Coffee Party founders screen film in Frederick
March 28, 2010 - 2:32pm



by Ron Cassie @ The Frederick News-Post

The Frederick Film Festival screened three compelling documentaries Saturday at the Weinberg Center -- none with stronger local relevance than "9500 Liberty."

During a heated debate amid local elections in Prince William County, Va., in 2007 and 2008, filmmakers Eric Byler and Annabel Park chronicled the rise and fall of a county law enforcement resolution targeting local illegal immigrants.

Since making the film, which has received rave reviews from John Grisham, among others, Byler and Park have founded the upstart Coffee Party movement to promote civil discourse in political policy debate. Byler, who lives in Prince William County, and Park, a Maryland resident, introduced the film and remained afterward to take questions from the audience.

Originally, Byler and Parks said, they shot film of Prince William County meetings and interviews with residents, unsure of how they would use the footage. Eventually, they uploaded clips of their work to a YouTube channel, www.youtube.com/user/9500Liberty, and the effort eventually developed into a feature-length film.

Pushed by a local blogger, Greg Letiecq, with the assistance of the Federation for Immigration Reform (FAIR), a national group that opposes illegal immigration, and activists who formed Help Save Manassas, the Prince William Board of County Supervisors passed an ordinance enabling its police officers to detain people suspected of being in the country illegally on the basis of "probable cause." Probable cause, for example, could include poor English-language skills.

Soon afterward, however, Prince William Police Chief Charlie T. Deane reported it would cost some $14 million to hire new officers to implement the program, and required the purchase of in-car cameras to protect officers from potential litigation related to allegations of racial profiling. The title of the film comes from the address of property owned by Gaudencio Fernandez, a Mexican immigrant and U.S. citizen, whose billboards promoting tolerance became a lightning rod in Prince William.

After the board of supervisors, led by Chairman At-Large Corey A. Stewart, passed the legislation in the fall of 2007 and won re-election in April 2008, the board reversed course and changed the resolution to mandate that someone must first be arrested on suspicion of committing a crime before their immigration status is questioned. That policy is in line with the 287(g) guidelines.

Park said one of the premises of the film is that much of the anti-immigration fervor is fanned and used by politicians -- in this case, several Prince William County elected officials -- in an effort to reap the benefits for their own political purposes.

Despite claims of a growing threat to public safety, the film shows Pew Center research that demonstrated crime rates in Prince William County fell during the 15 years of Latino immigration before the resolution was passed. Mary Sullivan, of Frederick , watched the film and said the heated rhetoric captured in it reminded her of Frederick County Commissioners meetings when immigration issues have been on the agenda.

"I have children of mixed race, and it's been very scary at times," Sullivan said. "I see the Hispanic community leaving Frederick because it's become scary."

Sullivan also said stories of racial profiling in the film are similar to stories she's heard locally connected to the county's 287(g) program, in which specially trained Frederick County Sheriff's Office deputies act under the supervision of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.

Other audience members also stood up during the Q & A session and said they have mixed-race children they fear will be arrested or harassed because of their skin color.

Byler and Park described the 287(g) program as fair, but compared it to the safety of a car.

"It depends who's driving it," Park said.

Byler said he fears that elected officials in Frederick pushing for counts of illegal-immigrant children in public schools, for example, are using the issue for personal political gain.

Byler and Park said they have also shot interviews with Frederick Police Chief Kim Dine and Frederick County Sheriff Chuck Jenkins regarding immigration and law enforcement, as well as local residents. They haven't decided what to do with the footage, but are considering posting it on YouTube.

Park said having had the experience in 2007 and 2008 in Prince William, when she saw the Tea Party movement seizing debate with what she described as divisive rhetoric and tactics, "it felt very familiar to me."

"Help Save Manassas is now the Tea Party, it's the same tactics, the same people," she said, explaining the launch of the Coffee Party movement, with chapters in 47 states. "It's very alarming, and we need to get more people engaged in the process."


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