Dropout Nation

good informative report, gives a voice to those who don't have it
Immigration is always a hot button topic. While some may see this episode as too sympathetic to illegal immigrants there are many valid points made in this episode. As an immigrant myself I resent the demonizing of entire communities because of a few bad apples, the oversimplification of deportation as the solution to all immigration problems, or flat out other irrational "solutions" for this problem. While I have no problem when ICE deports criminals and in fact commend them for doing that I don't think the law should be applied as black and white. Some thought should be given to circumstances such as the ones presented in this program. In the end the program doesn't propose any solution but alludes to the hopelessness of the problem due to perpetual political gridlock.

2 episodes back to back on Afghanistan
The first episode shows the extreme difficulty managing border security at the Afghan-Pakistan border. Many powers are interested in this border. Each interested party is extremely tough because survival is so difficult in this area and the stakes are high. A lot of attention was given to Pakistan's ISI and the way it apparently deals with all the other sides in the conflict.

The second episode showed horrible things. Little kids, particularly little girls, are at extreme risk in the remote Afghan areas. The opium traders lend money to poor farmers. When the farmers can't pay the debt, the drug traders take their daughters. And this cycle goes on and on. It tears apart families, and this episode shows some of these instances up close.

Both episodes were excellent. The second one is difficult to recommend because it's so disturbing.

Undocumented people and human rights - does it have to be so complicated?
Frontline correspondent Maria Hinojosa did a fantastic job in this segment. There really shouldn't be anything complicated about human rights. When the President said the issue is very complicated, he meant politically.

This episode focused on injustices for illegal immigrants regarding laws and enforcement of those laws. A lot of time was devoted to a privately run detention center where sexual abuse of female detainees had been occurring as a matter of course. Some of these women are mothers of young citizen-children and haven't done anything wrong other than being in the U.S. illegally.

As correspondent Hinojosa discovered, the reason sexual abuse of female illegal immigrant detainees prevailed was that perpetrators stood the slimmest chance of facing justice themselves. The detention centers are located remotely, the detainees do not have the right to an attorney, immigration officials were not responsive to calls for investigations and threats against...

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