HBO: “Which Way Home”

Tomorrow, HBO will be premiering the documentary “Which Way Home.”  Here is a synopsis from the HBO website

“Each year, thousands of Latin American migrants travel hundreds of miles to the United States, with many making their way on the tops of freight trains. Roughly five percent of those traveling alone are children. As the United States continues to debate immigration reform, the documentary WHICH WAY HOME looks the issue through the eyes of children who face the harrowing journey with enormous courage and resourcefulness. An official selection at the 2009 Tribeca Film Festival and the 2009 Los Angeles Film Festival, WHICH WAY HOME follows several unaccompanied child migrants as they journey through Mexico en route to the U.S. on a freight train called “The Beast.” Putting a human face on the immigration issue, director Rebecca Cammisa (the CINEMAX documentary “Sister Helen”) reveals some of the reasons kids resort to drastic and dangerous measures, among them: bringing an end to long-term separation from their parents; escaping life on the streets; lack of jobs or educational opportunities at home; and hopes of a better life north of the border.”

For the LA Times story on the movie, click here.

Although I have not seen the film yet,I doubt that it will make us especially proud of how the U.S. immigration laws are enforced, with their tragic human consequences, or the Obama administration’s current “enforcement now, enforcement forever” policies.

UPDATE (August 26):  I have watched Which Way Home twice this week.  Both times it made me extremely sad, as well as angry, that the United States and its immigration laws and border enforcement policies, contribute to such human tragedy — deaths, violence, misery, and worse.  As my teenaged son observed, the deaths on the border fit the definition of genocide and we should do all we can to end it. 

KJ