“Shows that the credo ‘all men are created equal’ does not apply in America, not even for the people who fought for it.”

Sometimes all you need is a powerful story. Such is the case with French director Laurence Garret’s long-titled I Crossed the Desert With a Gun in Hand, which shows that in the US, even if you fight for your country it might still kick you in the face. A portrait of a man who was forced to reinvent himself after being betrayed by his country, Garret’s film is not for those who seek visual storytelling. But this poignant and timely film, especially in the age of Trump and his cruel deportation policies, shows that even laying your life on the line doesn’t guarantee you anything in the land of the free.

Daniel Torres was 18 when he walked into a Marine Corps recruitment office in Idaho, wanting to do something for the country that he felt had given him so much. When he told the recruiter he was from Mexico, it didn’t seem to be a problem; he was rushed through formalities and only had to keep his mouth shut. Deployed to Fallujah in 2009, he saw the brunt of the Iraq War, witnessing an EOD team being blown apart and losing teammates to sniper fire. Upon his return to the US he was being prepared for a tour in Afghanistan, another one of the United States’ forever wars. Then disaster struck: he lost his wallet, with all his identification in it. That was the moment his story started to unravel, and he was discharged despite having served the United States, his country as far as he was concerned. With no legal status and nowhere else to go, he returned to his family in Tijuana, Mexico.

Whilst there, he came into contact with the Deported Veterans Support House, a grassroots organization run by Army vet Hector Barajas. Daniel thought his case was unique, but Barajas had already supported plenty of deported veterans before him. Yet Daniel became the ‘poster boy’ for the cause, a symbol for men who had been kicked out of the country after they had given everything and were suffering from PTSD and other psychological trauma. With the help of Jennie Pasquarella, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union, Daniel Torres succesfully applied for American citizenship, something that he should have already received after serving his country. He was the success story, and dozens have followed his example.

A success story, but one with more than one asterisk to it. Garret unobtrusively follows Torres on several trips while he tells his story either in voice over to Garret or on camera to others. I Crossed the Desert… starts almost like a road movie, with Daniel and an army buddy heading to Las Vegas for a boys’ weekend. Later he goes back to Tijuana, to meet up with family and friends. From Torres’ confessions to his friend, to an uncle remembering finding him, gun to the temple, on the brink of suicide, it is clear that a tour in Iraq messes with your head. Daniel has ghosts in his closet and he doesn’t want to talk about them, not even to close friends. It’s a portrait of an army and a country chewing you up and spitting you out, dumping men like him across the border. He has made it out, almost miraculously. After his discharge life could have taken a darker turn; the skills he learned in Iraq, as well as the desensitization to violence and bloodshed, would have been valuable assets in a criminal career. It’s a path that many in Torres’ place follow, yet he managed to turn it around, graduating from law school in Baja California and now helping other men in similar situations. The scars on his soul remain, however, not just from what he witnessed in active duty but also from the way he was treated by the country he loved.

Garret allows herself no frills, the double meaning of the film’s title possibly the most artistic touch to I Crossed the Desert With a Gun in Hand. Her camera mostly just follows Torres, often lingering on him while he is on his own and looking pensively into the distance. Everything about his body language tells you the weight of his past. He has seen gruesome things, starting with a bit of animal cruelty to condition new army recruits to stressful situations, a story so horrifying and infuriating it would make PETA curl up in a ball. His relative silence and closed off demeanor makes him not the easiest subject for a film, but Garret manages to make his story engaging by providing moments of silence to let the gravity of what Torres says sink in. While the film can be confusing in the characters it introduces and their relationship to Torres, its core message is coming through loud and clear. With the rampant level of deportations since the inauguration of the second Trump administration, the number of people in similar situations increases too. As a sobering text at the end of the film informs us, ICE is actively trying to break up contact between these people and organizations like the Deported Veterans Support House. I Crossed the Desert With a Gun in Hand shows that the credo ‘all men are created equal’ does not apply in America, not even for the people who fought for it.