This month’s meaningful movie, shown in the Pioneer Reading Room was “The Deportation of Innocence,” a documentary covering immigrants who were deported from America and separated from their families.

The first man that the film follows had come to the United States with his family and was deported. When he re-entered the United States he was unable to find a job or a place to live for fear of authorities finding him and facing another deportation. He said that during this hardship he had considered suicide until someone came along and helped him get back on his feet.

The second part of the documentary was from the point of view of two young girls who had not seen their father in months because he had been deported. Later, a mother was interviewed about how she was separated from her children when she was detained during a routine traffic stop. Sally Godard, the Executive Director of Unidos Bridging Community attended the event and answered questions that viewers had about deportation and immigrants living in America. Unidos is a non-profit organization that advocates for Latino immigrant families in Yamhill County.

Unidos provides citizenship courses and works with families to create rapid response networks. In the event that ICE appears, they will help families put their affairs and belongings in order.

She also talked about how “social security is being upheld by undocumented workers.” She said that often immigrants will receive tax ID numbers or invalid social security numbers. So they pay taxes that go into social security but when they try to take out their own social security benefits, they are unable to do so because their social security numbers are invalid.

The next meaningful movie will be on gun control. Liz Marlia-Stein will be showing the documentary “Tough Guise” Marlia-Stein puts together these evenings as a local activist and says, “I believe that change starts from the roots up.”

On April 28, Reyna Grande, author of “The Distance Between Us” will be speaking in Ice Auditorium about her memoir and her experience immigrating from Mexico to the United States.