Film Series From the Marshall Project, “We are Witnesses,” Seeks to Reshape Narrative on Immigration

As Trump continues to aggressively promote a narrative of immigrant criminality that is unsupported by facts and data (see, e.g., the New York Times’ fact-checker on Trump’s latest tweets linking immigration and crime), the Marshall Project has released a new film project that seeks to reshape immigrant narratives to reflect more nuance and complexity.  From the Marshall Project website: 

“We Are Witnesses: Becoming an American, a film series created and produced by The Marshall Project, seeks to reclaim the narrative around immigration. By letting people tell their own harrowing, sad and inspiring stories, we are given entry into their worlds. We meet the Russian asylum seeker persecuted in their native country on account of sexual preference; the family torn apart after a father is deported to Ecuador after living in the U.S. for nearly two decades; a Honduran teen risking his life to flee across the Mexican border; and a Yemeni-American shopkeeper who organizes his community to protest the Muslim travel ban. We are taken inside the system by an immigration judge, an advocate and a Border Patrol agent. And we learn what it is like to live under fear of deportation and to experience the joy of being sworn in as a citizen. Together, these stories help us understand what it is like, away from the headlines, to become an American today.”

-JKoh