Movie Break….more on “Fugees”

This weekend, I took in a movie – Alfonso Cuaron’s “Children of Men,” which is loosely based on a book by P.D. James.  Manohla Dargis describes the backdrop of the film in a December 25, 2006 review in the New York Times.  The film is set in 2027:

Britain, it emerges, is in permanent lockdown. As the specter ofhumanity’s end looms, the world has been torn apart by sectarianviolence. Britain has closed its borders (the Chunnel too), turningillegal aliens into Public Enemy No. 1. Theo and the other gray men andwomen adrift in London don’t seem to notice much.

Everywherethere are signs and warnings, surveillance cameras and securitypatrols. “The world has collapsed,” a public service announcementtrumpets, “only Britain soldiers on.” The verb choice is horribly apt,since heavily armed soldiers are ubiquitous. They flank the streets andtrain platforms, guarding the pervasive metal cages crammed with averitable Babel of humanity, illegal immigrants who have fled toBritain from hot spots, becoming refugees or “fugees” for short.

The film’s images of immigrant round-ups and immigration detention camps are haunting reminders of what can happen when zeal for total immigration enforcement and security trumps all concerns over substantive and procedural due process and basic humanitarianism.  Mexican director Alfonso Cuaron brilliantly incorporates some of the most egregious elements of contemporary “alien” detention programs — detainees in black hoods, snapping guard dogs and detention facilities plagued by unsanitary conditions  — to remind us how thin the line is between where we are and where we might go.  Cuaron’s images are a reminder that discussions of “full enforcement” of immigration laws cannot be allowed to eclipse our focus on ensuring the underlying fairness of our immigration laws and the need for fair procedure in the enforcement of these laws.

-jmc