AFTER THE FILM

Immediately after the film, you may want to give people a few quiet moments to reflect on what they have seen. You could pose a general question (examples below) and give people some time to themselves to jot down or think about their answers before opening the discussion. Alternatively, you could ask participants to share their thoughts with a partner before starting a group discussion.

• What are 2-3 things you learned from The Infiltrators?
• What specific feelings did the film bring up for you? Do you remember which scene brought that feeling up?
• Did this film generate any new thoughts, ideas, or ask you to consider something you hadn't yet before considered?
• If you could ask anyone in the film a single question, whom would you ask? What would you ask; and why?
• Describe a moment or scene in the film that you found particularly moving or disturbing. What was it about that scene that was especially compelling for you?

PROMPT 1: PUSH AND PULL FACTORS INFLUENCING IMMIGRATION

Immigrants are pushed, pulled, or forced to the US in search of opportunity or refuge and safety from political persecution, economic repression, state violence, or natural disasters.

• If you, or someone in your family is an immigrant, or someone you know is an immigrant, what were their reasons (push and pull) for migrating to the US?
• What are some of the reasons you may be pushed to migrate from their home country? What are some of the reasons you may be pulled to another country?
• How was their reception and welcome to the United States? Did they notice any difference in how they were treated because of their race, gender, age, or socio-economic status?
• How have their gender and age roles changed since they have been in the US? How have they adjusted to the changes? What has been the response of the family and friends?
• Is the necessity to leaving one's' home country always a choice? In what scenarios might a person need to leave and want to stay in their home country?
• How has social and political rhetoric around immigrants in the US disregarded the political necessities for safety and/or the US’s history of being a welcoming place for immigrants?
• In what ways did learning that DHS is relatively new impact how you think about the role of this department? How do the founding motivations for DHS continue to shape the way the department functions today?
• What checks and balances are necessary to hold those working within DHS and in detention centers accountable? In what ways does private ownership of detention centers impact this approach to accountability?

PROMPT 2: IMMIGRANTS ARE ESSENTIAL

Technology has transformed our access to goods across the world. Where, at one time, it would take a few months to get access to foreign goods, today, it takes a matter of minutes or days. Similarly, the services and labor available come from all over the world. Have you ever thought about all the ways that immigrants contribute to our economy? Immigrants (legal and illegal) are instrumental elements to agriculture, meat processing, restaurants, hotels, and garment production. Without the labor of immigrants, there would be a lot of businesses that would have to close. How would your day look without immigrants?

Consider the following:

• Who tends to the produce at the farms and processes the meats that you eat throughout the week?
• Who is cooking the food and cleaning the dishes at your favorite restaurants?
• Who is laundering the sheets and towels at your favorite hotels?
• Who is building the houses and businesses that are in current development in your neighborhood?
• Do you imagine that they have the same worker rights that citizens do? occupational safety and hazard protection (consider the era of COVID-19)? access to health insurance? Or access to retirement benefits?
• What is concerning about the political discourse and realities that immigrant workers face when you consider who employs members of these communities? Who gains profit from the labor of immigrants?
• What could you do to advocate for their worker rights?

PROMPT 3: IMMIGRANT YOUTH ACTIVISM

The Broward Center detainees felt like they had no other options. They expressed that they could not support immigration reform because they are not legal citizens. They cannot vote, they cannot call on their local representatives, they have no other choice. How do the participants that were DACA recipients or second generation immigrants advocate for their undocumented family and friends?

• What are the expectations of the members of the DACA and second generation citizens?
• How does their life (their roles) differ from their immigrant parents?
• In what ways do DACA immigrants advocacy and social resistance vary from their US citizens? What might DACA immigrants stand to lose that US citizens do not? Can you think of ways this might impact the DACA community’s approach to resistance or feelings of urgency?
• How do youth activists understand the impacts of detainment and deportation? In what ways have their lives been ruptured through the practices of DHS?
• If you are a US citizen, can you imagine an experience of losing a family member to detainment or deportation? In what ways might a family be impacted when a mother/father/sister/brother/uncle is detained and deported? In what way will the person who is being detained be impacted?

PROMPT 4: NAVIGATIONAL RESISTANCE

Consider the approach to advocacy exhibited by both the Infiltrators and the detainees.

• What do you notice about their approach to advocacy that is less traditional than what a legislator might do? What are your thoughts about their approach? In what ways might the circumstances necessitate a different approach to advocacy than more traditional legislative-focused approaches?
• What role do trust and relationship-building have on their approach and access to people who are detained?
• What role do the people who are detained play in helping the infiltrators navigate the detention center? What might the people who are detained be risking?
• What role do the infiltrators play in helping the people who are detained navigate immigration policies and processes?
  • What does it suggest about the systems and processes of detainment that the people who are detained are left in the dark about policies and processes?
• How do the detainees enact their agency and resist what they perceive as uncaring, inequitable and/or dehumanizing conditions?
  • What conditions did you notice that seemed oppressive or dehumanizing?

CLOSING QUESTION/ACTIVITY

In the film, Viri had to get into character to play an immigrant that needed to get deported. She drew on common stereotypes that are associated with immigrants. However, most immigrants are not poor, uneducated, unemployed, or undocumented. Many of them come to the US as educated, professionals, and entrepreneurs. Think of a campaign that could be used to transform and humanize the way we imagine immigrants and to transform harmful stereotypes about non-citizens in the US.

As you begin, try to list popular media portrayals of members of the immigrant community. What images are presented? What is harmful about these stereotypes?

• How did your experience of viewing this documentary change your uncritical or stereotypical assumptions about members of the immigrant community in the US? What specifically was challenged for you?
• Compare and contrast the characteristics of immigrants in mainstream media with the participants in film Infiltrators.
• Develop a strategy to galvanize other people to join you in transforming the image of immigrants, including why this is important, how it impacts society, and the goals you seek to accomplish.