COLLATERAL DAMAGE

The Human Cost of America's Immigration Crackdown

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In Collateral Damage, Rosy – a young Cuban mother – makes the heartbreaking decision to leave behind her infant son and flee Cuba, where food is scarce, power outages are constant, and political dissent means punishment or death. After publicly criticizing the regime, she becomes a marked woman – persecuted by the government, ostracized by brainwashed neighbors, and trapped in a crumbling society. With her family's blessing and in total desperation, she embarks on a journey that promises freedom... but could easily end in death.

 

What follows is a soul-shattering ordeal. Rosy is smuggled out of Cuba and forced through the cartel-dominated corridors of Central America. She walks for days in the jungle without food or clean water, sleeps on dirt, drinks from muddy rivers. She's nearly assaulted. She's robbed. She sees women disappear and men die. Crushed into overcrowded vans, baking in the sun, trembling through the night – her only fuel is a photo of her son.

 

After months of suffering, Rosy reaches Los Angeles. She's undocumented, traumatized, and broke – but she's alive. While waiting on her asylum hearings, she works at an underground bar to survive, quietly following the rules of the system she hopes will save her. She dreams of becoming a nurse. She dares to imagine a future.

That's when she meets Dave.

 

Dave is a second-generation Latino-American. His father, a once-successful attorney, is out of work and battling illness. Dave had to drop out of college to support his family. His problems are real – but they're American problems. He's never been hungry. Never feared for his life. And yet, when he meets Rosy, their chemistry is instant, and their connection is soul-deep. Rosy becomes his joy. He becomes her peace. Together, they begin to heal.

Then, everything unravels.

 

At a Las Vegas concert, the venue manager – a fellow Latino, but bigoted and bitter – reports Rosy to ICE, suspecting her ID is fake. No questions asked. No humanity considered. Rosy is ambushed. Dave, unaware of her undocumented status, is cuffed and slammed violently to the ground as he watches her taken away. The scene is brutal. Public. Shattering.

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The Final Act: Rebellion and Redemption

Rosy is deported. She returns to Cuba, defeated but reunited with her son. Dave is left behind, a shell of himself. He stops going out. He visits all the places they once laughed together. The memories are beautiful-but they now feel like ghosts.

Then something shifts.

 

Dave watches the viral video of Rosy's arrest. News coverage explodes. Protests erupt across the

country. Congressional hearings begin. And at the center of the storm: Dave's father-who, moved by his son's pain, uses his legal connections to help push the issue forward. The cruelty of ICE. The absurdity of deporting mothers. The chaos of a broken system. For the first time, America starts listening.

 

Dave sells everything. His furniture. His car. His home. He gives away most of his belongings. His friends worry. But Dave knows exactly what he's doing.

In Cuba, Rosy tries to rebuild. She's with her son, but her heart is fractured. She thought the love she found in America was gone forever.

Until one day... she looks up. And sees someone walking toward her. It's Dave.

 

At first, she doesn't believe it. Then, she runs. Sobbing. Screaming. A release of everything she's held inside. She collapses into his arms, trembling from joy. Through tears, she tells him she's pregnant.

Dave shows her his phone. His bank account. "I sold everything," he says. "I'm here now. For good."

 

Why Collateral Damage Matters

 

A System With No Mercy

Rosy did everything right. She was in the system, waiting for her hearing, staying out of trouble. But in today's climate, all it takes is one hateful phone call. Her arrest is not justice-it's cruelty.

The Journey Few Can Imagine

 

Her path to the U.S. was not a "choice." It was a spiritual crucible. Audiences will feel every moment-every blister, every betrayal, every moment she almost gave up. It's a side of the immigrant experience America rarely sees.

 

The Collapse of Trust

 

Dave's world fractures. He no longer relates to his friends, who say, "It's the law." His anger is volcanic. His sorrow, all-consuming. His own father even questions his devotion to Rosy. "She's not from your world," he says. "Exactly," Dave replies. "Her world's the one that needs saving."

Collateral Damage is not just a film. It's a cry for dignity. A call for empathy. And a reminder that no wall can stop love.