Welcoming Week: The Infiltrators Film Screening

The Office of Diversity and Multicultural Affairs at Salt Lake Community College presents The Infiltrators. This event will be made available online from September 15 to October 16.

Without warning, Claudio Rojas is detained by ICE officials outside his Florida home. He is transferred to the Broward Transitional Center, a detention facility used as a holding space for imminent deportations. Terrified of never seeing him again, Claudio’s family contacts the National Immigrant Youth Alliance (NIYA), a group of activist Dreamers known for stopping deportations. Believing that no one is free as long as one is in detention, NIYA enlists Marco Saavedra to self-deport with the hopes of gaining access to the detention center and impeding Claudio’s expulsion. Once inside, Marco discovers a complex for-profit institution housing hundreds of multinational immigrants, all imprisoned without trial.

Directors Cristina Ibarra (in her Sundance debut) and Alex Rivera (Sleep Dealer, 2008 Sundance Film Festival) design a hybrid cinematic language, combining familiar documentary form and scripted narrative to map an uncharted domain: inside an Obama-era immigration detention system. Based on true events, The Infiltrators is both a suspenseful account of a high-stakes mission and an emotionally charged portrait of visionary youth fighting for their community.

This event is a part of Welcoming Week 2020, a program by Salt Lake County Mayor’s Office for New Americans dedicated to highlighting the contributions of immigrant and refugee communities. This event is made possible with support from The Office of Diversity and Multicultural Affairs at Salt Lake Community College, The Mayor’s Office for New Americans, Utah Division of Museums and Arts, and Utah Humanities.