When The Gatekeeper begins, a talk-show radio host lambastes Mexicans, saying that they account for 90 percent of the 11 million illegal aliens in the United States, 70 percent of schoolchildren in California and 80 percent of the drug traffic. Further, the voice says that all unions are controlled by Hispanics, corporations favor the influx, and the president of México favors an open border policy. For the first time in American history, according to the radio voice, the United States is being invaded, and soon Spanish will be the national language. Jack Green, the talk-show bigot (played by J. Patrick McCormack), also runs a vigilante group, one member of which is Adam Fields (played by the director John Carlos Frey), a Border Patrol officer who is frustrated that the illegals keep coming in despite his twelve years of conscientious service. When the action begins, Adam uses violence while rounding up some illegals. His boss puts him on three-day suspension for showing up late at work and his refusal to file a report when his magazine of bullets is twice found empty. One night, the group decides upon an undercover sting operation, with one member to be smuggled from Tijuana into California, wearing a global positioning device. Filled with ethnic self-hate, based in part on the fact that his Mexican mother, a prostitute, reared him without a father, Adam volunteers. After paying the going rate of 30,000 pesos ($2,750), he crosses the border with ten others; although he is the only one impeccably dressed, his smugglers accept him with alacrity. However, those who arrange the smuggling are prepared with rifles to gun down the vigilantes, who are in league with a Border Patrol officer. The smugglers then transport Adam to a forced labor camp somewhere in San Diego County, where most of the men harvest vegetables, Adam joins previously smuggled José Luis (played by Joe Pascual) in the crystal meth factory, and Eva Ramirez (played by Michelle Agnew), who was smuggled with him, is a housemaid. When Adam realizes that his Caucasian vigilante friends and fiancée have no idea where he is, he tries to escape, but he triggers an alarm that results in his capture; on returning to the camp, he is shot in the leg. José Luis urges Adam to resign himself to "his place"; observing the Americans who run the camp, he notes that they are greedy, never satisfied, and always unhappy. Lenora (played by Anne Betancourt), a longtime captive in the camp, urges him to preserve the purity of his soul. In addition to her occupational slavery, Eva is violated sexually. One day, José Luis dies from overexposure to the acid that is used to make crystal meth, and Eva dies later; Adam's early contempt for the illegals is transformed into respect, especially after the rape and the two deaths. The ending, which is the only upbeat part of the film, is unfortunately implausible, so The Gatekeeper is not a completely noir film. By some coincidence, The Gatekeeper was released in the Los Angeles area during the same month as the publication of Harvard professor Samuel Huntington's book The Hispanic Challenge, which sounds the same drumbeats as McCormack and indeed may fuel even more repressive discrimination against Mexicans. The director well understands the extent of discrimination against Mexicans, as he was born in México yet grew up in San Diego not far from the border. For such a graphic depiction of how border smuggling operates and the existence of occupational slavery in the United States, the Political Film Society has nominated The Gatekeeper for best film exposé and best film on human rights for the year 2004. MH
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