A 4-year-old girl illegally immigrated to the U.S. with her family 13 years ago. Now suffering from kidney failure at age 17, she doesn’t have legal rights to Medicaid or health insurance.

Because of Oklahoma’s latest laws on illegal immigration, she and many others could be deported at any time to her home country, where she knows no one.

House Bill 1804, which restricts illegal immigrants’ access to public services and makes it a crime to harbor or house them, became law in Oklahoma in 2007. A year later, an OU student is screening a documentary that explores the stories of people like the 17-year-old immigrant with kidney failure.

Mike Searcy, anthropology graduate assistant, teamed up with friend Zac Davis to create “Starvation Doctrine,” a documentary focusing on local illegal immigrants and how the bill is affecting their lives.

The documentary, sponsored by the anthropology department, will be shown at 7 p.m. tonight in the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History.

“We hope the film addresses the human side of it,” Searcy said.

Davis, the director of the film, said the film presents a local perspective on immigration.

“You make a difference, especially with Oklahoma’s law being so harsh,” Davis said.

The pair began filming at the state capitol in 2006 during an immigration rally before the public understood the new law and how it would affect illegal immigrants.

“We basically just started unraveling the story,” Davis said.

Patricia Gilman, chairwoman of the Department of Anthropology, said Oklahomans should see the documentary because it is timely and affects many people.

She said immigration is a topic of interest for many anthropologists.

“It’s not a black and white issue,” Gilman said.

Searcy said that in 2004 at least 12 million illegal immigrants were children without access to health care, and most adult immigrants don’t understand they are breaking U.S. law when they cross into the U.S. without documentation.

These children had no say in their families’ decisions to relocate, yet they could be punished for it at any time, Searcy said.

One month before the law took effect, close to 30,000 immigrants left Oklahoma for another state because they were stripped of their rights, Searcy said.

The federal government cannot deal with a large number of deportations, but they gained the power to pull anyone over and ask that person to verify their citizenship, Searcy said.

Searcy said his goal for his movie is to help Americans understand the bill, and the plight of illegal immigrants.

Other documentaries explain the hardships of crossing the border, but they fail to mention what happens once they reach their destination, Searcy said.

Localizing the issue from its national level is what makes the film different from others, Davis said.

Searcy said he also wants the film to warn lawmakers in other states to proceed with caution when it comes to passing immigration laws.

Oklahoma has one of the lowest rates of population, yet the state was the first to pass a harsh immigration bill out of all 50 states, Searcy said.

He said the bill also has made it almost impossible for immigrants to visit their homelands.

Many are trapped in the U.S. and haven’t seen their families in 10 or 15 years, Searcy said. If illegal immigrants do leave the U.S., they must reenter illegally.

He said the U.S. needs to form an appropriate reform policy that eases up on these laws, because officials have already made it difficult for an immigrant to become a citizen.

Although Searcy said he thinks the country is losing tax revenue, he said if the government allowed immigrants to contribute to the country by paying taxes, it would increase revenue and lower discrimination.

“The economy is founded on the backs of illegal immigration,” Searcy said.

He said the issue has never been black and white, and the film focuses on the gray areas which are usually ignored.