KPBS’s ‘In Shadow of Law’ Sheds Light on Aliens’ Plight

For 15 years, Benita Vasquez lived in dread of being apprehended as an illegal immigrant.

During those years, Vasquez and her husband, Ignacio, worked hard, bought a house and sent their children to school, but they carried the constant fear of deportation to Mexico.

“Every time that I left my home, I was afraid that I would get caught,” said Benita Vasquez, who takes the bus each day to work as a maid for a family in La Jolla.

“Without papers you have to tolerate everything--humiliation, low wages, long hours at work” with no real recourse, said Ignacio, a cook’s helper.

The Vasquezes’ plight is shared by thousands of families of undocumented immigrants and is the subject of a new KPBS-TV (Channel 15) documentary that profiles four such families who live in San Diego County.

“In the Shadow of the Law” was funded in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The one-hour documentary, which airs at 9 p.m. Wednesday, examines the lives of illegal aliens and what it is like to live outside the law.

“The program isn’t intended to evaluate the (U.S. immigration) law,” said Paul Espinosa, who produced “In the Shadow.” Espinosa, the award-winning chief of KPBS’s Latino programming, wanted instead to show the human side of the undocumented immigrant issue.

“The purpose is to provide a portrait of these families who live here,” he said. “What are their lives like? What are the dilemmas they face. What’s their everyday reality like?”

Victor Gamez Lopez, who settled with his family in Escondido, is one of those profiled. Gamez crossed the border illegally 15 years ago to work as a field hand for an avocado farming company.

The camera shows Gamez in the groves as the narrator explains how his importance to the firm grew and Gamez was promoted to ranch foreman.

But Gamez’s temporary absences, while he returned to see his family in Mexico, began to disrupt farming operations. During these visits, Gamez found that his family ties were withering. His children didn’t know him. Worse, he said, he was losing his feelings for them.

So he brought his wife and children across the border. Just as Gamez became a key worker in the avocado ranch, his family became involved in the neighborhood and the local Catholic parish. But the law caught up with them.

In 1980, the Oceanside police stopped the family while they were driving to the beach. Although they were neither cited nor informed of any violations, the program says, the family was turned over to U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service officers who identified them as illegal aliens.

“In the Shadow” interviews Gamez’s neighbors, who rallied to help his family. Despite the passage in 1986 of a federal law that provides amnesty for many undocumented aliens, the Gamezes’ status remains unresolved.

Although the Gamezes were willing to allow a video crew into their lives, others living here illegally were less willing to have their stories told on television.

“One of the chief problems was to develop rapport with a number of people,” Espinosa said. But using a network of contacts he had established over the years, Espinosa and associate producer Leo Chavez set up interviews with 25 families before videotaping. Ultimately, they received “good cooperation from the families and . . . from the INS,” Espinosa said.

Besides Chavez, who co-wrote “In the Shadow” with Espinosa, key team members included director Frank Christopher, (whose credits include “In the Name of the People”) and local video cameraman Marty Zimmerman. Actress Carmen Zapata narrated.

Espinosa’s track record as a producer at KPBS includes several national awards for his documentaries, among them “The Lemon Grove Incident,” a docudrama about the first successful desegregation case in the United States.

Espinosa’s crew worked for 11 months, shooting 50 hours of videotape for “In the Shadow.” The camera follows the families at meals, at work and on visits to immigration agencies, where they discuss their prospects for legalization.

The documentary includes footage of Amalia, a single mother receiving $422 a month in disability payments for her infant daughter who has cerebral palsy. The possibility that the government might view her as a burden on society reduces Amalia’s chances for legalization, the report says. She has decided not to seek amnesty and permanent residency status in order to maintain the disability payments. Like the other families, she does not plan to return to Mexico.

“In the Shadow” also shows that there are those who may capitalize on the vulnerability of illegals. During one interview, a notary public insists that he told the Vasquezes that he represented a lawyer who could help obtain their legalization. The Vasquezes, however, believed the man was a lawyer and paid him $5,000. They received nothing in return.

According to a KPBS spokeswoman, PBS may broadcast “In the Shadow” nationally in early 1988.

“It’s an important local story,” Espinosa said. “Yet we tried to pick people representative of the national picture.”

Espinosa chose to focus on families because “they’re like previous generations of immigrants. There’s an immigrant work ethic that we’ve all heard of before. These are just like other generations of immigrants . . . except they’re facing deportation.”