2,475,669 people were temporarily detained at the US-Mexico border in 2023. Trump's campaign promise to build a wall remained essentially just that: a promise. The number of illegal immigrants in the United States has steadily increased since his time in office. The government under Joe Biden is committed to reforming immigration laws, but there is currently a de facto standstill. Accordingly, illegal immigration is also one of the main issues for the next US election in 2024 and is being exploited politically. People, families and children are now just statistics and numbers that are exploited by politics but hardly receive any individual attention. Dreamers by Stéphanie Barbey and Luc Peter largely ignores the political debate and focuses much more on the everyday lives of over 2.5 million so-called Dreamers in the USA, represented by the example of Carlos and his family.

Dreamers?

Not all illegal immigrants in the USA are so-called Dreamers. This term specifically refers to people who came to the United States as minors and then stayed. They grew up in the USA, attended American schools, then started working and in most cases identify as citizens of the United States of America. However, they do not have an American passport, an official residence permit or a social security number.

Is the “American Dream” dead?

At the age of nine, Carlos and his three brothers flew to the USA with their parents. They were told it was just a vacation, but there were never any plans to return to Mexico. Carlos is now in the middle of life; He graduated from high school and found a job in construction, working his way up to foreman. Over the course of the film, he proudly shows the large number of buildings in whose construction he played a key role. Nevertheless, he has little chance of ever becoming an official citizen of the USA. His youngest brother, Julio, is the only one who was able to obtain American citizenship through marriage and his wife's sponsorship. His eldest brother, George, was arrested 15 years ago and deported back to Mexico after two years in prison; returning to the United States would land him in prison for up to 30 years.

Since then, Carlos and the third brother, Jesus, have lived in constant fear of suffering the same fate. A seemingly harmless traffic stop could lead to immediate deportation for both of them. This omnipresent threat and the associated fear of deportation place a heavy burden on family life. Jesus struggles with depression. Carlos works on a new airport building and trembles every time the immigration police stroll by. Joint family celebrations have to take place without his eldest brother, and a vacation to Mexico to visit him and distant relatives is unthinkable; The risk of being exposed if you re-enter the country is far too great.

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Intimate, impactful insights

It may well be that the film reflects the rough situation of the everyday lives of many of these dreamers, but it should be emphasized that it is not a documentary about the topic itself. Dreamers never tells the story from a bird's eye view, but rather remains individually focused on Carlos and his family, except for general explanations of terms. However, it paints a very intimate and very moving picture that captivates the viewer more than a conventional documentary. The film is in black and white throughout, which is a fitting homage to the life in the shadows that the Dreamers are forced to lead.

Stéphanie Barbey and Luc Peter give the affected Dreamers a voice through Carlos and remind us with this must-see, intimate and unconventional documentary that immigrants are not statistics and political tools, but people.