Running Head: POWERFUL SHORT FILM VIDEO ABOUT ILLEGAL STUDENTS IN USA1

Rhetorical Analysis Powerful Short Film about Illegal Students in USA (Undocumented
Immigrants)
Alexa D. Villalobos
University of Texas at El Paso

POWERFUL SHORT FILM VIDEO ABOUT ILLEGAL STUDENTS IN USA

The YouTube video, Powerful Short Film about Illegal Students in USA, talks about
the problem of immigration. It shows many interviews with immigrant students and how the
immigration issue has affected their lives. It talks about the life of three college students who had
suffered because they are immigrants. Many of the students suffered very bad consequences
because of actions that their parents made. They did not decide to live in the United States
illegally; their parents took them into the country when they were two or five years old. The
purpose of the video is to show that they had lived here for the majority part of their life. They do
not know anything about their natal country, and it would be unfair if they took them to their
natal country because it will be a totally unknown country for them. This video works perfectly
for my semester topic, which is immigration in the USA, and this paper will analyze every point
of the video.
The audience for this video is people who have access to YouTube, and are interested in
the immigration issues in our country. The video was made for an audience who are not aware on
how living illegally affects immigrants as students and as human beings. At the end of the video
they put a sentence that says; For the 1-2 million immigrant students, spread this message.
Therefore, the audience will be anyone that is willing to support the entire immigrant population
and want to change peoples minds on what they think about immigrants. This video is meant to
make people conscious that immigrants deserve the same rights that other people have. Another
part of the video is where two of the students were in jail for 40 days just because they did not
have the proper papers; however, they did not commit any crime against anyone or anything.
Because of this, the United States decided to treat them as criminals and put them behind bars. It
is clear that they also want the authorities of U.S. immigration to watch the video so they can
consider immigrants background and how useful immigrants are to society. At the end, anyone

POWERFUL SHORT FILM VIDEO ABOUT ILLEGAL STUDENTS IN USA

who watches the video can be the audience because the creators of the video want people to
know what is going on with the immigration population and they want to spread the message to
everyone.
The next point to analyze is the purpose of the video. As mentioned before, the author of
the video wants to spread the message of what is going on with all those immigrant students in
the U.S. As the video demonstrates the students did not decide to live illegally; in fact, their
parents made that decision for them. Nonetheless, they are living with the consequences. The
video show four testimonies by different students, and want people to be conscious and see how
these immigrant students are dealing with this problem since they were little kids. Because of
residency problems, now that they are becoming adults is where many obstacles are appearing.
By watching Powerful Short Film about Illegal Students in USA, the creators expect to create
consciousness about how immigration can affect a student or a persons life.
Then the author expect that people spread the video so everyone can be aware of this big
problem in the country, so everyone together can fight for the immigrant rights. One way may be
by not making them citizens, but at least give them the chance to work and study; the way that
they deserve. The purpose is to change what people think about immigrants; not because they
come from other country means that they will become criminals, they are human beings as
everyone else, and they deserve the same rights as other people do.
The video, Powerful Short Film about Illegal Students in USA, has ethos, which means
that it has credibility. We can see this because they interview many people that are important for
our nation. For example, the governor of Maryland, Martin OMalley; a preacher; the
congressman, Luis Gutierrez; a high school counselor, David Johnson; the President of Alpha Phi
Fraternity, Skip Mason; President and CEO of National Urban League, Marc Morial; President

POWERFUL SHORT FILM VIDEO ABOUT ILLEGAL STUDENTS IN USA

and CEO of Neighborhood Centers Inc., Angela Blanchard. All of them agree that immigrant
people deserve to live and enjoy the rights that they justly deserve. The person that uploaded the
video (Steve Khadan) specified that he does not own the copyrights of the video, but he uploaded
it to spread the message of the organization that owns the video. The video does not have a lot of
statistics; just the one at the end that says that there are 1-2 million undocumented kids in the
United States. It has credibility because of the information that each interviewer gives. Although,
it does not have the contact information, and the person who uploaded the video did not put
where he got it from, or from where it is, it does have strong credibility because of the three
immigrant students that they interview, and how they are talking about their lives and how they
have been living. This demonstrates a credible source. Also, this video does open a topic of
immigration with multiple points of view. The comments of the video have already started a
debate on this topic and many people have different points of view, such as I'm just tired of
foreigners walking across our borders and we not being able to do anything about it. Its not
immigration, its invasion and also techniquely trespassing. (C A S, 2014). This person does
not support immigrant people and he thinks that they are invading our country. But there are
other people that think the opposite; such as, The student who was admitted to Harvard should
get the US citizenship at that moment. I pray for them (BoldFuturesAcademy 2014).
Furthermore, there are many others type of comments with positive and negative thoughts, so
this shows that this topic is great for debating. For all the information that the video gave us, it
contains a good source of ethos.
Another rhetorical appeal to analyze from the video will be pathos; or in other words, the
emotion that they want to create for the audience. Powerful Short Film about Illegal Students in
USA has a strong pathos because it makes people think about that issue and it creates

POWERFUL SHORT FILM VIDEO ABOUT ILLEGAL STUDENTS IN USA

consciousness about the situation. It is clearly seen at the beginning of the video, where Leticia
(the first student that appears on the video) says: not even my closest friends know. The
creators of the video want the audience realize how these students suffer and that there are many
others just like them. They are trying to let people know that those students can contribute to the
nation; that they might be some immigrants that are criminals, but there also are some
immigrants that are good people and they just want to become citizens. They cannot speak for all
of the immigrant population, but they want to fight for those students who just want to continue
studying and have a normal life here in the United States. One can say that the video was made
to create awareness of what is going on with immigrant population, and that not every immigrant
is a criminal or a bad person; there are also good immigrant people.
The use of logos in this video is strong. It has good organization, since as people can
clearly understand the message and the purpose of the video. The topic that they talk about is
well organized and the interviewers gives good information about it. Rather than using statistics
or quotes, the author shows the testimony of the life of three immigrant university students, and
this makes the audience understand the topic perfectly. Also, the people that the author
interviewed help the audience know that the issue is taken seriously and that it is not just another
video, but that they really want to make a change. The reasoning in this video is very good
because it accommodates with the situation. It shows the real issues of immigration; it does not
hide anything. The video focuses a lot on logos because of all the information that they give, the
excellent examples, and well-organized elements.
In conclusion, the Powerful Short Film about Illegal Students in USA was made to
create consciousness to people around the country of what they think about the immigrant
people. This was understood after analyzing the authors use of rhetorical appeals. The analysis

POWERFUL SHORT FILM VIDEO ABOUT ILLEGAL STUDENTS IN USA

shows that they use a strong source for pathos and logos due to the information given and what
they made the audience feel. The audience are the people that are interested in the immigration
issue, such as government staff or a student from college. The information obtained from this
analysis would serve the audience to understand the use of rhetorical appeal, in the video and
clearly understand the purpose of it.

POWERFUL SHORT FILM VIDEO ABOUT ILLEGAL STUDENTS IN USA

References
Stevie Khadan (2012, June 24). Powerful Short Film about Illegal Students in USA
[Video File].
Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_fzmVSZZdQ

POWERFUL SHORT FILM VIDEO ABOUT ILLEGAL STUDENTS IN USA