Narrator: Tonight on 30 days:
a patriotic minuteman vigilante
who patrols the U.S. border to keep it secure,
Man: Bigfoot, this is Zulu. Do you copy?
moves in with a family of illegal immigrants
in the heart of Los Angeles.
Man: You're an illegal alien and you are telling me where to go.
You are causing problems.
Narrator: Will he hold on to his belief that illegal immigrants
are a plague on the nation that needs to be removed.
Man: I do not give up my God damn country for nobody.
Narrator: Or will he come to see them as equals
that deserve to become Americans.
Croud: [chanting] USA USA USA
Man: They don't mean that.
Narrator: Find out today on 30 days.
Give us your tired, your poor,
your huddled masses yearning to be free.
Unless of course you enter the country illegally.
Over eleven million illegal immigrants
live in America today.
While they come from every nation in the world,
the largest numbers are from Mexico and Central America
having crossed the Mexican border illegally.
The immigration debate has divided America between
those who think illegal immigrants should be
rounded up and deported and those who think they
should be granted amnesty and allowed to become citizens.
Crowd: We got this.
Narrator: Last year, the House of Representatives approved
a bill making it a felony to be in the country illegally.
John McCain: The definition of the word amnesty is forgiveness.
We did that in the 1980's and it didn't work.
Narrator: The proposed legislation sent shock waves
through immigrant communities, sparking some of the largest
demonstrations in the history of the United States.
President George W. Bush: The border should be opened
to trade and lawful immigration. And shut to illegal immigrants.
Narrator: Ever since our nation was founded,
we have been a country of immigrants offering the world
a place of refuge and a shot at the American dream.
But now, more than 200 years later, is that dream over?
We will find out when a gun toting, border patrolling,
anti-immigration, minute man moves in with a family
of illegal immigrants for the next thirty days.
[music]
Narrator: We found someone who has dedicated his life
to keeping illegal immigrants out of America.
And he isn't afraid to take his mission to the front lines.
Frank: My name is Frank George. Also known as Franciso Honehim.
I am an immigrant from Guantanamo, Cuba
and I am here today to protest illegal aliens from Mexico.
We Americans are not going to put up with this anymore.
There is not one American flag above you, I don't think.
You have faith.
The patriotic American people you have faced the minute men
and our state organization.
Narrator: In 1957 when Frank was only seven years old,
he and his family fled their home
during the Cuban Revolution.
Because his father worked for an American sugar company,
his family was able to
immigrate legally to the United States.
Yet Frank and his parents were forced to
leave their home and possessions behind.
Frank: When we came there was no such thing as asylum or amnesty.
We had to obey the laws of immigration.
We weren't given any breaks. We just did it all legally.
I'm very proud of my father and mother for having done that.
Men: Go home racists, go home.
Frank: People have to understand that I have already been through
the experience of losing a country.
What we see developing here is the possibility of
extreme civil strife and violence.
The recent events in Los Angeles where 500,000 have come out
and demonstrated for their rights is inconceivable to me
because the only right they have is to be deported back
to whatever country of origin they came from.
I can't see thousands of people coming over the border
every day and not do something about it.
Narrator: Frank, his wife Jane, and their fellow minute men
buddies all gather to patrol the border on weekends.
More than a million illegall immigrants attempt to cross
the US/Mexican border each year.
And the seven thousand volunteer members of the minute men
have taken matters into their own hands
to try and stop as many of them as they can.
Frank: I got involved with the minute men after 9/11.
9/11 was an immigration related issue.
These men who killed so many of our own,
set the American people like myself into motion.
Big foot this is Hulu do you copy?
Let's break out the good stuff.
Standard thing when I go to the border,
is to take my nine millimeter hand gun, take lots of ammo,
take my Caltech rifle that is a two-twenty-three round
and I take at least five hundred rounds.
I take my wife with me, she is pretty tough and
she's got her own rifle and she is gungho.
She won't put up with any crap either.
Wife: Do you see them standing?
Frank: Yeah, I see them standing out there.
Narrator: The minute men do not apprehend illegal immigrants.
Instead they report any illegal crossings
to the US border patrol.
Woman: Oh there are more down here.
Frank: We got about six of them out there and there
is going to be more so thank you guys,
you are doing a good job. Proud of you already.
When I think of illegal immigration
and the problems that it brings to the United States,
the fore most problem that I see is that it will bring about
the disillusion of this country.
It will tear it apart totally and completely.
Narrator: Frank will spend the next thirty days
living with the Gonzales family whose seven members
are some of the hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants
that presently live in Los Angeles.
Patty and her husband Rigoberto have five kids.
The two youngest, Ricardo and Karina were born in the US
so they are American citizens.
The three oldest children Arial, Armida, and Albanidia
crossed the border illegally with their parents
twelve years ago and have been living here
undocumented ever since.
The family who come from a small town in Central Mexico
share a tiny one bedroom apartment that measures
less than 500 square feet.
Before he heads off to Los Angeles, Frank and his wife
have a last meal at their home in Mojave, California.
Jane: Oh you know what really ticks me off?
Frank: What?
Jane: If they are one of the families that covered
the American flag with the Mexican flag.
Frank: Well, you know.
Jane: That's almost like a take over issue.
Frank: A lot of us look at it,
and it looks like an occupying army.
What comes next? Is there going to be violence?
Jane: Just keep your head down.
Frank: It could be possible.
Narrator: To live as an illegal immigrant
for the next thirty days, Frank will have to follow three rules:
first, he will have to leave any and all
personal identification behind.
Second, he'll have to move in with a whole family of
illegal immigrants and share their tiny apartment.
And third, he will be put to work as a day laborer.
Frank: I am just going to go like I have no identity
here in the United States.
That's the way they do it,
that's the way I am going to do it.
[music playing]
Frank: This is East Los Angeles
but it is not the East Los Angeles that I knew years ago.
A lot of it looks more to me like I am in Mexico.
For me, living in with illegal aliens for thirty days
it is an opportunity to present before the American people
a problem that is huge.
I want millions of Americans to get up there
and do something about this before our nation is gone.
Armida: No, I wouldn't want a Latino man
that would like totally suck.
If he is a white minute man than I would totally understand
why he doesn't like immigrants but if he is a Latino..
Frank: I'm concerned about how they might perceive me
because of my border activities.
I have some anxiety of how I may be received.
Because I am not at all in favor of them being here illegally.
To be very honest you know, my thought is to arrive
and then thirty seconds later have an INS bus pick them up.
Hi
Paty: Hi
Frank: I am Frank.
I am Frank or Francisco. Pleased to meet you sir.
Armida: Armida.
Frank: Armida? Pleased to meet you Armida.
And you are?
Albanida: My name is Albanida.
Frank: And you young lady?
Karina: Karina.
Frank: Karina? I am Frank.
Ricardo: Ricardo.
Frank: Ricardo.
Armida: So you are Cuban?
Frank: Yeah I was actually born there.
All of a sudden I am in the living room and
I'm looking at the family and its entirety
and they are looking at me and I could tell that
there was an uneasiness between all of us.
How would you solve
your immigration status problem if you could.
Armida: I am just going to do good in college
and I don't know.
Talk to lawyers and see what I can do.
Are you completely against the amnesty?
Frank: Yeah.
Armida: So no exceptions?
Frank: I am sorry to say it's no exceptions.
Armida: So do you feel like a hypocrite because
you were born in Cuba?
Frank: No! Because...
Armida: Because you came here legally?
Frank: Yes. Yes.
Armida: We are not criminals you know.
I am doing fine in school and I know my grade
adds to this country.
Frank: By immigration of laws, it is very important
that we abide by our laws.
We can't have another amnesty.
Our government is too irresponsible.
Armida: I just hope that he questions
what he really believes in
and really gets to see what we go through, through our eyes.
Frank: If I could deport the Gonzales' tomorrow
I would have to.
That's the way the law is written.
Narrator: It is day two and Frank,
an anti-immigration minute man, wakes up to find himself
the eighth member of a family of illegal immigrants
in Los Angeles.
Paty: Hello!
Frank: The house is very very crowded.
There are just too many of them
in this little of square footage.
They are a big family.
Little kids, and kids that are older, mom and dad.
Very small square footage for the abode they live in.
Very little privacy.
Something that few Americans would be willing to accept.
Who plays golf?
Riocardo: My sisters, everyone.
Frank: Really?
Alrial: My sister Armida, she is the captain.
Last year she played for the city finals.
Just because of one stroke,
she didn't make it to the state finals.
Frank: Really?
I think it is my turn to use the restroom now.
Narrator: Rigoberto supports his family by working
as a handy man in the local neighborhood.
By taking care of the apartment complexes his family lives in
his whole family survives on
less than fifteen thousand dollars a year.
Which is well below the US poverty line.
With a new set of hands in the house,
Rigoberto wastes no time putting Frank to work as a day laborer.
Frank: I can see what Rigoberto does every single day
to earn money for his family,
he doesn't have steady employment, it trickles in.
He tries to develop it as he can.
Twenty dollars here, thirty dollars there.
He gets paid less than anybody else.
That's part of the secret of why some people keep
illegal aliens because they exploit the hell out of them.
People that hire him are making a killing at his expense.
The flip side is that an American laborer cannot
compete with those prices. Cannot.
That means that Mr. Gonzales keeps himself in poverty
but also keeps Americans from getting food on their tables.
Armida: How do you get into the whole minute man project?
I just keep on thinking about it.
Frank: Alright, let me explain that to you.
Armida: You are an immigrant like the pilgrims.
The pilgrims were immigrants.
Frank: Yes but I am a legal immigrant.
I had to do certain things.
Armida: Were the pilgrims legal too?
Frank: They were legal in the sense that
England owned America at that time.
Armida: How did they own it?
Frank: Well because they took it over.
Armida: By force!
Frank: First it belonged to England. The pilgrims came.
Armida: And before that?
Frank: Well it belonged to the Indians.
And unfortunately the point is that we do lose
countries by force.
We lose countries by responsibility of the
people suffering.
Armida: It's okay.
How about you see a family in the border with two
kids and parents and do you see the future in the
little girl?
Frank: I feel compassion and I feel sorry for them.
Armida: But you still call the border patrol.
Frank: That's what I am supposed to do.
I am a citizen of this country.
I am taking care of this country and I have to
protect it.
That is the oath that I took.
That is the oath that I uphold.
Armida: Like many illegal immigrants that one day
shall become legal, they will take the oath too.
The American dream, oh my gosh, if that's the
American dream, this nation is what it is known
for, the American dream.
And for him to want to stop that is like, it's
insane.
Narrator: It's day four and Armida's high school
teacher, Mr. Young, has invited Armida and her
family to a local Mexican restaurant to celebrate
her upcoming high school graduation.
Armida is an honor student with a 3.8 grade point
average.
Her dream is to be the first in her family to get
a college education.
Armida: In September I will start college.
I still don't know which one because, okay.
My top choice is Princeton.
I'm waiting to hear from Princeton and my second
choice is Santa Clara University.
I applied to a full ride scholarship so if I get
this scholarship, I can go to any university I wanted
to so hopefully in September I am taking off.
Princeton here I go!
Mr. Young: Well since I first met Armida back in
the sixth grade and she was wondering and looking
around, seeing how things were, she has been an
inspiration to me, she has been an inspiration to
everyone that I know.
Teachers still talk about her.
It doesn't surprise anyone what's happened to her, I
thank you very much for allowing me to be a part
of it.
Thank you.
That's it.
It's all Armi.
I love you, dear.
Armida: You make me cry.
Frank: I have been to the borders,
I know what I am talking about.
Mr. Young: These guys are idiots.
They are idiots.
Frank: We are not idiots.
We go to the border to see what's happening.
That's what I do.
I am not a God damn idiot.
Mr. Young: You are going to send thirty million
people back to Mexico?
Then what?
Where do you go with that?
And how are you going to deal with the children of
these people?
You're going to leave them here who are the citizens?
Frank: They have to have a revolution in their
country.
They have to fix their country.
I don't want any American blood shed over Mexico.
Mr. Young: You're making it once again.
You're making it sound like there's forty of them
here and we can just straighten out these forty
and they are here!
That's what I don't get, they are here!
Frank: Problems are problems.
They are here alright.
But a problem is a problem and you have to deal with
them.
That's what it is.
Life is not easy.
Why does it happen?
Because this God damn government doesn't know
what it is supposed to do.
Because their God damn government in Mexico has
let them down.
I do not give up my God damn country for nobody.
You come to America and you keep your culture.
Yes.
But you become an American you can treat it in that
sense.
But you hit the God damn street because you have a
problem with America don't go out there with some God
damn flag other than the American flag.
Show people that you are for this country.
America is an ailing body.
The sickness is illegal immigration and all the
corruption accompanies it.
Americans get up and save this country or you will
have none.
Narrator: A week into his thirty day experience
living with a family of illegal immigrants, minute
man, Frank's presence has made the Gonzales'
apartment that much smaller.
To show Frank how she pitches in to help make a
living, Paty invites him on her weekly trip to the
recycling center.
Since they can't get steady jobs without legal
documents, Paty and her family do whatever they
can to make ends meet.
Frank: It was Paty, the wife, who broke the ice
for me with a beautiful, wonderful, loving
personality that just embraces you without even
touching you.
It is very hard on a person when you look on a
people and you like them, yet you know they are not
supposed to be here.
You know that they broke the law by being here, yet
you feel for them.
Ricardo: You pick them up with this.
Frank: So you pick them up with this.
Ricardo: Like this.
Frank: Like this.
We are being pulled apart in a sense and I always
have to keep reminding myself that it's like
having friends that you have not had for a long
time.
But you know we are on opposite ends of the
spectrum.
Armida: Have you seen those guys on the border
with guns that are trying to keep immigrants out of
the country?
Friend: They are at your house?
Armida: Yeah.
He is there.
He eats there.
He is there 24/7.
Frank: Just like they had some concerns about me
being a minute man, I had some concerns about these
folks and what could transpire.
But we come to find out that we are together and
we get along well.
They are very warm people.
After a while it became like there is an aspect of
family here.
Narrator: On day twelve, Frank and Armida put
politics aside long enough to give him his first golf
lesson.
Frank: How long have you been golfing?
Armida: Since tenth grade.
Frank: Since tenth grade!
It's funny to me that Armida very badly wants to
be a part of mainstream America.
She wants to have this collegiate experience
where she will be admitted into this big college and
she can have what rich girls have.
There is a point where Armida has to face
reality.
It's very hard.
It's very difficult for somebody to get a
scholarship of the type that she wants.
Particularly given her immigrant status.
Hey.
Armida: That's where it is supposed to go.
Frank: That is fantabulous.
Armida: I like Frank.
As long as I don't talk about politics with him, I
am fine.
Just when we start talking about politics I get this
huge, huge headache.
Okay!
Frank: Okay!
My first time golfing and I am getting beat by a
girl.
Oh congratulations.
Armida: Yeah, I beat you.
Frank: Yes you did.
Narrator: After a month of waiting.
The letter that Armida has been anxiously expecting
from Princeton University has finally arrived.
Armida: Where is it at?
Where is the letter?
The admission process is a difficult one for students
and families.
Your application was reviewed thoroughly and we
realize that you may be disappointed with our
decision.
The admission community has not admitted and I am
sorry to inform you that you will not be coming to
Princeton this year.
(inaudible)
Narrator: It's day fifteen and the United States
Senate is debating a new immigration bill.
Unlike the House of Representative's plan that
would make Armida and her family felons who could be
imprisoned, the Senates bill provides a path for
legalization that would give them a shot at
becoming American citizens.
Armida: You know the bill that I was telling you
about?
I have been reading up on it and it was on the news
this morning because right now they are talking about
it in the Senate.
Frank: It is a very lively debate.
Armida: So you really wouldn't want this bill to
pass?
Frank: No.
I would not.
Armida: Would you protest against it?
Frank: Of course I would.
Armida: You would?
Frank: Of course I would, I would have to.
Armida: Do you see they are willing to become
American and what's that word that you use all the
time?
To stimulate!
Frank: If you are going to become a legal resident
and you are still going to employ and give a helping
hand to illegal aliens, that to me is aiding and
embedding, that is breaking the law.
And of what value are you to our society?
Narrator: Hoping to change Frank's mind, Armida
invites him to a candlelight vigil to show
him the wide spread support for the new Senate
legislation.
Frank: What can you tell me about the Che Guevara t
shirt?
There is a young lady up there wearing one with Che
Guevara's face on the front.
Isn't that a symbol of revolution?
Armida: That gives a name to the whole revolution.
Yeah.
My whole..
That is what this is.
A revolution.
Armida: You don't understand Frank.
Frank: Wait wait wait.
I'm a minute man American citizen and I don't
understand that all these people that are here
illegally are telling me that they are here, they
want to stay here, they want their family to come
here and that I should shut up and take it.
Armida: So Frank, I have something for you.
I have a candle here for you.
Frank: Nope.
I don't do that.
I will not do that.
Don't even offer me that.
I won't do that.
No.
Armida: The reason we are doing this is like to get
them some legal status from undocumented people
that means the world to me.
It really does mean the world to me.
You know.
Frank: We have laws and those laws should be
respected.
It's like all of that should be suspended
because like this is her, she's here and she wants
what we have and she claims it for her own.
But she doesn't understand the basics.
Crowd: USA USA USA USA USA
Frank: They don't mean that.
They do not mean that.
That's a prop.
Just like all the other American flags they are
using, it is a prop.
For their movement for their cause and it is the
end of America is what it is.
This is not the beginning of a revolution I don't
know what is.
Armida: Only he can change his mind.
It's up to him, you know?
He has to like see it.
And come up with his own conclusion.
If you are going to be here, you have to be
willing to take care of this country and if you
don't understand how to take care of this country
then you have to go back to Mexico.
Narrator: It's day twenty of Frank's thirty day stay
with illegal immigrants.
And Rigoberto has a proposition for him.
Frank: I am sitting down in the morning talking to
Rigoberto and all of a sudden he starts talking
about Mexico and about this and that and the
other.
He says he's got his brother over there.
Why don't I go see his brother down there.
Paty and Rigo haven't seen their families in Mexico
in over twelve years.
Because like most illegal immigrants, they know that
if they leave the United States, they probably
won't make it back in.
Last year, Paty's parents both died before she was
able to visit them.
Frank: Paty, you would like to go to Mexico to
visit?
Yes?
When I saw Paty break down and cry because she had
not been able to go down there to Mexico and visit
her mom and dad before they died, I relived
something from my own life.
Because I remember my own mother not being able to
go to Cuba to go and tend to her parents or to even
visit when they died.
It's an unusual opportunity.
One that will not come this way, probably ever
again.
So I figured, hey, why not.
Narrator: It's day twenty-three and having
accepted Rigo's offer to go visit his brother in
Mexico, Frank heads south of the border.
Flight Attendant: The first airline in Mexico
since 1921 welcomes you.
Frank: When I see Rigo and Paty obviously hurting
that they can't go and visit their families, of
course I feel sorry for them.
You have to.
It's just an unfortunate set of circumstances that
they are in.
But if they went down here, they might not ever
get back.
Narrator: Rigo's arranged for Frank to stay with his
younger brother Mario in the house they grew up in.
Frank: I take that this is the place.
Being inside of Rigo's brother's house, it was
weird.
I just wanted to get out of there as soon as I
could.
The place was filthy, not because they don't have a
habit of cleaning it, it's just that no matter what
you try and clean there, you can't make something
clean that has got fifty years of dirt on it.
This is a very terrible place to live.
Only people that were homeless, which they were,
would live in a place like this.
You couldn't possibly last very long.
My understanding is that the only water supply came
from up the hill some place over there and it
was just natural water of sorts, it was not treated,
so if there was any kind of bacteria or anything
that would carry disease, they would get it.
This is not a place like a home at all.
No way.
Nobody lasts in anything like this.
You get out of here as soon as you can.
First chance you got.
They made the place a home for themselves but it's
not a place anybody could really live in.
It's just a hubble, a horrible place.
Just horrible.
It's unimaginable.
I'm sure that it is pretty much burnt into their
memories.
Maybe that's the reason that Armida tries so hard
to do well in school and I think that this is part of
the key to a lot of her behavior.
That she wants to succeed and she wants and tries
hard to succeed because she has been in this
place.
And she never wants to go back to this place again.
Yep.
Having come down here brings a new dimension
into that dialogue that we have quite often when she
looks at me and she says "I want to be legalized."
But you know, even though I always imagined that
they came from a background of poverty,
until you see what they would be going back to,
you can't feel the full impact of everything.
It does bring up a tremendous aspect of what
they would be going back to.
No doubt about that.
That just shows the kind of dilemma that we are in.
As human beings who have a heart a nd feel for other
people and you say to yourself, I want the laws
of my country enforced, but at the same time you
look at what they are headed to, it does have an
effect.
Narrator: It's day twenty -five and the Gonzales
family is waiting for Franks return from Mexico.
Armida: I am so anxious I can't imagine, like
seriously.
Frank: You can't even really call it a house.
It was just about the size of that room.
Armida: How does my grandma look?
Does she look really old?
Frank: She is an elderly woman yes but her
complexion is very nice.
Armida: How about my grandpa, is he tall,
short?
Frank: I think he is about your dad's height.
Armida: I don't have pictures of my
grandparents.
I just remember slightly of how they looked liked.
But it's all like a vague memory.
Frank: Do you want to raise the volume on that
thing?
Armida: I know that my grandpa is sick and he is
about to die.
He looks so fragile, you know?
I wish I really had the money so I could take care
of him, you know?
I just wish I had the opportunity to have
grandparents growing up.
Frank: I look at the poverty that they have in
Mexico and I can't blame them for trying to seek a
better life.
I can't.
I just cannot.
I never expected that I would feel as warmly about
this family as I do.
Never thought it would happen.
WOW!
I think, you know, perhaps what we learn is that
first and foremost, we are human beings.
That's the thing that overrides everything else,
the politics and everything else.
I had a good time even though it was very
stressful.
I didn't know what to expect when I walked in
through the door.
Would there be a bunch of people there smiling at me
holding knives behind their backs or what was
going to happen, but it only took a few moments to
realize that you are a good, warm people.
Armida: I think you changed.
Frank: You think?
I've become worse, how?
Armida: No.
Frank: I have walked the way with another
perspective involving human beings and seeing
how close, what happens.
Armida: Are these minute men people your buddies?
Or are they just people you know are
acquaintances?
Frank: No, they are just acquaintances.
My only real friend is my wife.
I know you better than I know most minute men.
It's a fact.
Armida: So are you still going to be a minute man?
Frank: I am sort of tired going to the border.
It would be very strange at this point in time for
me to go to the border.
Armida: I am really going to miss you.
Frank: I am going to miss you too.
Genuinely.
Armida: He is changing.
He doesn't feel strong about his whole beliefs as
he did before.
It really means a lot, you know because it just shows
this part of transformation.
Frank: So you know if something happens, you get
deported or whatever...
Armida: You will sponser me?
Frank: I'll sponsor you as long as everything is
legal.
That has always been my thing.
I don't think that any government agent is going
to have the opportunity that I have had to see the
kind of people that you are.
Why not be a part of what helps to bring them here
legally?
Narrator: On Frank's final day, with the Gonzales
family, a letter arrives from Santa Clara
University.
This could be Armida's last chance to go away to
college in the fall.
Armida: I can't open it, you open it.
Read it!
Albanida: Hold on.
You got in!
Armida: Yay!
I got in Frank!
Frank: Congratulations.
Armida: Are you going to give me a hug?
Frank: Sure.
Armida: You have challenged yourself
academically, you have contributed to your school
and local community you show an understanding of
Santa Clara mission.
We know that you will enrich our community.
We have made our decision.
I am the first one in my family to go to college so
I think that I am the one that is going to make the
transition from a regular ghetto kid from east LA to
a college student.
Frank: So it looks like you got what you wanted.
Looks great!
Not a lot of people do.
That's fantastic.
Armida: It's just scary if I do not get the money,
you know?
Frank: Yeah.
I understand that.
I do.
I understand that completely.
Armida; It's really expensive.
Do you have $40,000 in the bank that I could borrow.
Frank: You know it's funny I was going to ask you the
same thing.
Armida: Do you?
Frank: It's going to be hard saying goodbye to all
of them.
I will do the best that I can because men are not
supposed to cry.
But I will miss them all.
I will.
I have learned so much from you.
Armida: Don't forget that.
Frank: There comes a time when you love people for
who they are.
All politics aside.
It's surprising to meet people that you don't want
to be in this country because of the way they
came in and liking them so much.
What a shock.
I'll never forget that.
Never forget that.