Waylaid in Tijuana explores how immigration policies adopted in Washington, DC reverberate just south of the border in Tijuana, Mexico. It features migration experts, government officials, and migrant advocates from the Tijuana/San Diego region who grapple with the consequences of these policies on a daily basis. But its main characters are the migrants themselves, whose stories are often heartbreaking while also being a testament to the human spirit. Through interviews, images, news clips, and an original song written and performed by a Honduran asylum seeker, the film captures both the complexity and the immediacy of these stories. It takes place in Tijuana but conveys a larger narrative about real people making complicated decisions under difficult circumstances. By showing the humanity and agency of those fleeing their homes, often reluctantly, to seek shelter and safety in another country, it makes the case for a more nuanced and compassionate response by the US government.
About the team
Katrina Burgess
Writer and Producer
Dr. Burgess is Associate Professor of Political Economy and Director of the Henry J. Leir Institute at the Fletcher School at Tufts University. She is the author of Courting Migrants: How States Make Diasporas and Diasporas Make States (Oxford, 2020) and co-editor with Abraham F. Lowenthal of The California-Mexico Connection (Stanford, 1993), along with numerous articles and book chapters on labor politics, remittances, migration, and diasporas. She has been a consultant for USAID and served as Assistant Director of the U.S.-Mexico Project at the Overseas Development Council in Washington, DC and Associate Director of the California-Mexico Project at USC in Los Angeles. She received a BA in political science from Swarthmore College, an MA in international relations from the University of Southern California, and a PhD in politics from Princeton University.
Tim Ouillette
Director
Tim is an award-winning filmmaker, musician, and the founder of Munjoy Hill Media. He has worked commercially for CNN, Headline News Al Jazeera, Hearst Television, FedEx, and Turkish Television and has been a contributor and host with the local Boston TV/Web show Food New England. Most recently, he was a cinematographer for the PBS American Masters documentary on Ted Williams, which can be seen on Netflix. He has taught various courses in audio and video/film at Northeastern University, the University of Hong Kong in Shanghai, University of New England, and the University of Southern Maine. He holds an undergraduate degree in Communication from the University of Southern Maine and a MFA from the Art Institute of Boston.
Aída Silva Hernández
Writer and Associate Producer
Dr. Silva is a professor in the Faculty of Medicine and Psychology of the Autonomous University of Baja California in Tijuana and candidate for National Researcher in the National System of Researchers-CONACYT. Her recent publications include a book entitled Migración adolescente no acompañada: Estrategias de movilidad en el corredor Centroamérica-México-Estados Unidos (UABC, 2020), a coauthored article in Desafíos on Haitian migrants in Tijuana, and a policy brief on Mapping Migration in Tijuana published by the Leir Institute at the Fletcher School, Tufts University. She has a PhD in Social Sciences with a specialization in regional studies from El Colegio de la Frontera Norte (COLEF).