 months of fiscal year 2022, the most deaths ever recorded.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986</span> Major Attempt to alter US Immigration System

The Immigration Reform and Control Act was passed by the 99th United States Congress and signed into law by U.S. President Ronald Reagan on November 6, 1986.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Operation Wetback</span> 1950s U.S. immigration law enforcement initiative

Operation Wetback was an immigration law enforcement initiative created by Joseph Swing, the Director of the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS). The program was implemented in June 1954 by U.S. Attorney General Herbert Brownell. The short-lived operation used military-style tactics to remove Mexican immigrants—some of them American citizens—from the United States. Though millions of Mexicans had legally entered the country through joint immigration programs in the first half of the 20th century and some who were naturalized citizens who were once native, Operation Wetback was designed to send them to Mexico.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mexico–United States border</span> International border

The Mexico–United States border is an international border separating Mexico and the United States, extending from the Pacific Ocean in the west to the Gulf of Mexico in the east. The border traverses a variety of terrains, ranging from urban areas to deserts. The Mexico–U.S. border is the most frequently crossed border in the world with approximately 350 million documented crossings annually. It is the tenth-longest border between two countries in the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Illegal immigration to the United States</span> Immigration to the United States in violation of US law

Foreign nationals (aliens) can violate US immigration laws by entering the United States unlawfully or lawfully entering but then remaining after the expiration of their visas, parole, or temporary protected status. Illegal immigration has been a matter of intense debate in the United States since the 1980s.

Illegal immigration is the migration of people into a country in violation of that country's immigration laws, or the continuous residence in a country without the legal right to. Illegal immigration tends to be financially upward, from poorer to richer countries. Illegal residence in another country creates the risk of detention, deportation, and/or other sanctions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Undocumented immigrant population of the United States</span> Overview of the illegal alien population of the United States

The actual size and the origin of the illegal alien population in the United States is uncertain and is difficult to ascertain because of difficulty in accurately counting individuals in this population. Figures from national surveys, administrative data and other sources of information vary widely. By all measures, the population of illegal aliens in the US declined substantially from 2007 until at least 2018. The number of border apprehensions substantially declined after 2000, reaching a low in 2017, but have recently rebounded to reach a new peak level as of 2021.

No More Deaths is an advocacy group based in Tucson and Phoenix, Arizona, United States. The group's stated goal is to end the series of fatalities of undocumented immigrants crossing the desert regions near the United States-Mexico border. Volunteers for the organization provide food, water, and medical aid to people crossing the US-Mexico border through the Arizona desert and offer humanitarian aid to people in Mexico who have been deported from the US.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Emigration from Mexico</span> Mexicans moving abroad

Emigration from Mexico is the movement of people from Mexico to other countries. The top destination by far is the United States, by a factor of over 150 to 1 compared to the second most popular destination, Canada.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Coyote (person)</span> Migrant smuggler

Colloquially, a coyote is a person who smuggles immigrants across the Mexico–United States border. The word "coyote" is a loanword from Mexican Spanish that usually refers to a species of North American wild dog (Canis latrans).

The Undocumented is a 90-minute documentary film, released in 2013, directed by Marco Williams, which investigates the causes and effects of migrant deaths along the Arizona-Mexico border.

The 2010 San Fernando massacre, also known as the first massacre of San Fernando, was the mass murder of 72 undocumented immigrants by the Los Zetas drug cartel in the village of El Huizachal in the municipality of San Fernando, Tamaulipas, Mexico. The 72 killed—58 men and 14 women—were mainly from Central and South America, and they were shot in the back of the head and then piled up together. The bodies were found inside a ranch on 24 August 2010 by the Mexican military after they engaged in an armed confrontation with members of a drug cartel. They received information of the place after one of the three survivors survived a shot to the neck and face, faked his death, and then fled to a military checkpoint to seek help. Investigators later mentioned that the massacre was a result of the immigrants' refusal to work for Los Zetas, or to provide money for their release.

Illegal immigration in Mexico has occurred at various times throughout history, especially in the 1830s and since the 1970s. Although the number of deportations is declining with 61,034 registered cases in 2011, the Mexican government documented over 200,000 illegal border crossings in 2004 and 2005. The largest source of illegal immigrants in Mexico are the impoverished Central American countries of Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, and El Salvador and African countries like Democratic Republic of Congo, Cameroon, Guinea, Ghana and Nigeria. The largest single group of immigrants in Mexico is from the United States, at 1.5 million, many of whom overstay their visas. Americans are the largest group of immigrants in Mexico. They number 1.5 million, many of them being without legal status since they overstayed their visas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2014 American immigration crisis</span> Surge in immigration along U.S. southern border

The 2014 American immigration crisis was a surge in unaccompanied children and women from the Northern Triangle of Central America (NTCA) seeking entrance to the United States in 2014. According to U.S. law, an unaccompanied alien child refers to a person under 18 years of age, who has no lawful immigration status in the U.S., and who does not have a legal guardian to provide physical custody and care.

Border Angels is a San Diego-based 501(c)(3) tax-exempt nonprofit charitable organization that is focused on migrant rights, immigration reform, and the prevention of immigrant deaths along the border. Border Angels, along with its more than 2000 volunteers serves San Diego County's immigrant population through various migrant outreach programs such as day laborer outreach and legal assistance, and provides life-saving assistance for migrants by placing bottled water in remote mountain and desert border regions of the San Diego and Imperial counties, California.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mexico–United States border crisis</span>

The Mexico–United States bordercrisis is an ongoing migrant crisis in North America concerning the migration of undocumented immigrants from Latin America through Mexico and into the United States.

Prevention Through Deterrence is a set of policies instituted by the United States to deter the illegal crossing of its southern border with Mexico. First introduced in a document entitled "Border Patrol Strategic Plan of 1994 and Beyond", this policy has since been used to police high-traffic areas of the Mexico–United States border.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Immigration policy of the Joe Biden administration</span>

Joe Biden's immigration policy is primarily based on reversing many of the immigration policies of the previous Trump administration. During his first day in office, Biden reversed many of Trump's policies on immigration, such as halting the construction of the Mexican border wall, ending Trump's travel ban restricting travel from 14 countries, and an executive order to reaffirm protections for DACA recipients. The Biden administration and Department of Homeland Security, under leadership of Alejandro Mayorkas, dramatically reined in deportation practices of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), prioritizing national security and violent crime concerns over petty and nonviolent offenses. However, Biden has also faced criticism for extending Title 42, a Trump administration border restriction that arose due to the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as restarting the use of expediting families in Central America, which can cause families to be sent back in weeks, compared to years for an average immigration case. In the fiscal year 2021, the US Border Patrol confirmed more than 1.6 million encounters with migrants along the US-Mexico border, more than quadruple the number in the previous fiscal year and the largest annual total on record. In January 2023, Biden announced a program to strengthen the admission of immigrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela, while at the same time his administration will crack down on those who fail to use the plan's legal pathway and strengthen border security. In May 2023, the Biden Administration approved sending 1,500 more troops to the U.S.-Mexico border following Title 42's expiration.

References

  1. 1 2 Steinberg, Brian (February 18, 2014). "Al Jazeera America Sets Ambitious Plans For Docuseries". chicagotribune.com.
  2. America, Al Jazeera. "Al Jazeera America Launches Investigative Documentary Series on Immigration". www.prnewswire.com (Press release).
  3. Macaraeg, Sarah (May 2, 2018). "Fatal encounters: 97 deaths point to pattern of border agent violence across America". the Guardian.
  4. "Borderland (TV Series 2014) - IMDb". April 13, 2014 via www.imdb.com.
  5. "Al Jazeera America Sets Ambitious Plans for Docuseries". February 18, 2014.
  6. "In-Depth, Not Imbedded: Al Jazeera America's Docs Eschew Points of View". July 17, 2014.
  7. "Q&A: Joe Berlinger of 'The System'". america.aljazeera.com.
  8. "Edge of Eighteen | Jigsaw Productions".
  9. Willmore, Alison (February 18, 2014). "Al Jazeera America Announces Doc Series From Joe Berlinger and Alex Gibney".
  10. Foster, Bud (October 5, 2010). "Pima County morgue sets a record". kold.com.
  11. "Medical Examiner - Pima County". webcms.pima.gov.
  12. Duarte, Carmen (June 19, 2021). "Medical examiner works to learn names of unidentified interred in county cemetery". Arizona Daily Star.
  13. "Inside the Arizona morgue at the epicenter of the migration crisis". america.aljazeera.com.
  14. Foster, Bud (May 8, 2021). "Some surprises found in Pima County's 2020 report on deaths". kold.com.
  15. "Learn about 3 migrants who died along the border". america.aljazeera.com.
  16. "English - Illegal Immigrants Face Dangerous Mexican/US Border — One Story | Amara". amara.org.
  17. "Our Story".
  18. "Crossing over".
  19. "Meet the cast of 'Borderland'". america.aljazeera.com.
  20. "Key locations in the 'Borderland' journey". america.aljazeera.com.
  21. "Al Jazeera America breaks ground with immigration doc". Entertainment Weekly .
  22. "Sunday TV: 'Borderland,' 'Mad Men'". USA Today .
  23. Stanley, Alessandra (April 11, 2014). "Al Jazeera Series Depicts U.S. Problem". The New York Times.
  24. "Al Jazeera America's 'Borderland' Walks in the Shoes of the Immigrant Dead". April 11, 2014.