From April 13, weekly through May
The TV show “Borderland” literally had six US citizens repeat the journey of migrants from Mexico and Central America, and in that process some citizens’ attitudes towards the undocumented were changed.
At the beginning the Americans were shown the reality of the battle on the border—a visit with a rancher who sees the necessary response as armed and militarized to fight back those trying to enter the US and a visit to the morgue to show the tragedy of those who died trying desperately to get a better life.
The attitudes of the six Americans ranged from virulently anti-undocumented to the belief that all borders should be torn down as we are all part of the human family. The anti-undocumented were represented by Alison (blond Arkansas Republican), Randy (a former Marine now conservative Illinois radio host) and Kishana (an African American fashion blogger from Las Vegas). The opposite attitudes were shared by Alex (a New York City artist and skateboarder, Lis-Marie (a Nicaraguan-born immigrants’ rights activist from Florida). Gary (a Washington State farmer) had an inbetween attitude.
The program took them to the place where the border fence ends. All were shocked to see that the US government purposely funnels people onto the scorching Sonoran Desert of Arizona, resulting in many avoidable deaths.
Then the group was divided into two’s and sent to places, such as Guatemala and Southern Mexico, from where three people came who had died in the desert. They met the families of the deceased and couldn’t help but see the migrants as human beings who were forced northward to get a better life. Although Kishana was anti-migration, she was drawn as a mother to a Latina mother with a child who was preparing to cross the burning desert and in a highly emotional plea begged the woman not to risk her life and her child’s life.
Borderland put all six (with guards) onto the train called La Bestia (the Beast) to actually learn how horrible and dangerous the trek northward was.
In the end even the ex-Marine conservative commentator and the Florida Young Republican woman changed their attitudes. The woman did a complete turn-around, sold her house and is working to help immigrants. Attitudes can be changed, and doing it is not only up to the existing mass media but up to us to build our own media, like the Tribuno del Pueblo.
The series Borderland amounted to a new thing on TV—a political reality show. And the show was a completely inter-national effort with the series created by AlJazeera (Arabic owned) TV exposing the reality of undocumented immigration to the American people.
