Once just simple beverages, coffee and tea have become symbolic of two political movements: one with its roots based in rebelling against taxation; the other, based on civility in debate. Now the two will face off on immigration reform.

The Tea Party movement has fielded candidates at the state level. It has had a national convention. In fact, the Tea Party movement is planning another convention for October 2010 that will feature former CNN talking head Lou Dobbs and Sharron Angle, a Republican candidate who is running against Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. Its focus is anti-government, anti-taxes, anti-Obama, while being pro-Sarah Palin, pro-Glenn Beck, pro-guns. The Tea Party Patriots website states that they aim to preserve freedom in America by reclaiming her founding principles: Liberty, Freedom and the Constitution. How they are going about upholding those principles is where Coffee Party activists find a problem with the strategy.

As the Tea Party adds anti-immigration to their list of issues, Coffee Party founders Eric Byler and Annabel Park are debuting their new film that tackles the ongoing immigration debate. They co-directed "9500 Liberty," a documentary that will be screened locally at High Street Cinema. Byler will join a panel following the screening with law enforcement representatives, elected officials and minority community leaders.

The Coffee Party started as a Facebook fan site in January. It has almost 240,000 online fans and has active chapters all over the country, organizing frequent meetings in restaurants and coffee shops.

"We recognize that the federal government is not the enemy of the people, but the expression of our collective will and that we must participate in the democratic process," proclaims part of the Coffee Party's mission statement.

As their mission suggests, the Coffee Party has taken a more calm approach. It believes in cooperating with the government rather than antagonizing it. "The Tea Party undermined the unity of the country by declaring war on the federal government," said Eric Byler, who campaigned for President Obama and co-directed "9500 Liberty." He went on to add that the Coffee Party encourages more participation by creating an inclusive, non-violent space: "We give people a sense that there'll be civility."

But according to Byler, the approach has worked to move the country forward. He said that his party impacted health care reform and some members are traveling to the Gulf Coast to help clean the BP oil spill. The Coffee Party is planning its first national convention on September 24-27.

"It's not 'kosher' to bring a gun into a restaurant," said Byler, who thinks the Tea Party is scaring people out of the voting process with their weapons. "Their tactics are poisoning our democracy. Guns intimidate. They're making the country afraid to vote. Their 'with us or against us' rhetoric and attacking your own government poisons the debate because the 'Great Middle' doesn't feel comfortable with that."

Byler described the Tea Party as an anti-Federalist movement and his party as Federalist:

"They're insistent in the right of the states over the right of the Union. They have a willingness to be divisive. I associate them with Confederalists because they attack our federal government ... We are the inheritors of James Madison [a Federalist]. Pluralism would be the food that feeds our democracy. Unity of this country won in the Civil War and now the inheritors of the anti-Federalists are threatening the unity of this country again."

Byler goes so far as to claim that the Tea Party contradicts itself by taking a Constitutionalist, yet anti-Federalist stance.

High Street Cinema's owner, Loretta Miles, is proud to offer a venue for the film. She said, "I am honored to bring Eric Byler and his timely film to our community. With our ever-growing Latino population, the issue of immigration is a hot topic."

Byler started documenting the debate in Virginia, driven by the "racial unrest" he was witnessing in his Virginia community. "We helped the community talk to each other," he said. He began interviewing people on all sides and broadcasting his findings on YouTube, for which he said he received anonymous online threats: "People threatened to lynch Annabel, my partner. They threatened to kill me. I carried a baseball bat in my tripod bag. Some people owned guns and others were thinking of buying them," he said.

"Later, we figured out it was simply a political tactic. Nobody actually meant it."

"9500 Liberty", named after a street protest sign, documents how businesses and public safety may be negatively affected by such bills. "Communities of color would be less likely to report a crime," warned Byler.

The film draws parallels between the latest Arizona Senate Bill 1070 and a similar law that was enacted in Prince William County, Virginia.

The 2007 Virginia County bill required police to ask for documents any time they had "probable cause" to do so, while the Arizona bill requires the police to check the status of anyone they have a “reasonable suspicion” is an illegal immigrant.

"The Arizona law is more radical," said Byler, reasoning that it could potentially lead to racial profiling: "People would have to do something to justify pulling them over, but the problem is that officers may inadvertently misapply the law. They could pull over Hispanics more than others for the same infractions."

In addition, the film calls attention to the Federation of Americans for Immigration Reform (FAIR), an organization that helped draft both Arizona's and Virginia County's bills. "The turning point in the film is exposing FAIR," said Byler. "It's not a coincidence both laws were introduced by the same anti-immigration lobbying firm in Washington, D.C. six months before an election. It seemed to me this was created by politicians looking for an election issue, and this is a poor reason for creating racial tension."

FAIR proposes a decrease in immigration rates to levels of about 300,000 a year and says taxpayers spend billions of dollars every year on education and healthcare for illegal immigrants and their children.

Support for the Virginia mandate began to erode when a study revealed it would cost taxpayers $14 million to implement over five years, which later turned into $25 million, plus the potential costs in legal expenditures to fight discrimination lawsuits, said Byler. "Arizona is very clever, not asking for a price tag," he added.

Byler said Prince William "dodged the bullet" of a potentially costly legal battle ending at the Supreme Court.

On July 6th, the Obama administration announced it would sue the State of Arizona for taking the illegal immigration matter into its own hands. Supporters claim the government is failing to protect the border and uphold its own laws. According to FAIR, the federal government is attempting to intimidate other states from passing similar bills by suing Arizona.

9500 Liberty documents the political process with emotionally charged testimonies from all sides, culminating in the modification of the probable cause mandate in 2008. "It was politically embarrassing and that's why we only repealed the part that was constitutionally dubious. The books still say illegal immigration is causing economic hardship and illegals still don't receive tax-funded drug treatment and other services," said Byler.

"I believe that is the fate of the Arizona law," he added. "The film shows a crystal ball of what will happen in Arizona: after the election they'll stop looking at emotion and start looking at economics and repeal the bill."

"The story is an uplifting story of a community coming together across party lines. The people stood up, two stay-at-home moms, two ladies with little kids in their homes endured intimidation tactics. One of them is Jewish-American and the other is an Irish-American married to a Mexican-American. Neither of them are Democrats," said Byler.

"The film restores hope and faith in the democratic process," said Byler. "We recognized we had more in common with each other than with these outside lobbies who were using us and we said, 'Take your experiment somewhere else!'"

Is the immigration debate too far from home for Salemites? Not according to Byler: "The 'anti-immigration lobby' is putting pressure on lawmakers all over the United States as demographic shifts create cultural conflict. In places where people are already accustomed to diversity there's not so much anxiety, but it would only take one or two lawmakers to introduce the bill. We should take this very seriously."

Byler is offering to mail out free DVDs to those willing to facilitate discussions. "We want to ask certain questions and take action by organizing," he said.

So, Salem, what will it be: coffee or tea?