Longoria tackles immigration, slavery in new film

Desperate Housewives star Eva Longoria is tackling America's controversial immigration issues head on in a new film after learning that fellow Latinos are being roped into slavery.

The actress accepts she has become a role model for the Latin community and she wants to affect change in the lives of immigrants living well below the poverty line in the US.

She says: "I work a lot with the National Council of La Raza, which is the largest Latino civil rights organisation in the country and I work a lot with the United Farm Workers.

"I've been in the fields with these people and I've tried to experience a day in the life of these people. I'm producing a documentary on the labour workers."

Longoria is also concerned about the implementation of strict new immigration laws, which she fears will repeat a terrible era for America.

She adds: "We're in this big debate about the future of our immigration laws which is coloured by the often negative media portrayals of Latinos in television and film.

"In the 1940s, after the Great Depression, they did a huge deportation of Mexicans and Mexican-Americans who were American citizens and I think our administration can't afford to let this end badly again.

"Everyone has a right to be treated as a human being. There are slavery lawsuits in Florida right now against some orange growers… The fact that the year is 2006 and slavery's still happening is insane."