Award winning filmmaker, John Carlos Frey's latest documentary film, "The 800 Mile Wall," will begin a nationwide tour in February 2010 to raise awareness about the current human rights crisis caused by U.S. Border policy. The 800 Mile Wall, highlights the construction of border walls along the U.S.-Mexico border and takes an unflinching look at the failed U.S. border enforcement strategy that many believe has caused the death of thousands of migrants and violates fundamental human rights.
Since border walls have been built, well over 5,000 migrant bodies have been recovered in U.S. deserts, mountains and canals. Some unofficial reports put the current death toll as high as 10,000 men, women and children. As a direct result of U.S. border policy, migrants are forced to cross hazardous deserts and mountains in search of low skill and low paying jobs in the United States. The New York Times writes, "Current border strategy is serving as a funnel through deadly terrain." The 800 Mile Wall illustrates, in great detail, the ineffective and deadly results of this failed border policy and offers some thoughts and suggestions on how the current human rights crisis may be resolved.
"Director John Carlos Frey's powerful independent film The 800 Mile Wall sounds the alarm on the neglected human rights crisis on our nation's Southwestern border and puts on the table the life-and-death questions we must address in comprehensive immigration reform."
-- Congressman Raul Grijalva (D - Arizona 7th District)
The national tour of The 800 Mile Wall will initially cover 25 cities with more to be added. The film's tour is supported by the ACLU, American Friends Service Committee, The National Immigration Forum, Reform Immigration for America, CHIRLA, Humane Borders and No More Deaths among others.
Written and Directed by John Carlos Frey
Produced by Jack Lorenz
Total Running Time: 90 min.
For more information about the tour and the film, visit: www.800milewall.org
US Legislative Immigration Update January 19, 2010
Immigration Reform and Haiti Relief Among State of the City Priorities
I understand the problem is not caused by the people coming here. But at the same time, the solution is not to have tens of millions of people flood the U.S. every decade in response to the lack of democratic and economic opportunities in their own nations. Moving Tijuana to L.A. is not a "solution," it's just a move. The poverty comes along with the people. It would be much cheaper to build and staff clinics in Mexico, for example, than to have illegal immigrants using our emergency rooms, which specialize mostly in obscene overcharging for services.
The recent influx of 20 million illegal immigrants from the south has had a terrible and damaging effect on states throughout the country. Entire industries have fired all American workers and replaced them with illegal immigrants trucked by coyotes, and paid radically lower wages. These illegal immigrants also send hundreds of millions of dollars back home to their families, which is money that would have been spent here, to support our own economy, if the jobs were done by Americans.
We cannot solve poverty in third world countries by importing all their people. I would suggest all immigration be halted until our own unemployment rate drops below 3%. We must restrict the number of immigrants in order to prevent further exhaustion, if not bankruptcy, of local and state resources which are overtaxed by millions of new residents who do not earn enough to pay taxes, but who do use the local and state resources such as fire, police, water, hospitals, and schools.
Immigration should only be allowed to the extent it does not negatively impact working people in this country. The open border policies of Clinton, Bush, and now Obama, have partly contributed to the high unemployment and bankruptcy of entire states.