Can a new film help derail the current push for amnesty for illegal aliens? Chris Burgard’s new movie “Border” is so good that it could dramatically affect the public debate. But because you can’t expect the major media to cover this shocking and poignant film, the challenge will be to make sure millions of Americans get a chance to see it. It tells the story of a war�a war just as important, if not more so, than the one in Iraq.  

On April 23, 2007, as part of the Hold Their Feet to the Fire rally of 2007, an event designed to pressure the U.S. Government to protect and defend our borders, the Federation for American Immigration Reform held a screening of “Border” at the Union Station Phoenix Theatre in Washington D.C. At the screening, the courageous director, Chris Burgard, spoke, and national radio talk-show host G. Gordon Liddy delivered the opening remarks.  

Before the movie began, Burgard told the capacity crowd that it took two years to make the film, and that he drew his inspiration to produce the documentary from reading Liddy’s book, “Fight Back!: Tackling Terrorism Liddy Style.” Burgard told the audience that Liddy’s book provided him with the confidence to believe that citizens can fight back against their government and win. He funded the entire film out of his own pocket. 

Message to Congress

During his opening remarks, Liddy said the film is designed to inspire people to get Congress to protect our borders. And it can be done. Simply put, he said, “If our government wants to close the border, it can close the border.” Congress has passed a bill to build a security fence along the border�and President Bush signed the bill. But, at the same time, Bush and the Democrats are pursuing what they call “immigration reform,” in the form of H.R. 1645 in the House and a companion bill, sponsored by Senator Ted Kennedy, in the Senate. But both bills have little to do with reform, and everything to do with amnesty for illegals, by rewarding those who have broken our laws with citizenship. H.R. 1645 even has some elements suggesting an effort to merge Mexico, the U.S. and Canada into one North American entity, with a common identity card for citizens of all three countries.   

Liddy said that some Republicans don’t want to do anything about the problem because they want to provide cheap labor for Big Business. At the same time, according to Liddy, Democrats want open borders because they are looking for votes. In fact, Liddy claimed that illegals who attended pro-illegal immigration rallies in the U.S. have been rounded up by Democrats afterwards and registered to vote. 

His claim, which sounds sensational, is true, as many states don’t have citizenship requirements for voting in U.S. elections. 

Politics aside, Liddy told the crowd that parts of the film they were about to see were “very disturbing” in portraying the human misery and suffering in the border area. 

Human Misery

Indeed, the film showed grotesque scenes of dead bodies of illegals either killed by bandits and human traffickers, known as coyotes, while crossing the border, or left to die in the desert. The film also shows what are called “rape trees” where the underwear of young girls are left hanging in trees after they have been gang-raped by coyotes, bandits, and other illegal immigrants. 

Yet, the film is balanced in that it includes interviews with illegal immigrants and illegal immigrant advocates. There is, for example, an interview with illegal immigrant advocate, Ray Ybarra, an “Ira Glasser, Racial Justice Fellow, ACLU.” However, instead of supporting his position, Ybarra instead chooses to smear those opposed to illegal immigration, calling the Minutemen racists and insisting that the next Timothy McVeigh, the Oklahoma City bomber, will be a Minuteman.  

Congressmen such as Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) and Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-CO) are in the film, making the case for protecting the border, but no Democrats would appear on camera. Burgard tried to meet with Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), now the Speaker of the House, but she would not schedule a meeting, and when Burgard showed up at her office, the door was locked even though his assistant had just spoken to someone in Pelosi’s office. 

The power of the film is that it shows the lawless nature of the border area. But it also includes some startling and staggering information. According to the film, an estimated 100,000 girls are trafficked into the U.S. across the border each year to work as sex workers, and the average age of these young girls is between seven and 12-years-old.

The Cost of Illegal Immigration

The film also discusses how illegal aliens are bankrupting the California healthcare system because of the law mandating that no one can be turned down at a hospital emergency room regardless of citizenship or health insurance. 

In the film, an illegal alien named Angel tells how he paid $600 to have his right hand re-attached in a California hospital, but the procedure actually cost the hospital hundreds of thousands of dollars. When illegals like Angel can’t pay, the cost falls on the hospital, and to make up that cost, Americans with health insurance are forced to pay extra fees to cover the hospital’s losses. This is why, when hospitals have too many illegal patients to remain profitable, they simply close.

Rising healthcare costs and closing hospitals are not the only health effects of the porous borders. The film also discusses how deadly communicable diseases once wiped out in the U.S. are returning, brought into America by illegals. One such disease is leprosy, which was thought to only occur in remote parts of the world. According to the film, in the past 40 years there were 900 reported cases of leprosy, but in the past three years alone 7,000 cases have been reported.

But the movie is far more than personal stories, interviews, and disturbing facts about illegal immigration. Burgard and his crew also went down to the border and spent time with the Minutemen organization, including going out on patrol along the border. In one scene, using night-vision cameras, Burgard and his crew are stationed at a border crossing and witness well-armed paramilitary soldiers escorting drug mules across the border. The film says drug cartels are no longer sneaking drugs into the U.S. in large shipments which can be more easily detected. Instead, drugs are being brought across the border by drug mules in 30- to 50-pound backpacks.  

Citizen Patriots

The film shows that the Minutemen, labeled racists by the open-borders lobby and vigilantes by President Bush, are Americans who love their country and want to help the Border Patrol agents. They believe they are doing as the Founding Fathers intended, by standing up and defending their country.  

In this context, it is a war. And it is a war as real as the one in Iraq. The difference is that the federal resources devoted to protecting our borders are miniscule, compared to the costs of Iraq.

Interestingly, most of those interviewed in the film do not blame the illegals themselves, and instead place blame on the coyotes, bandits, Mexican drug cartels and drug runners, as well as the U.S. and Mexican governments. 

The film demonstrates in graphic terms how illegal immigration has left the Southwest United States a wasteland, even a landfill, where jugs of water, backpacks of personal belongings, and food supplies have simply been discarded at gathering points for illegals along the border. 

Sadly, the message of the movie is that the U.S. Government has completely abandoned a major part of America, the Southwest, to anarchy and lawlessness. A viewer gets the impression that the destruction of America is at hand. 

To a complete round of boos by the audience, the film shows President Bush talking about “immigration reform” in his 2006 State of the Union address while Congress gives him a standing ovation. The audience sees Bush grinning after delivering this remark, and the film has a freeze frame of Bush standing there smiling, even though there is absolutely nothing to be happy or satisfied about. 

The unspoken implication of the film, in the current political and security climate, is that Bush may go down in history as the president who may lose two wars-in Iraq and on our own southern border. 

Ironically, President Bush fights Congress for funds for our troops in Iraq, saying that the U.S. can’t surrender in the Middle East, but it seems he wants to raise the white flag on our very own southern border, where the stakes are just as high. He fights the Democrats on Iraq but wants to strike a deal with them on immigration. 

Losing the Other War 

Why is Bush so concerned about Iraq and so seemingly unconcerned about defending and protecting his own country? Is it worth saving Iraq if we lose American sovereignty in the process?

An objective observer might respond that we can save Iraq while assuring America’s survival. But this President seems to have no intention of doing both. Under these circumstances, viewers of the film are left with an almost helpless feeling-that the war for our sovereignty is lost and that the open-borders lobby has won.

The movie closes when the audience hears from a Minuteman who says he is not giving up, that he will continue to do what is right, and that it is “Time to put pride back in America.” This statement received a huge response from the audience. It is the Minuteman’s response, along with the uplifting background music, that gives the audience hope.

Burgard continues this feeling of hope in the film by saying, “We the people are waking up and we want our country back.” That statement was also met with loud applause.

The film closes with three simple words in white lettering on a black background: “Pay Attention. Participate.” 

After the film, Burgard stood in front of the audience and reminded them that this is “not the story being told by the mainstream media or the federal government.” That is why the film needs to be seen by millions. And that is why Accuracy in Media will continue to cover illegal immigration as the major issue that it is.  

You can visit the official film website here. 

Remember: “Pay attention. Participate.” 

The rest is up to you.

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