Our immigration system is broken. It is estimated that eleven million undocumented immigrants currently live in the United States. Throughout this year, policy makers have engaged in a heated debate in Congress and in main street America about what to do with them. Meanwhile, there have been unprecedented mobilizations at the local level with hundreds of thousands of immigrants and their supporters coming out in support of immigration reform.

Crossing Arizona examines the crisis through the eyes of those directly affected by it. Frustrated ranchers go out day after day to repair cut fences and pick up the trash that endangers their livestock and livelihoods. Humanitarian groups place water stations in the desert in an attempt to save lives. Political activists rally against anti-migrant ballot initiatives and try to counter rampant fear mongering. Farmers who depend on the illegal work force face each day with the fear that they may lose their workers to a border patrol sweep. And now there are the Minutemen, an armed citizen patrol group taking border security into their own hands. As up-to-date as the nightly news, but far more in-depth, Crossing Arizona reveals the surprising political stances people take when immigration and border policy fails everyone.

Please join us for a provocative panel discussion and Q&A session immediately following the film.

Featured Panelists:
Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-AZ
Esther Olavarria, General Counsel to Senator Edward M. Kennedy (D-MA)
Dan DeVivo, Director and Producer of Crossing Arizona
Alexis Mazon, Derechos Humanos Coalition of Tuscon, AZ

Moderated by:
Dan Restrepo, Director of The Americas Project at the Center for American Progress

Monday, September 25, 2006
Doors open at 6:30 PM. Screening starts at 7:00 PM sharp
Admission is free

Landmark E Street Cinema
555 11th Street NW
Washington, DC 20004
Map & Directions

SPACE IS EXTREMELY LIMITED
RSVP Required. First come, first served.

For more information please call 202.741.6246.

Please let us know in advance if you have any needs for special accessibility so that we can be sure to accommodate you.

Biographies

Rep. Raúl M. Grijalva represents the 7th Congressional District of Arizona in the U.S. House of Representatives. The seventh district encompasses parts of Pima, Maricopa, La Paz, Pinal, and Santa Cruz counties, along with all of Yuma County. It is the only district in Congress representing seven separate Native American tribes. They include the Tohono O'Odham Nation, Colorado River, Ak-Chin, Gila River, Cocopah, Quechan, and Pascua Yaqui Tribes.

Esther Olavarria is Sen. Kennedy's primary advisor on immigration, nationality, and refugee legislation and policies. Previously, she practiced immigration law in Miami, Florida, working at several nonprofit organizations. She cofounded the Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center and served as its managing attorney, supervising the direct service work of the organization. She also has worked at Legal Services of Greater Miami, as the directing attorney of the American Immigration Lawyers Association Pro Bono Project, and as a staff attorney at the Haitian Refugee Center. Ms. Olavarria was born in Havana, Cuba, and raised in Florida.

Dan DeVivo, together with Joseph Matthew, directed and produced Crossing Arizona. Dan graduated from Harvard University in 1999 with a B.A. in Social Anthropology. He spent the next several years honing his filmmaking skills in the field. Based in New York City, he has worked on several projects including "Counting On Democracy" and "We Are Family." In 2002 Dan co-produced and edited "Refusing To Die: A Kenyan Story," which chronicles political turmoil within the former British colony through the experiences of Koigi Wa Wamwere. He now lives in Queens.

Alexis Mazón was born in San Salvador, El Salvador and grew up in Tucson, Arizona. She is a member of the Derechos Humanos Coalition in Tucson, which organizes against the militarization of the U.S.-Mexico border and other deadly policies and laws targeting migrants and people of color. She is also a member of the Immigrant Defense Task Force of the Arizona Public Defender’s Association. In 2004, she was part of the grassroots organizing effort to stop Proposition 200, the first ballot initiative in an avalanche of anti-migrant state laws in Arizona. From 2001 to 2003, she worked with the Youth Law Center in San Francisco on issues affecting immigrant youth in the U.S. justice system. She has been with the City of Tucson Public Defender’s Office since 2003. She has a B.A. in Latin American Studies from Stanford and a J.D. from New York University Law School.

Dan Restrepo is a Senior Policy Advisor at the Center for American Progress and director of its Americas Program. Dan is responsible for the Center's work related to the United States and its place in and relationship with the rest of the Americas.