NR | 39m | Documentary | 2024
One might logically assume that more organizations are working to prevent illegal immigration than to foster it, since, by definition, it is illegal. Yet (maybe not so surprisingly) that apparently is not the case.
Criminal cartels’ lucrative business of trafficking people into the United States is somewhat recognized by average people, thanks to films such as “The Marksman.” However, typical Americans will be shocked to learn how nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), very definitely including the United Nations (U.N.) constituent organizations, actively promote the influx of illegal migrants across our southern border.
Director and on-camera presenter Joshua Philipp investigates the situation at a crucial Panamanian juncture for trafficked migrants in the EpochTV-produced short documentary “Weapons of Mass Migration.”
“Weapons of Mass Migration” is nothing like the typical network news report, explaining away the social and economic costs of unchecked immigration, from the comfort of the Upper West Side. Mr. Philipp is on the ground at the Darién Gap, where South America connects to Central America. It is the one discontinuous break in a major migration route leading from South America to our southern border. Currently, it requires a water crossing, but construction of a bridge is well underway—thanks to China’s predatory Belt and Road Initiative infrastructure financing campaign.
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) regime is definitely one of the suspicious parties that emerge during Mr. Philipp’s report. It is not just Belt and Road projects. There is good reason to fear that China exploits the United States’ lax border security to smuggle agents into the country, judging from the huge inventories of imported Mandarin language-packaged Chinese food that Mr. Philipp finds in stores servicing the Darién Gap crossing.
It is also clear the U.N. is deeply involved in the Darién Gap chaos, given the presence of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the U.N. International Organization for Migration (IOM), but the exact nature of their role is disconcertingly murky. None of their considerable office space ever seems to be open for business. Likewise, all of Mr. Philipp’s interview requests submitted to the various U.N. agency press offices were either ignored or declined.
Since Mr. Philipp gave UNHCR and IOM ample opportunity to explain their business in and around the Darién Gap, they have no standing to complain when the on-camera experts speculate regarding the NGOs’ motives—rather unflatteringly.
Regardless, whether the NGOs’ promotion of illegal immigration is a conscious attempt to undermine national sovereignty (as some suspect), or not, Mr. Philipp makes it clear that the biggest victims are the migrants themselves. So many of them have suffered horribly at the hands of their traffickers, with whom the U.N. agencies seem to be acting as de facto accomplices, at least to some extent.
This is definitely eye-opening stuff. Again, Mr. Philipp is very much on the scene and in the thick of it, with the help of several Darién-based correspondents, who help facilitate and guide his fact-finding tour. The most notable might be independent war correspondent and photojournalist Michael Yon, whose “In His Arms” photo of a U.S. Army officer cradling a little Iraqi girl wounded by a car bomb became one of the most enduring images of the Iraq War.
There are many economic, social, and political implications to the migrant tidal wave, but Mr. Philipp and his experts make a convincing case that national security ramifications are the most important. They have also been the most underreported. It is frightening to think about how many bad actors the CCP regime has successfully smuggled across the border—and how many more might be on the way.
“Weapons of Mass Migration” is a jarring wake-up call. It also makes its points in a svelte, lucid 39-minute running time.
It is highly recommended as a concise, multi-pronged exposé into the potential dangers of unchecked migration, including those faced by the migrants themselves.
