‘Immigration Nation’ on Netflix

A series many are likely to be talking and even thinking about, the sixpart docuseries “Immigration Nation” begins streaming on Netflix.

Co-directors Christina Clusiau and Shaul Schwarz obtained remarkably intimate access to U.S. Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents as they go about their jobs, as well as to the immigrants they detain.

At first glance, it seems like “Cops” in the age of ICE, a procedural that shows agents “just doing their job.” But the more many of the agents speak, the more alarming their “procedures” become. One female agent loves the fact that the Trump administration has removed the handcuffs and allowed them to get things done. Others seem overwhelmed by the change in focus and the volume of apprehensions, detentions and deportations.

Before Trump, the mission was to arrest and deport violent offenders and serious criminals. Under Trump, it has been expanded to remove all illegals, even the law-abiding, hard-working, tax-paying and productive. This change in focus has not only turned millions into the equivalent of hardened criminals in the eyes of the law, it has necessitated a rapid increase in recruitment and training. ICE grew, and it grew in a hurry. And not all of the agents are entirely comfortable with what it has become.

Some weeks ago, The New York Times reported that the Trump administration had tried to keep Netflix from airing some of the footage contained in “Immigration Nation.”

You have to wonder who thought the agency’s cooperation with this project would turn out “good” publicity. Even the most benign footage showing ICE teams “peacefully” executing their missions seems chilling. The sight of heavily armed agents pounding on apartment doors in the dead of night while refusing to produce warrants should concern everyone.

› The 2019 documentary

“The Pickup Game” (9 p.m., Showtime, TV-MA) examines a lucrative international industry of seduction “experts” who receive large sums for speaking engagements, seminars and private lessons teaching men strategies for sexual conquest.

Some teachers have been arrested and deported for techniques that are simply criminal. The film documents a sad convergence of male insecurity, misogyny and exploitation that generates hundreds of millions of dollars.

› Speaking of

schemes, “American Greed” (10 p.m., CNBC) revisits the Ponzi schemes of Bernie Madoff, a man who swindled the rich and famous as well as family friends and acquaintances. His crimes were odious, but, in many ways, he became a kind of scapegoat for the unprosecuted crimes that led to the 2008 stock market collapse, a pattern of malfeasance that transcended the actions of one man. “Greed” catches up with Madoff facing life in prison.