Crossing Over

Crossing Over is a 2009 American crime drama film written and directed by Wayne Kramer. It follows illegal immigrants of different nationalities struggling to achieve legal status in Los Angeles: dealing with the border, document fraud and extortion, the asylum and green card process, work-site enforcement, naturalization, the office of counter-terrorism, and the clash of cultures. The film is based on Kramer's similarly titled 1995 short film. He produced the film alongside Frank Marshall. Plot After immigrant Mireya Sanchez is deported, ICE / HSI Special Agent Max Brogan takes care of her son and takes him to the boy's grandparents in Mexico. Later, Mireya is found dead near the border. Brogan returns to the grandparents to tell them the bad news. Taslima Jahangir, a 15-year-old from Bangladesh, presents a paper at school saying people should try to understand the 9/11 hijackers. The school principal reports this to authorities. FBI agents raid the home and ransack the girl's room, reading her diaries and a school assignment on the ethics of suicide. Theorizing her room is "too austere", they note that she has an account on an Islamic website. The profiler says this makes her look like a would-be suicide bomber. Taslima is not charged for this, but it turns out that she is staying in the U.S. illegally. She was born in Bangladesh and brought to the country at age three. Taslima's presence puts at risk her two younger siblings, who are US citizens because they were born in the country. Denise Frankel, the immigration defense attorney, suggests that instead of the whole family's being deported, Taslima can leave for Bangladesh with her mother while the rest stay in the U.S.