30 Days

The new season of 30 Days started this week. I absolutely love this show. The first episode about immigration was probably the best one yet- a member of the Minutemen border militia group goes to live with an illegal immigrant family for 30 days. I came close to tears about three times while I was watching this episode. Even living on the border, you forget how difficult life is for undocumented immigrants. The family in the episode had seven people living in a one-bedroom apartment living off whatever the father could make as a day laborer. By U.S. standards, these people were very poor. And then you realize, as bad as their living conditions are here, these people were even worse off back in Mexico. That was the punch in the gut for me, just being confronted with the reality of poverty and thinking about how many people live like that around the world. The immigration debate takes on a new dimension when you think about it like that. This is definitely a thought-provoking show.