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One of the subjects of the documentary “The Infiltrators,” immigrant rights activist Claudio Rojas, was detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) during what was supposed to be a routine appointment a month after the documentary won two prizes at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival. “The Infiltrators” was directed by Cristina Ibarra and Alex Rivera and was produced by Alex Rivera. Rojas’ efforts to undermine Florida’s Broward Transitional Center, which is a for-profit institution that specializes in detaining immigrants without a trial or court-appointed lawyer, are chronicled in this documentary. His subsequent deportation to Argentina, which severed him from his family in the United States, appears to have been a clear act of retaliation for Rojas’ actions in this regard.
Its prisoners have included a political refugee from Venezuela, a victim of domestic abuse from the Congo, and Rojas himself, who leaked secrets about the inner-workings of the corrupt establishment with the assistance of the National Immigrant Youth Alliance. Rojas was arrested because he leaked the secrets with the help of the National Immigrant Youth Alliance (NIYA). The majority of the events depicted on screen take place in the ominous months leading up to the election of Donald Trump as president of the United States. Trump will undoubtedly support the construction of a border wall, and he will also refuse to issue executive orders to assist people who are seeking asylum in the United States.
During this time of pandemic, watching Ibarra and Rivera’s film is especially distressing because it was just reported this week by NPR that of the very few immigrants detained by ICE who have been tested for COVID-19, fifty percent of them have received a positive diagnosis. This makes watching the film during this time particularly upsetting. It is a criminal offense to continue holding undocumented immigrants in a system that refuses to recognize their purportedly inalienable rights. It is already inexcusable for a nation that is made up of immigrants to warehouse undocumented immigrants in a system that does not recognize their rights. It is also inexcusable to keep undocumented immigrants confined in a system that poses an ever-increasing threat to their ability to live. The formidable United States Customs and Border Protection agency, which we are told is twice as large as the FBI, is the Goliath to the NIYA’s David, and it takes a significant amount of ingenuity to break through the walls of its holding centers.
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When it comes to the way in which it blurs the line between narrative and documentary while incorporating genre tropes into the nonfiction medium, “The Infiltrators” is, in some respects, reminiscent of “American Animals,” which was a hidden gem that was released in 2018. Young Dreamers from the NIYA led by Marco Saavedra get themselves intentionally detained so that they can work from the inside, connecting with fellow immigrants while pressuring the system into freeing the wrongfully incarcerated one at a time. Rather than following the formula of a heist film, the film occasionally takes the form of a prison break thriller. This is because young Dreamers from the NIYA get themselves intentionally detained in order to work from the inside. A number of chillingly claustrophobic overhead shots show the residents of Broward wandering around their outdoor cage while dressed in orange jumpsuits. Despite their proximity to the outside world, they appear to be pressed down into the ground.
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Although “The Infiltrators” isn’t nearly as stylish as “American Animals” and is somewhat more convoluted, it has the advantage of having subjects who are a great deal more sympathetic than the animals in the former film. Viridiana Martinez, the young member of NIYA who rehearses what she will say to Border Patrol as if she were rehearsing for a school play, is the most compelling character in the film. Her partner-turned-director Mohammad Abdollahi encourages her to maintain a “natural desperation” throughout the film. These are the times when Ibarra and Rivera’s self-aware writing style comes together with the narrative in the most effective way possible.
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It would have been interesting to see much more footage of Abdollahi guiding Martinez into embodying the stereotypes that they have advocated against in order to fool officials. The most tense moment takes place when they try to use Martinez as “bait” for the first time. During this attempt, they make a number of small mistakes that put their cover at risk. Holding Obama responsible for his statement that no criminals will be placed behind bars, the primary objective of the NIYA is to cause a disturbance by disrupting traffic and flooding government offices with petitions until their voices are heard (props to Amy Goodman of “Democracy Now” for devoting airtime to their stories). One of the reasons that Abdollahi does not want to go back to Iran is because he is a gay man, and he does not believe that he will be accepted in Iran due to his sexual orientation. This is a point that is only touched on briefly, but it leaves an indelible impression.
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The filmmakers resort to staging scenes between the inmates and juxtaposing them with real footage of their allies directing them from the outside in order to compensate for the fact that the majority of the action takes place within the confines of Broward’s forbidden walls. When switching from an actual subject to their fictional counterpart, the actor’s name will flash on the screen. This is a touch that is a bit excessive since it is easy to distinguish the recreations from the other footage because they are identical to the real thing. In point of fact, the problematic aspect of the movie is that its contrasting aesthetic choices never quite come together. The behavior of the actors comes across as noticeably staged and uninteresting when compared to that of the actual subjects. The blunders and triumphs that the actual subjects experience in real time make for much more suspenseful viewing than set pieces that are shot and blocked like they are in a television movie.
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There are long tracking shots that are successful in illustrating the sleight of hand techniques that were implemented by the prisoners, but both the performances and the shots themselves lack a real sense of urgency (the narration is so soft-spoken, it verges on sleep-inducing). Towards the end of the movie, there is a scene in which staged footage shows sunlight shining through a window while real rain is falling on the people who are the subjects of the film. However, in terms of visualizing the story, the actors do an efficient job of filling in the blanks, while detailing how to navigate an inherently corrupt system, such as how to go about obtaining more visitors. The incongruous juxtaposition of these approaches constantly took me out of the movie. The phone conversation between Abdollahi and one of the inmates, whose voice was provided by an actor, is the illusion that is the most convincingly carried out. Less successful is the scene in which an actor is made to flap his gums to the accompaniment of audio that is so murky that it is incomprehensible, though thankfully this mistake is only temporary.
The most remarkable thing about the experiences that have been described in this article is the way that even relatively minor acts of defiance, such as refusing to board a plane, can postpone deportation, at least in the beginning. There is a tremendous amount of pathos in the way in which Ibarra and Rivera use imagery of open doors to symbolize the illusion of freedom. This is something that Rojas runs toward in a euphoric slow-motion shot, only to run into an inevitable wall offscreen. An earlier shot that is equally as powerful frames one of the immigrants in a doorway as he is being pressured by ICE to leave the country so that the safety of his wife and child can be ensured. Because of widespread xenophobia, so many families have been deprived of their loved ones, and “The Infiltrators” is a moving ode to those tireless activists who are not afraid to fight for their dreams in spite of the risks involved. It is a film that has many problems, but it is still very important, and there is a great one hidden inside of it.
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