“[…] I want you to imagine trying to sleep every night, only to find yourself lying awake for hours because you can’t sleep. That worry will end you, and it will try to break you. You can watch a documentary, you can say ‘well this is too bad’, but at the end of the day it’s just something that you’re watching on TV. And you can turn that off, you can go on about your life”. This is how “Living undocumented”, a documentary series produced by Netflix and released on the platform on October 2, 2019, begins. It is the voice of Awa, a United States citizen with Mauritanian origins whose father is being detained because he was not able to get asylum and subsequently was given a deportation order by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE). It is a powerful introduction to an even more powerful documentary that describes the lives of eight different families or individuals who have been living in the United States without legal documents or status, some of them for as long as 30 years. It is a good way to start the series because it summarizes how most people feel about migrants and refugees.
The docuseries, directed by Aaron Said and Anna Chai, is a very useful tool to try to understand the difficulties and challenges that these families in particular (and all irregular migrants in general) face in the United States. The different episodes focus on different issues both from a general perspective and from a particularistic one. The first one is given by experts such as immigration attorneys and journalists, who provide a broader background of each issue, putting it in a historical context and giving more detailed information on current policies, laws, and practices related to the problem in question. At the same time, practical examples are provided by the stories of the different families, each of them dealing with a different kind of problem that is ultimately threatening their life in the US and facing them with the possibility of deportation or temporary detention by the ICE.
There is a family from Israel, that arrived in the US in December 2001, and because of the circumstances at the time could not get a work permit. Nonetheless, they stayed and managed to create a business and quite normal life in the US, even while living undocumented. Then, there is the story of a young man from Honduras who entered without documentation in the US and whose girlfriend was being detained in an ICE facility waiting to be deported. He tried everything, with the help of an immigration attorney, to avoid her deportation but could not prevent it. Another story is of a Colombian family that arrived in the US in 2002 seeking asylum after being threatened by narco-gang members in their hometown but could not obtain it and were served a deportation order. This situation pushed two sons from the family to seek solidarity and help from the local community by creating videos on social media to recount their story. In another episode, it is told the story of the separation of a young girl from her aunt and uncle, who were her legal guardians. This story is emblematic of all the pain and suffering that the policy of separation created in the US and of all the problems that are still present because of all the children that remain detained and separated from their parents, who, in some cases, have been deported to their home country.
The main themes observed in the documentary are essentially related to the change in policy and enforcement of laws that took place during the Trump administration. In fact, the experts who talk in the documentary tend to highlight the worsening of the conditions for irregular immigrants during the years 2016-2020. It is stressed how during this administration immigrants started to be considered as “bad people” or “criminals” even when many of them had been living in the US for many years without creating any kind of problems or committing any crime, and in many cases paying taxes and providing a contribution to the local economy. Throughout the documentary, the stress is put on the decisions of the Trump administration and on the fact that immediately after his election, migrants living undocumented started to fear being deported or detained by the ICE. It could be argued that the creators of the documentary have tried to be impartial by citing controversial measures of previous administrations, for instance, the so-called “permanent ban” which was adopted by the Clinton administration in 1996 and entered into force in April 2017, (with this law people who were removed from the US and then reentered without proper documents were barred from ever lawfully becoming US residents). However, in the end, the main goal of their work was to highlight the brutality and the indifference that the Trump administration has shown in dealing with the issue of migrants and refugees.
“Living undocumented” is a reminder that all migrants and refugees have compelling reasons that push them to leave their country and to seek a fortune in another one. This documentary is very enlightening because it paints a clear picture of how things really are in the United States when it comes to migration and asylum laws. One may think that going to the US to seek a better life is as easy as it was fifty or sixty years ago, when in fact, things are getting more and more complicated, and people who try to get there anyway, do it because they do not have any other possibilities. For this reason, watching this documentary can help people to open their eyes and reflect on these issues, and maybe can even help to wonder what the situation is in one’s country and how one sees migrants and refugees. This documentary raises questions and creates a lot of mixed emotions in the eyes of the audience: it is very emotional yet at the same time it is a good way to reflect and introspect on important issues; it creates a lot of empathy towards the protagonists who are undoubtedly living a hard life, but on the other hand, it compels the audience to think about the causes and the consequences of every decision taken by the families and by the individual migrants. The final scenes of the documentary may leave the audience powerless and saddened by how the stories of some of the families end. Nonetheless, the viewer may also find hope in the words of the protagonists, who, despite everything, are still optimistic about their future and are still grateful for being in the United States.
Maria Grazia Cantarella is a recent graduate in International Relations and Global Studies at LUISS University in Rome, Italy. She has previous internship experiences at the American Embassy of Rome and at the Italian Embassy in the US. Her interests are mainly focused on foreign policy, international issues, protection of human rights, cultural rights, and contemporary history. She also enjoys traveling, exploring new places, and learning about different cultures. She is really passionate about books, movies, and visiting museums and cultural attractions.