In 2007, elected officials in Prince William County in Virginia adopted a law requiring police to question anyone they had probable cause to suspect was in the country illegally. Filmmaker Eric Byler talks about ‘9500 Liberty’, a documentary looking at the effect the policy had on Prince William County.
Richard Ruelas:
In 2007, elected officials in Prince William county in Virginia adopted law requiring police to question anyone they had probable cause to suspect was in the country illegally. "9500 Liberty" is a documentary that shows the effect of this policy on the community. We will talk to one of the directors in a moment, but first here's a short clip of the film.
Man 1 *on video*:
Would I tell all of you folks to go back and listen to C-span to hear what representative Steve king has been talking about. You guys ought to get your stuff together before you start talking about what you do not know. And learn how to speak English.
Man 2:
I speak English just fine.
Man 1:
You do, but these people don't.
Rest of group:
We know how to speak English fine! [TALKING AT ONCE]
Man 1:
Why am I upset?.
Woman 1:
Yeah. I don't understand.
Man 1:
I went to Lowe's today. And the cashier was speaking Spanish. I particularly don't enjoy speaking Spanish in my country, when our constitution, our laws are being ignored by a whole group of people.
Eric Byler:
How many people here are documented?
Man 1:
Because there are 12 million illegals in this country.
Rest of group:
You was illegal too. You came from England! [TALKING AT ONCE]
Boy 1:
The Indians were here before you people came.
Man 1:
If you to school and study and don't get into one of those gangs, and you go to college, then I applaud you.
Boy 1:
What else am I going to do.
Woman 1:
They're here legally, and they are American citizens, they speak English. Parents work very hard.
Man 1:
That's great.
Woman 1:
Can you give them a chance?
I hope you got the little girls. That was great.
Eric Byler:
There was another guy taking pictures of us. I'm not sure what his deal was. We photographed each other.
Richard Ruelas:
Here now is one of the directors of anarchists Eric Byler. Thanks for joining us. We should mention it's Thursday night, as this is airing, this is at the valley art in Tempe. And this is not the last night for it.
Eric Byler:
No. They extended it again so 1, 3, 5 ,7, 9 it plays every day. At elast until next Thursday.
Richard Ruelas:
The reaction has been pretty positive in Phoenix to this film.
Eric Byler:
Yeah. The theater is pleased with the turnout. They're expanding to other cities starting tomorrow. It will be in Prescott Valley and I think a week from tomorrow it will be in Tuscon.
Richard Ruelas:
Tell us about the clip we just saw that sort of kicked off everything. What got you there with your camera to get that protest and get that man?
Eric Byler:
I was interviewing another man, a Mexican-American citizen who had put a sign on the wall of his house protesting the -- what we called the immigration resolution in our county. Which very much like your law, required the police not allowed, but required the police to check immigration status based on the suspicious of a person's lacking legal documents. So I was interviewing the man when I heard this -- I have headphones, so I can hear very well, someone saying "I want to speak to someone who can speak English. Do you speak English? No, not you. So I just picked the -- picked the lapel mike off his collar and went up to the man and asked if I could speak English, what would you like to know? So he gave us a lecture, which you heard the end of, but then he threw in that last jab that we should learn how to speak English and that sort of caused a little bit of a melee.
Richard Ruelas:
And did that get you -- what was your original insent in did you know you were going to follow the impact of this law through Virginia, through this county?
Eric Byler:
That was the third day of shooting and we had no idea where it was going. Ultimately the law was repealed about eight months after that incident.
Richard Ruelas:
Now you're giving away the ending of the movie.
Eric Byler:
That's OK, because I think that's why it's valuable to Arizonans to understand why. I have very much respect for law enforcement and I have a great deal of respect for the civil rights advocates who are involved to think everybody is having a difficult time, just as we did in our county. But ultimately the law was repealed because of unintended consequences that really affected everybody. It wasn't about whose civil rights were violated. Some people don't care about other people's civil rights, only their own. In our case what happened was as the economic impact became apparent, and as the bush justice department let us know we were going to be sued in federal court, and as we looked at the cost, you guys haven't done that yet. You passed the law much as we did, and then did a cost assessment. I hope you're doing a cost assessment. What we did, we passed the law and then said, 60 days later, give us the cost assessment. And so when we found out that it was $14 million, and soon it became $26 million, and this is only for one county. You have a larger state than our county. People began to question, I wanted to do something about illegal immigration, but I'm not sure I'm willing to pay such a high cost, such a high tax increase in order to pay for it.
Richard Ruelas:
One thing that struck me watching the film was that during the public meetings and as the county board is debating whether to repeat law, or even to pass the law, there were a lot of people in the country illegally who spoke to the board. And it struck me that here in this state we don't see that that much. What do you think was the climate and county before this law that gave people sort of that feeling that they could assert themselves in public that we don't have here?
Eric Byler:
Well, we had 287G at the end of 2006. And there was very little controversy. It seemed common sense to us.
Richard Ruelas:
That's officers being allowed to have some enforcement of immigration law or some authority to check.
Eric Byler:
No, what it means is that after you're in jail, then your status is checked. Which made perfect sense. You should find who people are once they've deserved something to -- done something to deserve getting arrested. Then in 2007, to achieve a higher level of controversy this, probable cause standard was introduced. And so what that did is it create a tremendous amount of tension, unfortunately it was racial tension in the county, and the immigrants felt like their lives were on the line. So they did although they had an increased level of fear of the government and increased the level of fear of police officers, because it seemed to them as if very radical extreme activist had taken over those institutions, that's how it appeared to them. They went there because they felt like their lives and their families were on the line. And I had a great deal of sympathy for them, but ultimately the board felt like three weeks before an election, they had to --
Richard Ruelas:
Yeah, you can't look soft on this issue.
Eric Byler:
Right. They had to go with the people who represented themselves as voters, and many of the people who spoke against the resolution represented them selves as lacking status. So I think you can understand why the board initially voted for it before the election, but you can also understand why they repealed it after the election.
Richard Ruelas:
You've done some Q and As in town. I imagine you've seen some parallels between the reaction in Virginia and the reaction among residents here. Talk a little bit about what you're seeing as far as parallels.
Eric Byler:
yeah. There are parallels, because ultimately when it's a polarizing ugly debate, what happens is you really shrink participation. And so people who are sort of caught in the middle don't speak out because they don't want to offend someone. You only hear from those people who thrive on conflict or those people who feel like this is coming at them. It's their lives at stake.
Richard Ruelas:
You might feel some people in the middle coming forward --
Eric Byler:
right. Those people who are -- we call them sort of the silenced majority, people who are so alienated by the process, they haven't spoken yet, those are the ones who are coming to the movie and it's very interesting to talk with them after the film and have them recognize, because they can see in the film this -- the way this whole 5-point process ends up, that ultimately although it seems like it's civil rights issue, at the -- right now, ultimately it's going to be an economic and fiscal issue.
Richard Ruelas:
Eric Byler, "9500 Liberty" is the movie at the valley art. That's our show. For all of us at "Horizonte," I'm Richard Ruelas, have a good night.
