Traveling to the Academy Awards from overseas?

In a few short days shiny statues will be handed out in front of millions of viewers at the world’s largest celebration of cinematic brilliance, the Academy Awards. One nominee almost missed the party.

On the evening of February 20, Emad Burnat was detained at LAX by U.S. Customs and Immigration officers. They didn't believe that the Palestinian film maker was really on his way to a nominee dinner being hosted by filmmaker Michael Moore, Governor of the Documentary Branch of the Academy Awards.

As Emad, his wife, Soraya, and their eight-year-old son, (and "star" of the movie) Gibreel, were being held in a detention room at LAX, Moore noticed he was the only missing nominee. Frantic texts were sent. Calls were made, names were dropped, wheels turned and after more than two hours, Emad and party were released. He later made an impassioned speech at the dinner about how this kind of detention was nothing new in his country, but here?

How nice that he knew the right people to call for help. It made me wonder about the uptick in deportations over the past few years for those less well connected. No one is able to track how many other innocent families have faced similar situations here in America.

According to Homeland Security’s own reports detailing all “removals,” criminal and otherwise - border removals have jumped nearly 25 percent in the last year. Other removable aliens are down about six percent and far less than in 2008. Convicted criminals are more than 50 percent, so safety is being increased, but at what human cost?

I was happy to hear that Emad and his group survived the ordeal in a relatively short time. The incident needs to highlight abusive practices here in supposedly the freest country in the world. If there is no light on the subject – there’s no impetus to change, so I applaud Michael Moore for muck-racking once again so publically (he wrote as a contributor to the Huffington Post).

And as a last nod to the issue, this time a recommendation of another Oscar nominated film, The Visitor. In it, a lonely man changes his life as he’s drawn into issues around cross-cultural communication, identity and immigration. It won the 2008 Independent Spirit Award for Best Director and Richard Jenkins was nominated for Best Actor in the Academy Awards. Watch it and weep.

Photo courtesy of Davidlohr Bueso