This summer, as discussions have advanced around a comprehensive immigration reform bill, I traveled to Arizona to film some people who have a unique perspective on border security. I followed Dr. Bruce Anderson, a forensic anthropologist with the Pima County Office of the Medical Examiner, who has worked to identify the remains of some 2,200 people found dead in the Arizona desert since 1990 — undocumented migrants who attempted to cross illicitly from Central America and Mexico into the United States. And I followed Robin Reineke, a University of Arizona doctoral student in anthropology who founded the Missing Migrant Project, a nongovernmental organization that helps families look for their missing relatives.

My goal was to better understand the impact that President Obama’s and Congress’s proposed security measures might have on migrant deaths along the border. I’ve been exploring this issue for the last four years while making a feature-length documentary, “Who Is Dayani Cristal?” (That film follows the discovery, identification and repatriation of a migrant found dead under a cicada tree 20 minutes south of Tucson.)