It’s often said that America is a nation of immigrants, because about 99% of us are not Native Americans and therefore we, or our ancestors, came from somewhere else. In my case, that’s various parts of Central and Northern Europe, but no one really cares about the details because I’m coded as white and therefore as someone who belongs here. But for people of different skin tones, particularly relatively recent arrivals, may have had quite different experiences. Michael Nigro’s short documentary “ICED out of America” (22 min.), produced by the Real News Network, looks at a specific slice of those experiences: immigrants reporting for hearings in courtrooms in the Jacob Javits and Ted Weiss Federal Buildings in lower Manhattan, New York City.
Although the courtrooms are open to the public, cameras are not allowed in courtrooms or waiting rooms, so most of what you see is people waiting in the hallways as detained immigrants are dragged through by masked federal officials wearing tactical vests, supplemented by views of protestors outside the buildings. Sometimes you get some context about who is being moved through the system, sometimes not, and sometimes the officials respond to questioning with unintentional irony (I would have thought “I was just following orders” would be on the automatic stoplist by now, but maybe the person who said that actually does identify as a Nazi).
Nigro augments the scenes in and near the courthouses with brief factoids providing some context about how immigrants are being treated in Donald Trump’s America, including that many people who are arrested are cooperating with the legal system and in fact were picked up when they came to a scheduled immigration hearing. Some were deported to other cities or countries directly from court, which sounds like something you’d expect from a paranoid totalitarian regime, not a longstanding democracy.
“ICED out of America” is an issues film with a point to make, and Nigro is not interested in both-sidesing what’s being done to immigrants in America. U.S. Representative Dan Goldman likens the immigrants’ treatment to that doled out by the Gestapo, and it’s hard to disagree once you see it for yourself. Fast cutting and a propulsive soundtrack keep the energy up, and the immediacy of the footage give the film a real “you are there” feel. If you sometimes feel yourself desiring more contextual information, there are other sources that can provide that. The rawness is part of the point in this film and I think it adds immediacy to the message: people are being disappeared in America, despite complying with the law and despite court orders to the contrary. There’s no way that is OK in a country that believes in due process and the rule of law. | Sarah Boslaugh
“ICED out of America” will be shown as part of the documentary shorts program “Is This America/This Is America” which begins at 3:30 pm on Nov. 15 at the Hi-Pointe Theatre as part of the 35th annual St. Louis International Film Festival. Tickets are free but it’s advisable to reserve them online because often all the tickets to free screenings are claimed in advance. Information about tickets and the full festival schedule is available from the Festival web site.
