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‘Immigration Nation’ Review: The Banality of Deportation

This Netflix documentary looks at the bureaucracy of immigration enforcement — an intriguing investigation that probably won’t change any minds.

“Immigration Nation,” a documentary by Christina Clusiau and Shaul Schwarz, gives a glimpse of the tactics used by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.Credit...Netflix

If you watch only one documentary about immigration, then by all means make it “Immigration Nation,” a six-hour Netflix series that mixes reporting with an impressive amount of vivid ride-along observation.

Parts of it may start to drag or feel padded, but its see-the-whole-elephant approach to one of America’s most divisive issues has inherent value. It will almost certainly leave you better informed than you were before, even if its net effect may be to further entrench people on whichever side of the debate they already occupy.

Immigration to the United States is a story spread across thousands of miles, a variety of faceless government agencies and a tapestry of determined, often desperate petitioners, and “Immigration Nation” tries to cover as many of its facets as it can cram in. This includes the widely known ones, like child separation at the border, as well as less familiar angles, such as the exploitation of migrants who take on the work of natural-disaster recovery and federal attempts to co-opt local law enforcement into immigration agencies.

Much of the time, especially after its more fluid and immersive initial episodes, the series takes a standard television current-affairs approach, and as you watch its segments you may recall sharper or more evocative reports on the same stories by shows like “Frontline,” “Vice” and “Last Week Tonight With John Oliver.”

But the makers of “Immigration Nation,” Christina Clusiau and Shaul Schwarz, benefited from time — they filmed for nearly three years — and a startling degree of access, particularly to agents of Immigration and Customs Enforcement as they rounded up immigrants, processed them for (mostly) deportation and spoke to the camera about how it made them feel. And in the series’ first two hours, the results of that embedding, with ICE operations in New York, Charlotte, N.C., and El Paso can be startling and engrossing.

The Daily Poster

Listen to ‘The Daily’: Inside Trump’s Immigration Crackdown

Two filmmakers were granted rare access to Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations. But with the election looming, the Trump administration has sought to block the release of their documentary.
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transcript

Listen to ‘The Daily’: Inside Trump’s Immigration Crackdown

Hosted by Michael Barbaro; produced by Eric Krupke, with help from Alexandra Leigh Young and Jessica Cheung; and edited by Lisa Tobin

Two filmmakers were granted rare access to Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations. But with the election looming, the Trump administration has sought to block the release of their documentary.

michael barbaro

From The New York Times, I’m Michael Barbaro. This is “The Daily.”

Today: At the start of the Trump presidency, leaders within ICE — Immigration and Customs Enforcement — jumped at the chance to give two filmmakers, Christina Clusiau and Shaul Schwarz, inside access to document the agency’s new hardline agenda. Four years later and with the election approaching, the agents tried to block the release of their film.

It’s Monday, September 14.

Hi, guys.

christina clusiau

Hi, Michael.

michael barbaro

We’re so grateful for your time. Thank you.

shaul schwarz

Sure.

michael barbaro

OK. So we’re going to start.

shaul schwarz

Awesome.

michael barbaro

Christina and Shaul, we know that ICE is a notoriously secretive organization. It is very rare for them to allow journalists or filmmakers access to their operations. But you were able to follow them for nearly three years with a tremendous level of access. So how did you go about getting that access? What’s the story?

shaul schwarz

Yeah. I originally started working with ICE almost a decade ago, doing stories about the drug war. And as part of that I met a ICE spokesman, who was at the time a local Arizona spokesman. As the years kind of progressed, he had moved up the ranks. And actually, during the Obama time, they were not so interested in somebody really taking a deep dive into the agency. And so —

archived recording (donald trump)

I want to recognize the ICE and border patrol officers in this room today and to honor their service, and not just because they unanimously endorsed me for president.

shaul schwarz

When Trump got elected —

archived recording (donald trump)

That helps, but that’s not the only reason.

shaul schwarz

Me and Christina thought maybe ICE would be interested now. They seemed to —

michael barbaro

Huh.

shaul schwarz

— be looking at getting a lot of heat, you know? The campaign of Trump was so on the nose on how tough he was going to be on immigration.

archived recording (donald trump)

For too long, your officers and agents haven’t been allowed to properly do their jobs. You know that right? Do you know that? Absolutely. But that’s all about to change.

shaul schwarz

So we approached the spokesman, who I had, at this point, a long relationship with and at that time was already in D.C. And we pitched him. We said, listen, we think the agency is going to come under a lot of heat. And we would like to see what the men and women of ICE will be up against during this administration. And that’s how it started.

michael barbaro

So kind of counterintuitively, the organization was not interested in having you document them during a relatively low heat moment — the Obama administration. But at its most heated moment, when ICE was under the most scrutiny, they were willing.

christina clusiau

Yeah. I think that under this administration, they realized very quickly that enforcement policies were changing.

archived recording (donald trump)

And I’m very happy about it. And you’re very happy about it. From here on out, I’m asking all of you to enforce the laws of the United States of America. They will be enforced and enforced strongly. [APPLAUSE]

christina clusiau

And that they were going to be looked at under a different light. And I think a lot of the officers, at least when we started filming, were feeling that there was a lot that they were up against. And they felt that they wanted to tell their story from the inside.

shaul schwarz

It’s almost like when you’re hated, you have to talk about it, right? So you think of an agency that suddenly, on one hand, the gloves are off. And they have this support. On the other hand —

archived recording (alexandria ocasio-cortez)

We need to occupy every airport, we need to occupy every border, we need to occupy every ICE office until those kids are back with their parents. Period.

shaul schwarz

Everybody were up in arms with them.

archived recording

(PROTESTERS SINGING) Together we will abolish ICE.

shaul schwarz

And then, of course, zero tolerance happened. And then they really were in the hot seat.

michael barbaro

This is family separation?

christina clusiau

Yes.

archived recording (ilhan omar)

We need to abolish ICE — [CHEERING] — and end all inhumane deportation and detention programs.

archived recording

(SINGING) This is for the people who are locked inside. Together!

shaul schwarz

And of course, that kind of gave birth to the abolish-ICE movement and a huge outrage that really sparked the debate.

archived recording

(SINGING) Together we will abolish ICE. This is for the people! This is for the people who are locked inside.

michael barbaro

And what were the specific terms of the agreement that you had with ICE? Once they said that you could come in, what did they ask for, if anything, in return for granting you this access?

shaul schwarz

Yeah. The basics of the agreement was that ICE would see the cuts that we are putting forward and that they would have, say, in three categories: Law enforcement sensitivities, which is really if we are showing kind of how they’re doing their work and kind of giving away police secret tactics and stuff like that. It was privacy issues, meaning everybody in the show had to agree and sign releases that they are willing to participate, both on D.H.S. and the immigrant side. And it was factual incorrectness, if we were just making a mistake. And other than that, the contract stated very clearly that we had the first right amendment to tell our story as we see fit. And really those were what they were going to be allowed to comment on.

michael barbaro

So based on that, it sounds like you had real confidence that you would be given free rein to document what you saw and ultimately include it in whatever you produced.

shaul schwarz

Yeah. Overall, we were happily surprised. They said we were going to get a carte blanche look, that they’re going to introduce us. And once we got to the field in these places, that agents were keen on having us ride along, we got to spend endless time and really see them work. And be with them in the field by ourselves and really do the work we were hoping to do. So we were really grateful for the agents for being kind of, doing their thing and letting us do our thing, be flies on the wall and document.

[doorbell ringing]

anna

I didn’t call you.

agent 1

Yeah. You please open the door.

agent 2

We’re not going to yell out in the hallway through a closed door, ma’am. That’s now how we do business. Please open the door so I can talk to you.

michael barbaro

Well, let’s talk about that documentation. What did you see in those first months in terms of exactly how the agency was changing under this new Trump administration?

christina clusiau

We saw that the scope of ICE’s mandate under this period of time had expanded.

agent

Can we come in and talk to you? We don’t all have to come in, just a couple of us. But I want to show you some pictures. Somebody we’re looking for has been using this address.

anna

Oh. OK.

agent

All right?

anna

You want to come in?

agent

Yeah. If you don’t mind. What’s your name, ma’am?

anna

Anna.

agent

Anna. OK. You mind if I come in?

shaul schwarz

You know, and I think these days were also when the tactic of installing fear were really at its height.

interposing voices

Did you guys [INAUDIBLE]. Yeah. One of my partners.

christina clusiau

You know, under the previous administrations, there were specific priorities, that you could only pick up a felony charge or an egregious criminal. But now, because of this idea of installing fear — of, like, pushing people into the shadows — they expanded that mandate to say there are no priorities. If you’re here illegally, we can come after you. And I think that really put fear into communities. And I think they were successful at it.

anna

OK. But I mean, can I see any paperwork?

agent

Yeah. I’ll give you a card.

anna

No. I mean paperwork saying that you guys have permission to come in here or something.

agent

Oh, no. I have a warrant for him. And I know he lives here. So that’s why I’m in here. Plus, you opened the door and let me in.

michael barbaro

One of the more notorious examples of this fear tactic under the Trump administration was an increased focus on collaterals, which is ICE-speak for undocumented people who are not the target of raids, but who agents find by accident along the way. And there’s this moment where you’re sort of witnessing agents adjusting to this new approach. Can you tell me about that?

shaul schwarz

You know, I think you’re referring to one moment that we were in a car with an agent. And he was kind of telling us how he typically does not do collaterals.

agent

I don’t really — I don’t do collaterals. I just don’t think it’s right.

shaul schwarz

He really wants to catch real criminals, his targets. When you’re part of fugitive operations, you have targets of people who committed crimes. And that’s who you’re going after.

agent

I know it’s my job. But you know, I got guys that are aggravated felons that I’d like to catch. I don’t care about the guy that’s minding his own business and cooperating with me.

shaul schwarz

And literally, kind of as he was finishing to tell us that —

agent

Yeah. What’s up, man?

supervisor

Start taking collaterals, man. I don’t care what you do, but bring at least two people in.

agent

OK.

shaul schwarz

The supervisor came on the radio. And he’s heard clearly saying, I don’t care what you do, get me two people.

agent

He know you guys were with me, right?

speaker

Yeah.

agent

Yeah. Because that’s a pretty stupid [EXPLETIVE] to say.

shaul schwarz

It’s very clear when you see that scene and what he meant: Just get me two people. Because they wanted to show numbers.

michael barbaro

So what you were seeing here was an individual ICE agent saying that, left to my own discretion, I would like not to arrest a collateral. But you’re kind of seeing this prevailing culture of ICE in that moment, under this administration, kind of winning out. Because here is a boss coming on the radio and making clear that what he’s interested in is just detaining people. Get me people.

shaul schwarz

Collaterals were something we saw on a daily basis for years. Fear will equal don’t come here. Fear will equal make it as hard on them, as bad on them, maybe they will leave.

archived recording (tom homan)

There has been a significant increase in non-criminal arrests. Because we weren’t allowed to arrest them in the past administration. But you just seeing more of an uptick in non-criminal because we’re going from 0 to 100 under the new administration.

shaul schwarz

And Tom Homan, the director of ICE at the time, basically his message was, you should be scared.

archived recording (tom homan)

As I said earlier, if you’re in this country illegally, and you committed a crime by entering this country, you should be uncomfortable. You should look over your shoulder. And you need to be worried.

shaul schwarz

If you’re here illegally, that’s the way it should be. That was part of what they were trying to put out there. And I think some did it happily. And I think some did it less happily. And some did it in certain moments. And I think the agents grappled with it.

christina clusiau

Yeah. I mean, I do think, you know, we did see them grappling with it. That’s for sure. You know, on one side, they are the ones that really know what it means when you take somebody into the system. Because a lot of times, when you pick up a collateral, their entire world begins to crumble. Because they get stuck in the system. Whether or not they’re going to be detained and deported, or they have a court case, or all of these small things now come into the fold. Whereas before, they were just going to work, minding their business.

shaul schwarz

But that deterrence equation of creating fear, of letting a story be heard, of letting people know that we’re going to hold you for long times and detentions. That was by design.

michael barbaro

So as we talked about, this is unfolding during the era of family separations. And here, too, you captured the agents adjusting to this new reality. There’s this scene where you’re with these agents in New York discussing the policy. And I wonder if you can talk us through that.

shaul schwarz

Yeah. We were in the car with Judy, an agent we spent a long time with.

judy

We constantly look like we’re the bad guys, when all we’re doing is enforcing the laws and doing our job.

shaul schwarz

And she was grappling, I think, with this idea of family separation. And —

judy

Luckily for us, we haven’t really been involved in any of that family separation thing.

shaul schwarz

Being part of fugitive operations, she kind of hinted that they don’t do that.

judy

We don’t rip children out of families’ arms and things like that. We don’t do that. It’s just — that’s not what we do.

shaul schwarz

But we proceeded to go to a house with her where she had actually found that target, that person that ICE was looking for.

judy

[SPEAKING SPANISH]

shaul schwarz

And she ends up arresting them. But —

mother

[SPEAKING SPANISH]

judy

[SPEAKING SPANISH]

shaul schwarz

— some of the targets are parents.

judy

This is not going to be easy.

shaul schwarz

The mother asked that the child say goodbye to the father. And she let that happen.

[baby crying]

mother

[SPEAKING SPANISH]

judy

Listen. She wants him to say goodbye to his daughter. So —

[baby crying]

shaul schwarz

And I honestly think it hurt her.

She’s a parent. She’s the daughter of an immigrant.

judy

We always take into consideration that the children and the family. And we try to make, you know, this probably unpleasant situation just a little bit easier for everyone.

shaul schwarz

But in that morning, Judy was doing exactly her mission. And her mission was different than the systemic separation that was happening at the border at the same time.

judy

Just as a human, you have compassion towards other people. But you know the saying, right? It’s a job. And somebody has to do it. So that somebody is you. And you just have to kind of learn how to separate your personal feelings or your personal emotions from doing your work.

christina clusiau

Yeah. I mean, I think that we have to remember a lot of these ICE agents are career officials. Many of them were ICE agents under the last administration. They’re ICE agents under this administration. And they’re going to be ICE agents under the next administration. The policies and the mandates do shift within whoever’s in the presidential office.

And so I think that something to recognize is the fact that they, you know, they had different mandates under Obama. They couldn’t do certain things. And they could do other things. And then same under Trump. And I think that’s something that they grapple with. They are federal jobs. They are federal employees. They have federal positions.

And I think, you know, there is something to be said that maybe there are a few that say, you know what, I just can’t do this anymore. You know, I don’t agree with the policies. I’m going to quit. But there’s a lot that don’t. There’s a lot that just grapple with it. They just continue doing their job. They do their mission. And — and that’s it.

michael barbaro

We’ll be right back.

So when you went to publish this film, as you said, you had to first run it by ICE. And they were going to put it through their various filters. How did that process go?

christina clusiau

So initially, we handed off the first cut to ICE. And about a week later, we got a phone call from the spokesperson that we had been dealing with throughout the entire process of the show. And he immediately said: We do not like it.

This does not portray us in a favorable light. In the 15 years, I’ve never been called up to the front office in order to talk about a series such as this. And there’s things that we do not like about this. And we need you to relook at some of these issues.

shaul schwarz

He expressed anger that came from all the way to the top. He expressed that this is not what they expected. He brought up, even in that initial phone call, some stuff that legally just didn’t make any sense. It didn’t fall under the three things that they were allowed to comment. He brought stuff like the Hatch Act — that is a old rule that during Soviet times, during the Cold War, government employees cannot try and overthrow a government. It didn’t make any sense.

michael barbaro

Oh, does he mean that he would be accused of violating the Hatch Act? Or the agents?

shaul schwarz

No, that agents in the episode. Because they were speaking about Trump. You know, there was examples of them kind of coming back with pushback. We talked a lot about that collateral scene. One thing they do is use a fingerprinting machine. And they said, well, that machine is law enforcement sensitive, something they had a right to comment about. And so you have to take out the whole scene. Which we were like, all right, take out that shot. But why the whole scene?

And then Christina proceeded to Google to see if anybody else had covered that. And we saw that not only that it was widely covered, that the same ICE-D.H.S. spokesman had actually put that same machine picture and wrote a story about it and sent it to the press. So —

michael barbaro

Wow.

shaul schwarz

You know, and once we would bring these issues, of course they would crumble legally and try to find another. So there was a lot of pushback that really started to draw a quick clear line.

michael barbaro

So they were trying to knock things out of the film?

shaul schwarz

Yes.

christina clusiau

Yeah.

shaul schwarz

But there was something that felt familiar in that mechanism of push.

michael barbaro

Familiar in the sense that you had seen it in operation on the ground in your time with the ICE agents?

shaul schwarz

Constantly. It was part of the machine that we saw.

christina clusiau

We understood from the things we saw exactly what they were trying to do to get us to fold and to comply and to give up. And I think that’s something that we understood from the years of spending with them was that these tactics are something that they use. And I’m speaking now more about leadership and not about the individual ICE agents on the ground, but how these tactics of weaponizing bureaucracy come into the fold. And it’s not just for us. But it’s for everybody.

michael barbaro

In some ways, it seems surprising to me that ICE would find itself surprised by what you captured and depicted in the film. Right? Because on some level, it seems difficult for me to imagine that ICE wouldn’t have imagined that the documentary would capture what it captured. The rules and the policies and these enforcement actions were not a secret.

shaul schwarz

Yeah. We were surprised, too. You have to remember also we started pretty early in the Trump days. And a lot has changed in D.H.S. And. a lot of people who are now at the leadership have been reshuffled there. And as in many places in this administration, but we can definitely attest to D.H.S., it’s a little bit the yes men that have stayed. And this is an election time. So I think a lot came into that. And we have a very different relationship with ICE agents that we spend time with than with leadership and spokesmen. And they had a very different reaction to the show they ultimately saw on Netflix.

michael barbaro

Mhm. What was their reaction?

christina clusiau

This is mainly the individuals that we were fairly close to throughout the production and that we’ve kind of stayed close to.

michael barbaro

Mhm.

christina clusiau

Those ones, you know, came back. And some of them liked what they saw. Others didn’t like what they saw. It was quite a variety. But I think they understood that we did profile what we saw day-to-day and what they do day-to-day.

shaul schwarz

You know, we had an officer who told us in the show —

officer

You know, it’s unfortunate situation. Because a lot of these guys are hardworking individuals.

shaul schwarz

That he understands the people he’s arresting. And maybe it’s hard for him, because he would do exactly the same. They’re here to work and provide for their family. And they just got caught up in politics, if you look at it. That’s how it is. And when we checked into it with him after the show had been published, we kind of asked, hey, how was the portrayal? What do you think?

He’s like, no. It’s fine, this was the real world. But that line wasn’t so good for me. And I said, why? You’re showing empathy. And he’s like, yeah, but empathy in these days could be looked as: You’re not supporting the mission.

christina clusiau

Yeah.

shaul schwarz

We didn’t see that coming.

christina clusiau

That one really — we didn’t see that one coming. This attitude that, in our minds, we were putting this individual in a place where he was having compassion and empathy towards those that he detains. And in his mind, he was not supporting the mission.

shaul schwarz

But I could see what he meant. And I think that surprised us. Where we were gratified is most agents felt that we portrayed the world as it exists. And certainly, it’s not easy to always look in the mirror. But it was a very, very, very different reaction than —

christina clusiau

We anticipated.

michael barbaro

Well, Christina and Shaul, thank you very much. We really appreciate it.

shaul schwarz

Thank you.

christina clusiau

Thank you.

michael barbaro

ICE has disputed Shaul and Christina’s account of efforts to block the film, “Immigration Nation,” from being released until after the election. In a statement to The Times, the agency said, quote, “The men and women of ICE perform outstanding work daily that often goes unnoticed or is misrepresented to the point of falsehood.” “ICE,” the statement continued, “is firmly committed to carrying out the agency’s sworn duty to enforce federal law as passed by Congress professionally, consistently and in full compliance with federal law and agency policies.

We’ll be right back.

Here’s what else you need to know today.

archived recording (jeff merkley)

It is apocalyptic. I drove 600 miles up and down the state. I never escaped the smoke. We have thousands of people who have lost their homes. I could never have envisioned this.

michael barbaro

At least 25 people have died from the wildfires in California, Washington and Oregon, where the fires have now consumed more than one million acres.

archived recording (jeff merkley)

The east winds came over the top of the mountain, proceeded to turn the fires into blow torches that went down and just incinerated a series of small towns, like Blue River and Phoenix and Talent. You have community after community with fairgrounds full of people, of refugees from the fires.

michael barbaro

In an interview with ABC News on Sunday, Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley blamed the fires on decades worth of climate change. And —

archived recording (alex villanueva)

Seeing somebody just walk up and just start shooting on them, it —

it pisses me off. It dismays me at the same time. And I — there’s no pretty way to say it.

michael barbaro

Authorities in Los Angeles are investigating what they said was the unprovoked shooting over the weekend of two sheriff’s deputies sitting in their patrol car in an incident caught on surveillance tape. The officers remain in critical condition. And the shooter remains at large. But Los Angeles Sheriff Alex Villanueva suggested that the ambush was linked to rising antipathy toward police.

archived recording (alex villanueva)

And this is just a somber reminder that this is — it’s a dangerous job. And, you know, actions, words have consequences. And our job does not get any easier because people don’t like law enforcement. It’s going to be a challenge day after day.

That’s it for “The Daily.” I’m Michael Barbaro. My colleague, Meghan Twohey will host tomorrow.

Part of that effect comes from seeing agents push the boundaries of legality — most strikingly, how they routinely enter apartments when “invited” by cowed, uncomprehending immigrants, in a way that’s surprisingly similar to what you’d see in a TV cop drama. (Maybe that’s where they learned it.) Once inside the home of the target, probably an immigrant accused of a crime, they frequently find “collaterals,” additional people who can be rounded up simply because they’re undocumented.

Material like that, and worse — like an agent picking an apartment building’s lock — gained “Immigration Nation” some prerelease publicity, particularly when The New York Times reported that ICE had pressured the filmmakers to delay the release and remove footage.

But the real impact of the show’s early episodes isn’t the outrage you may feel over the thuggish tactics. It’s the wearying, demoralizing depiction of a self-perpetuating bureaucracy, one that churns through the lives of people it takes little notice of — as if your trip to the D.M.V. meant not just standing in an endless line, but then being shackled and put on a plane to Central America.

The scenes inside field offices and detention centers, as agents bluffly banter with the people whose lives they’re destroying and then joke with one another about funny accents and kung pao chicken, might have been written by Kafka, except his dialogue would have been better. The series’ hallmark is not an image but a sound bite — the agents’ endless variations on “I may not like it, but it’s the job.” The human-rights lawyer Becca Heller sums it up nicely: “When you add up all the people just doing their job, it becomes this crazy, terrorizing system.”

“Immigration Nation” provides abundant evidence for things that some might call fake news, like the determination of ICE, under the Trump administration, to remove immigrants from the United States in bulk regardless of whether they pose any danger. As one of the disarmingly honest agents says, “They want to get rid of everybody, I guess.”

That will be the takeaway for those who want to make political points from the series, from either direction. And in the later episodes there are wrenching individual stories, like that of a Guatemalan grandmother seeking asylum and sitting for more than a year in a Texas detention center, though these segments tend to indulge in superfluous scenes of inspiration and tearful condolence.

But what sticks with you from “Immigration Nation” is its up-close depiction of the banality of deportation — of the huge disconnect between the everyday people of ICE and the Border Patrol and the everyday people they detain, arrest and “process.” (In El Paso, a morning meeting at a detention center ends with the chant, “1, 2, 3, processing!”)

Agent after agent expresses an ambivalence about the job that’s given its most extreme expression by an Arizona ICE investigator who says, “I put my personal feelings aside, which, yeah, maybe that’s what every Nazi said, right?” But he immediately adds, “I actually believe in the cause of trying to enforce some sort of sovereignty over our borders, and no one’s figured out a better way to do it yet.”

It’s a nice summation of the schism, within the country at large, that will keep us talking past one another despite the filmmakers’ best efforts.

Mike Hale is a television critic. He also writes about online video, film and media. He came to The Times in 1995 and worked as an editor in Sports, Arts & Leisure and Weekend Arts before becoming a critic in 2009. More about Mike Hale

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section C, Page 1 of the New York edition with the headline: A Deep Dive Into Deportation. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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