Frozen River

CH researched the issues over a number of years and spent time on Mohawk Reservations, where the trafficking takes place in the film. CH says the number of illegal border crossings is considerable, about 100 illegal immigrants per week, but no one knows for sure because there’s so few arrests. This is not well known to the public. (Most people think of illegal immigration and think of the southern border, but who runs these rings? Where do the immigrants go when they’re on the reservation?) I don’t know, the Native Americans don’t run it. no one knows for sure. Where they go depends on who they are. Some Chinese immigrants are going to go straight to New York, others join the sex trade, others are trying to meet up with their families. (How urgent is this issue to the border patrol?) You’d think it would be urgent but I saw no evidence that it was but I don’t know everything they do. There’s no visible border checkpoints anywhere around the reservation, but who knows how they’re surveilling the situation. (The subtext is that this is an economically deprived part of the nation and everyone is seeking to make extra money.) There’s not a lot of industry up there and I found this part of the story very interesting: who would be compelled to engage in this illegal activity. The desperation in this region is profound.