Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) was clear in his campaign ad last week: "Complete the danged fence," he told an Arizona sheriff, who appeared with him in the immigration-themed ad.
The fence that McCain was referring to is actually a series of barriers along the U.S.-Mexican border that were approved by congress in 2006. It's also the subject of Rory Kennedy's short film "The Fence (La Barda)."
Kennedy's film, shot well before Arizona's new immigration law or McCain's new ad, calls into question the effectiveness and the unintended consequences of the $3 billion fence.
While many argue that the border must be sealed to protect the nation from terror attacks, Kennedy points out that none of the terror attacks in the last 25 years have ever been perpetrated by people who entered the U.S. from the Mexican border.
McCain's immigration ad did not highlight his past aggressive advocacy for providing a path to citizenship for immigrants. The ad also failed to mention that the sheriff who appears at McCain's side does not work along the fence, as it would seem to suggest, but rather 115 miles away, in central Arizona.
McCain is facing J.D. Hayworth in the Republican primary for the Senate seat that he has held since 1987.
HBO will air "The Fence" later this fall. It premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January.
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