Plot:
The film is set in a
United States in which foreign
immigration has skyrocketed: The mayor of
Los Angeles speaks only in Spanish,
Rhode Island is populated mostly by
Chinese-Americans, and
Alabama has a congressman from
India. Politics is openly reduced to a matter of catering to various ethnic groups for their votes - the Alabama congressman will only support the U.S. President if his state receives more money for
Hindu temples. When an atomic weapon is used in
Pakistan, an international organization makes plans to bring orphans to
Idaho.
Idaho Governor Jim Farley (Bridges) orders the state's
National Guard to close its borders, as Idaho has already received more than a million refugees; he acknowledges this even though the Governor himself routinely indulges in Mexican food, Mexican soap operas, and an affair with a
Mexican-American reporter (Peña). Despite the best efforts of his press secretary Jimmy Cannon (Kevin Dunn), Farley remains largely oblivious to the national crisis he's the center of, since Farley is more concerned with rekindling his romance with his mistress rather than dealing with national matters.
Meanwhile, the
President of the United States (Hartman) turns out to be an equally ineffectual leader, ruthlessly exploiting immigration to fill districts and states with those most likely to vote for his own party. He will move more
Koreans to
New York since Koreans are one of his core constituencies. Reputed as indecisive, the President delegates his decision-making entirely to his advisors, most notably his unofficial chief advisor,
lobbyist Jack B. Buchan (Coburn).
Buchan, however, is less concerned with the good of the nation, and more concerned with politics, especially how the President's actions will play on television (resulting, for example, in a 72-hour deadline being shortened to 671⁄2 hours to prevent the news from interrupting
Susan Lucci's farewell appearance on the
soap opera All My Children). Buchan regularly influences the President's decisions by manipulating his desire to emulate previous U.S. presidents, even going so far as to pepper presidential statements with fictitious "quotes" from President
Dwight D. Eisenhower.
Meanwhile, the NN cable network is reporting the events and influencing them at the same time. News director Mel (Dan Hedaya) attempts to time events to maximize ratings, while his staff becomes polarized over the political issues involved in the conflict between the Governor and the President. Standard fare for the cable network is to show footage of crying immigrant children, which is done with the Pakistani orphans waiting to move to Idaho.
As the deadline approaches, the Governor and the President call in, respectively, the Idaho National Guard and the
United States Army. Tensions rise when the commanders of both units turn out to be bitter rivals from the
Gulf War. Meanwhile, governors from other states send in their own National Guard units to aid one side or the other, causing the conflict to escalate into the national arena. Mexican-American pro-immigrant rioters bomb the
Alamo, while anti-immigrants retaliate by bombing the
Statue of Liberty because of its plaque, stating that "We no longer want your tired, your poor or your huddled masses."
Eventually, the Governor's girlfriend convinces him to back down from the conflict and resign, but a series of misunderstandings and mutinies leads to a major battle between anti- and pro-immigrant armed forces at the Idaho border, culminating with the president's decision to invade Idaho in what becomes the
Second American Civil War. At the movie's close, news reports indicate that hostilities have ceased, but the immigration issue is unresolved.
