Do stories of men dying in the arid Arizona deserts from dehydration sound familiar? Perhaps you remember John McCain using these truthful anecdotes to convey the importance of immigration reform—before he ran for president, anyway. That’s the opening scene of one of this year’s best documentaries, “Last Best Chance (aka the Senators Bargain),” an ultra-exclusive look at Congress and its dealings with immigration.
The controversial topic has increasingly raised American eyebrows as the purported number of illegal immigrants in the United States rises. Are we to seek and deport these people or let them have citizenship? What about the thousands of other people who are waiting to enter the United States legally? Who is at the top of the list?
The documentary follows these issues in the scope of Edward Kennedy and his political team. Although the film is clearly left-leaning, the narrator does not contribute his own opinions at any time during the movie. All of the information of the documentary is gathered from the raw footage following the inner workings of the Democratic Party.
Inevitably, the team’s hopes for immigration are met with nays on the Republican end. While cameras were forbidden in the negotiation room, the content of the dialogue is implied to the viewer. Democrats want to reunite people who have families in the United States and want to employ workers who have jobs lined up, while Republicans want master’s degree holders. Insightfully, Kennedy’s group points out that the latter qualification would allow all of Europe and a third of Asia to floodgate the border, but not Latin American or Africa. It begs the question: Is this a racial dilemma?
That’s solely for viewers to decide as they enter the sticky dealings behind of the inner workings of law reform. Although extremely educational regarding immigration reform and current issues, the movie is equally didactic about the way Congress works and touches on the difficulties of law implementation. The constant scrambling of the party members, although met with lighthearted music, is hard to watch. Every deadline you’ve ever experienced will nostalgically flood your memory while watching Deputy Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security Esther Olavarria run in heels down a marble hallway carrying a stack of papers that mean the world to thousands of people.
The movie is utterly riveting, like watching an ultra-important football game as two sides completely duke it out—only there is no tackling in the traditional sense of the word. As Ted Kennedy himself describes politics, it’s “another contact sport.” Everyone is on the edge of their seats, including the policy makers, when it’s time to announce the outcome of the bill. By the end of the movie, the bill has gone through tough negotiations, lost supports and various detrimental amendments.
For once, here is a film sympathetic to policy makers, to the flip floppers we all learn to accuse of heresy against the Party. Those same people we learn to loathe are depicted in their most vulnerable time as they desperately attempt to keep intact the purity of the standards for the true laws they wish to employ. This movie shows that ultimately, negotiation is the heart of action. ?