I just saw ‘Machete’ and I thought it was over the top cartoonish violence, and also contained over the top cartoonish political commentary. I do not think that most intelligent, emotionally stable people viewing this movie would consider the theme as a call to arms for immigrant rights.
However, having lived on the border and having spent a lot of time in Ciudad Juarez and in other parts of Mexico, I recognize that it is a society already plagued with violence. Furthermore, there are certainly people who can take the movie the wrong way and use it as fodder to feed already violent and anti-social tendencies.
There are parallels to be found in my own current home, in Thailand. An immigration broker in the United Sates, Global Horizons in California, has recently been indicted for human trafficking of Thai laborers to the U.S. Unfortunately, while the problems Mexican laborers face with US Immigration are well known, those of Thai victims are not as well known.
As a US Immigration Lawyer based in Bangkok, Thailand, I can state that the California exploitation of Thai workers is rather common, although not as commonly reported on.