“The Call”, is a new short film released by Breakthrough, a worldwide human rights organization and this film is based on a real story and it also tells the stories of millions of undocumented women in the United States. It portrays the lives of numerous immigrant women and their sufferings. Women are denied basic human rights and most immigrant women are found to suffer a lot and are ignored.
“#ImHere” is a campaign that has been mobilizing people who are concerned about immigrant women and their families. “The Call”, is the main aspect of “#ImHere” and Breakthrough is working along with “#ImHere” and the band “Los Lonely Boys” to promote the campaign.
The short film, “The Call”, demonstrates the emotional struggles and difficulties faced by immigrants. This film is about a sexually abused school girl. Her mother who is an undocumented immigrant, is unable to call the police because she might be deported and separated from her family, if she is encountered by the immigration officials.
This film shows how the immigrant women are affected by the anti-immigrant laws like Arizona’s SB 1070. Such laws are found to create racial profiling and many immigrant mothers are separated from their children and are denied basic human rights and health care. Reports state that there are around 5,100 children in the United States who are separated from their parents who are deported from the country. According to the president and CEO of Breakthrough, Mallika Dutt, women must be treated justly.
Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), is relevant to this short film and this act is still awaiting re-authorization in the US Congress. Similarly, President Obama implemented the deferred action process that would only defer the deportation of young immigrants and would allow them to work lawfully in the country. But the parents of the deferred action recipients would remain in the country at the risk of deportation.
“#ImHere” aims at drawing the attention of the politicians towards the ignored human rights of the immigrant women and requires everyone to join the campaign and say “#ImHere to put the rights of immigrant women on the national agenda.”