In a move that sounds straight out of the Inquisition, ABC has just ordered 11 hours of Border Security: USA, a new “reality” show that will focus on the government’s “fight against terrorism.” The show will follow different border security officers— boder patrol officers, airport security screeners, coast guard officers— as they bust people across the country.

The show, which is based on an the Australian series Border Securty: Australia’s Front Lines, was made in cooperation with various government agencies, in an unprecedented move.

That alone raises alarm bells of massive proportions as there is no way the show can be objective if the government is controlling what the cameras get to record and report on. The Australian show, in fact, has been criticized for being edited to show only the positive side of the job, and producer Arnold Shapiro (responsible for the hot mess that is Big Brother) made it perfectly clear to The Hollywood Reporter that he is not in the least bit interested in showing the full scope of the country’s border activities. “I love investigative journalism,” he told the magazine, “but that’s not what we’re doing. This show is heartening. It makes you feel good about these people who are doing their best to protect us.”
Let’s see if we have this straight. Investigative journalism=Downer. Making the government look good=Happy feelings. Wow, Arnold. Which detergent did the government use on your brain? Because my laundry has been coming out a little dingy lately and I could really use something stronger. Since when is it the role of TV to advocate for the government?

According to The Hollywood Reporter, episodes will depict everything from customs officers finding a human skull to the coast guard chasing down a cocaine speedboat. But come on, that’s not what producers are hoping to draw people with. The draw will be watching to see all those brown people from Mexico and the Middle East get handcuffed and turned away at the border.

No, I haven’t seen an episode of this, as it was just announced, but my fear is that this is the kind of show that tries to capitalize on people’s paranoia—Oh, shit, people are crossing over the border willy-nilly and they’re here to take our jobs, breed, make us speak Spanish, turn Muslim and destroy us!—while at the same time distracting them from the real issues, problems and solutions.

Here’s a show we’d like to see: How about going to the kitchens, slaughterhouses, fields, and Beverly Hills mansions to follow undocumented workers and actually report on how hypocritical this country is in persecuting illegals when in reality cheap labor is a huge part of the economy that the country, for good or bad, actually depends on? How about a reality show on the Latino workers who busted their asses rebuilding a ravaged New Orleans only to get injured and sick, be robbed of their wages and have the state hunt them down and deport them once they were through?

I”m not one of those people who advocate for open, unchecked borders, I would just like this country to have an actual, honest debate about what really makes this it tick.

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