Frequently Asked Questions

QUESTION: What was it about your initial conversation with some illegal immigrants that started you thinking about making your film?

The danger. The desperation. These were men that  took great care in picking the right "coyote" to smuggle them across the desert. They told me that if you picked the wrong coyote you could end up with someone putting a pistol to your head and telling you that if you didn't carry this backpack of drugs, they would shoot you and leave you in the desert. They also told me how dangerous it was for women. The abuse. The rapes.
These are men that missed their families and would have loved to stay in Mexico, but due to the corruption and lack of economic opportunity, they couldn't stay there and put food on the tables for their families.

QUESTION: You knew almost nothing about illegal immigrations and the border when you started the film, what are some of the revelations you discovered during the filming?

The rape trees were a wake up call. The amount of military incursions from Mexico. The renting of children to drug cartels.  Discovering that the drug cartels are making as much profit smuggling humans as they are narcotics. Seeing firsthand that hard working, taxpaying American ranchers are fighting to keep from losing their ranches due to the traffic and vandalism from across the border, and that the federal government has abandoned these people.

QUESTION: Why is your film important for understanding the true stakes on the border?

It is the human factor that makes these stakes so high. These are people that are being affected...not some abstract policy. If the American people knew how out of control our borders are, if they knew the horrible things that are happening down there everyday, I don't believe that they would stand for it. To see how bad it is on the border is to know that for twenty years our elected officials have not been doing their jobs.

This documentary is unlike any other. It gives the audience a front row seat to the border and all the players.

QUESTION: Is the U.S./Mexican border really as dangerous as you portray it in your film?

Absolutely, for both the ranchers who live there and the people making their way across the desert. Everyone is at risk. The coyotes and drug dealers run the show with violence and intimidation. The rank and file Border Patrol agents will tell you to a man that they could absolutely secure the border if they had all the appropriate tools and manpower, but right now they are just overwhelmed. As long as corporations and businesses dangle the carrot of the American dream, desperation will push these people to run the gauntlet of the desert. Those Americans who are having their land used and abused for drug and human trafficking are living in fear. They are being pushed too far. These factors all add up to a pressure cooker that will ultimately blow up. And everyone will lose

QUESTION: Do you think the U.S. military could help the situation?

Absolutely. It has already been proven. In my experience on the Border, there was a point in October of 2005,  where a Stryker unit from Fort Lewis, Washington was stationed on a stretch of road in New Mexico, mere miles from the border. There was no shooting, no violence, no skirmishes, and they closed down the biggest cocaine trafficking  corridor in all of New Mexico. Do you know why? Because their mere presence stopped the illegal traffic from passing. They were there for thirty days. They later deployed to Iraq. These military units would only be needed temporarily until Border Patrol can get completely up to speed. Once there is law and order on the whole border, every one will be safer.

QUESTION: What is a “coyote?”

A Coyote is a guide who is hired to lead those coming from the south side of the border through the desert to a pickup point where the aliens are shipped to the four corners of the nation. The Coyotes refer to themselves as chicken farmers....they refer to the people they are leading as chickens. Humanity means nothing to many of these coyotes. People are just cargo to be profited from. Frequently, Coyotes lead trains of "mules", people who are exchanging their service of carrying backpacks of drugs for safe passage through the desert

QUESTION: How did you get infra-red video of illegals coming across the border?

In the time we were embedded with the Minutemen Civil Defense Corps, cartels and Coyotes were analyzing where the volunteers would be stationed. They would simply skirt around those points and remain undetected. We decided to go where the Minutemen we not posted. So, the lines of people, both immigrants and mules, led by coyotes, walked within feet of our post, hidden in the brush just off the trail.

QUESTION: This issue pits “open border” advocates against “secure the border” advocates.  What side does your documentary take?

We don't take a side. If we did, we would have had much wider distribution. I had been asked by a very successful Hollywood film representative to re edit the film to make it either more liberal or more conservative so that it would be an easier sell. I refused. It is what it is. You see what we saw.
We end the film with the words: Pay Attention. Participate. I don't need people to think like me. I just want them to think. We have not had an informed national debate on this issue in this country, because up to now the American people have been kept ignorant of the facts of the situation by very powerful special interests. I have great faith in the decency and wisdom of the American people and what they can accomplish when provided with the truth.
Personally I don't believe that there is the kind of divide among people as the media would portray. I think that on this issue the spin has been brilliantly maneuvered to keep the American people from seeing the man behind the curtain. Most people don't want to see American ranchers losing their homes or Mexican women being raped and abused on an institutional level. The schism that the government and main stream media have put forth seems to disappear across the board when decent people are confronted with the facts and reality of the current situation. I have traveled across the country and played this film to thousands of people. It has been my experience that with so many atrocities happening on the border that it affords numerous opportunities for Americans to stand together as decent caring human beings and say "No Mas!"

QUESTION: Do you believe a border fence will do the job?

The fence is a proven force multiplier and aid to Border Patrol agents in certain environments....i.e. Imperial Beach, CA, El Paso, TX or Nogales, AZ..It slows down and redirects traffic to a point where less border patrol agents are needed to effectively enforce the area.
However there are other area where it is simply not practical...i.e. Big Bend, Texas. Also there are areas in Texas where ranchers need to get their cattle watered by the Rio Grande in order to survive. A fence there would prevent that.

QUESTION: What are some of your solutions for this polarizing issue?

These are my personal thoughts...again, I don't need everyone to think like me....just think:
1) Bring law and order to the border. Save the ranchers. Stop the rapes and abuse.
2) Adapt a program similar to Reverend Hoover's where honest people looking for work come through the door legally. We know who they are. We know they don't have TB. Instead of paying $2,000 to a coyote they put that money up as a bond at the border. Part of their pay check goes back to that bond, so that when their visa time is up they pick up that money and go home when they are supposed to. If they don't, that money is forfeited to law enforcement and we will have visa compliance, something that is totally lacking in our current immigration system.
3) While the country struggles to address the tens of millions of people that are already here, I say we start billing Mexico for their own citizens. Americans are decent people. They aren't going to take someone off of life support or deny a kid an opportunity to read...but why should they be taxed to pay for foreign nationals? Mexico is one of our top suppliers of natural gas and oil. We may not all agree on what to do with people already in our country, but while we debate and figure it out, we all need to put gasoline in our vehicles. Mexico can help with that. How about for every day that a  Mexican national sits in an American prison, that would be a barrel of oil? For every day that we educate a Mexican citizen, that would be a barrel of oil. For every day that a person from Mexico is receiving health care in one of our hospitals, that would be two barrels of oil.
This may sound exotic at first, but it is merely a simple, proven, business practice applied with common sense and human decency.
Again...just my two cents. Watch the movie. Tell me what you think we should do.......or more importantly tell your elected officials.