Recently, Pope Leo XIV called attention to September 27, 2026, as the 112th World Day of Migrants and Refugees. The timing is not incidental. In the United States, immigration enforcement has intensified, with the government pursuing mass deportations and expanding arrests and detentions. Questions have also been raised about due process, family unity, and discriminatory enforcement practices. Not only has the Holy See spoken out about the treatment of migrants and refugees, but so too has the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). I bring up these issues because today’s film, A Million Miles Away (2023), is a biopic about José M. Hernández (Michael Peña), the son of Mexican migrant farmworkers whose family traveled around California picking crops wherever there was work. Like José’s father, Salvador Hernández (Julio Cesar Cedillo), the Church sees the potential in people where others cannot.

That potential is already evident when we first meet José Hernández in A Million Miles Away as a young boy (Juan Pablo Monterrubio) traveling with his family between Michoacán, Mexico, and California, where they work as migrant farm laborers picking crops. His parents, Julia (Verónica Falcón) and Salvador, hope to earn enough money to build a home in Mexico, but their constant movement repeatedly interrupts José’s education. Even so, his teacher, Ms. Young (Michelle Krusiec), recognizes an exceptional student with a gift for mathematics and science. She visits the Hernández family and urges Salvador to give his son the stability needed to develop those abilities. José already has an ambition that sounds impossible. After watching the Apollo 11 mission launch in 1969, he decides that he wants to become an astronaut. Salvador initially emphasizes the family’s need to work together, but after an employer cheats him of part of his wages, he reconsiders. The family settles permanently in California, sacrificing their original plans so José and the other children can have greater opportunities. Years later, José graduates from the University of the Pacific and begins working as an engineer at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. His credentials do not prevent colleagues from stereotyping him. A secretary assumes he is the new janitor, and his supervisor initially relegates him to photocopying. José nevertheless studies the documents he is copying, discovers a serious flaw in a laser project, and gradually earns professional respect. He also repeatedly applies to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) astronaut program, receiving rejection after rejection. Away from work, José meets Adela (Rosa Salazar) while buying a car. Their courtship survives her intimidating family, they marry, and eventually have five children. Adela initially laughs when José admits that he still intends to become an astronaut, but she realizes that the dream is not going away. Instead of merely comforting him after another rejection, she challenges him to study the qualifications of the people NASA selects and make himself a stronger candidate. José takes the advice seriously. He learns to fly, improves his physical conditioning, takes up scuba diving, and studies Russian. He also accepts an assignment in Russia involving enriched uranium because the international experience could strengthen his application. All the while, his cousin and lifelong friend Beto (Bobby Soto), who remained a farmworker, encourages him. Beto memorably points out that a migrant may be particularly suited for space because such people already understand leaving the familiar and venturing into the unknown. After eleven rejections, José personally delivers his twelfth application to astronaut Frederick Sturckow (Garret Dillahunt), emphasizing all the ways he has deliberately prepared himself. This time, NASA accepts him. Reaching the astronaut corps, however, is not the same thing as reaching space. José struggles during training and falls behind his classmates. His difficulties become worse when Beto is killed in a shooting. Grief distracts José badly enough that Sturckow warns him that he could be removed from the program. Fellow astronaut Kalpana Chawla (Sarayu Blue) helps restore his perspective by describing the extraordinary experience of seeing Earth from space. She then tells him that she has been assigned to Space Shuttle Columbia mission STS-107. José later watches Columbia’s disastrous 2003 reentry with his family, a tragedy that makes the danger of his dream painfully real. He nevertheless continues training rather than abandoning it. Meanwhile, Adela has repeatedly postponed her own ambition of opening a restaurant while supporting José and raising their children. José finally recognizes that sacrifice and secures a location where she can pursue her dream as well. In 2008, NASA selects him as a mission specialist for STS-128. He shares the news with Adela and later publicly remembers Beto’s observation about migrants being prepared to venture into the unknown. Before launch, Adela arranges another surprise. Ms. Young, the teacher who recognized José’s potential decades earlier, visits him and reveals that she has followed his career over the years. Her presence ties his achievement back to the moment when one adult looked at a migrant child and saw something larger than the circumstances surrounding him. José then boards Space Shuttle Discovery and finally launches into orbit. As the spacecraft reaches space, he imagines a monarch butterfly like the one associated with his family’s migrations and their decision to remain in California. The closing titles explain that STS-128 spent thirteen days at the International Space Station and that José became the first migrant farmworker to travel into space.

Thus, the journey that began in California’s fields ends hundreds of miles above Earth. At the same time, A Million Miles Away repeatedly insists that José never made it there alone. Salvador and Julia sacrifice for their children, Ms. Young recognizes a gift that might otherwise have been overlooked, Beto keeps José grounded, and Adela refuses to let her husband’s dream consume everyone else’s. For this Catholic reviewer, that communal dimension may prove more interesting than the familiar perseverance message. Human potential matters, but the movie repeatedly shows that recognizing another person’s dignity and helping that person develop his God-given gifts can alter not only one life, but generations. This is true in both the spiritual and temporal senses. The film clearly lays out the temporal argument. Indeed, there are few Catholic references in it, which is a little strange given José’s heritage. The most prominent one comes when we see one of the Hernández children being baptized. There is also a touching moment when Beto gives José a Marian medallion. It is never discussed, but the gesture quietly reinforces the family’s Catholic faith. I should also mention my annoyance at Adela and José’s outdoor wedding, which is not the usual setting for a Catholic marriage. Canon law ordinarily calls for Catholics to marry in a parish church, although permission can be granted for another suitable place. At any rate, these are small issues compared with José’s bigger dream of becoming an astronaut. What should be made clear about what the Church has said about migration is that She does not advocate open borders. As a matter of political policy, governments have the right to regulate immigration and impose juridical conditions for the sake of the common good. That authority does not erase the human dignity of the people affected by those policies. The Church therefore insists that migrants, including those without legal status, be treated with the dignity owed to every human person. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has recently raised concerns about due process, family unity, and discriminatory practices in immigration enforcement. Judging a person’s worth according to ethnicity, appearance, or presumed immigration status is the opposite of recognizing that dignity, and this film underscores why.

Seeing how destructive such assumptions can be is one of many reasons to watch A Million Miles Away. There are others, including the strong performances and cinematography. There is something for everyone in this film.