The Infiltrators (Alex Rivera and Cristina Ibarra, 2019) (Patreon)

I have mixed feelings about this documentary, partly because the film is about such a crucial, timely subject without itself being particularly timely. The Infiltrators highlights the very important work of the National Immigrant Youth Alliance, a team of college-aged activists who have worked to help free undocumented immigrants from ICE detention centers and prevent deportations of nonviolent detainees. They've done this using public pressure, legal maneuvering, and one particularly unusual strategy, which is the main focus of the film. In order to contact men and women being held in Florida's Broward County ICE Detention Center, at least two NIYA members -- Marco Saavedra and Viridiana Martinez -- arranged to have themselves intentionally incarcerated. From the inside, they could let other inmates know about their rights, and how to contact the NIYA for assistance. (The film shows this by combining actual interviews, guerilla audio and video, and staged reenactments, for a serviceable hybrid approach.)

But all of this takes place in 2012., And yes, The Infiltrators is an important historical corrective to the glowing retroactive assessment of Barack Obama's presidency. (He let ICE do a lot of dirty work, deporting long-time Americans and separating families. He just didn't make a show of it.) But watching The Infiltrators now, during its fragmentary COVID-period release, is akin to seeing, say, George Zimmerman go to trial. We know how this all ends, and it's about 1000x worse than where things stand as The Infiltrators comes to a close. Yet there is no acknowledgment of this, not even a post-film screen text describing how Trump has escalated deportations, weaponized ICE, and used the immigration crisis as how own ongoing Stalinist show trial. It's impossible to believe that NIYA's tactics could work now, and while this takes nothing away from their bravery and ingenuity -- as Saul Alinsky taught, the way to fight power is to do the unexpected -- The Infiltrators feels like a dispatch from a distant planet.