The American Civil Liberties Union - a group that's directly collaborating with the Mexican government - is promoting (blog.aclu.org/2009/03/16/the-least-of-these-documents-aclu-lawsuit) a new documentary called "The Least of These" about conditions at the Hutto immigration detention center in Texas. The film's main conceit is faulty: those held in the detention center are not the "least powerful among us" (theleastofthese-film.com). Those "least powerful" people have some awfully powerful friends: the ACLU, the MSM, and dozens of other organizations that rush to take their side and oppose those who want our laws enforced.

And, the goal of the movie isn't simply to point out problems at the center and encourage minor reforms to ensure that detainees are held according to our laws or that our laws are changed in minor ways to ensure proper detention. The goal of the movie is to discourage immigration enforcement and encourage comprehensive immigration reform. The latter would lead to more illegal immigration, and the ACLU and their friends would simply come up with a new way to try to help that continue.

Per theleastofthese-film.com/about:

The film leads viewers to consider how core American rights and values - presumption of innocence, the protection of children, upholding the family structure as the basic unit of civil society, and America as a refuge of last resort - should apply to immigrants, particularly children.

It's "immigrants" who should be encouraged to "uphold the family structure as the basic unit of civil society". Our laws cannot be blamed for the bad choices that people make completely of their own volition, and it's horrific public policy to enable people to make bad choices. And, the great majority of those held at the Center are probably simply economic refugees; the proper public policy is to encourage them to reman home and reform their own societies.

As for the ACLU's goals:

We hope that the film brings to the forefront the need for practical, realistic immigration policy, not draconian methods that are harming vulnerable kids.

Those involved are: Jason Tyrrell of IndiePix, Marcy Garriott (Producer), Rebecca Bernhardt and Vanita Gupta of the ACLU, Barbara Hines of the University of Texas School of Law, Michelle Brane of the Womens Refugee Commission (linked to minor celebs: womensrefugeecommission.org/about/board). The documentary is premiering today at the 2009 South by Southwest Film Festival (SXSW).