Life in the Shadow of US-Mexico border Wall - BBC News

yeah, okay, we'll build the road we need to build a

wall

, a big, beautiful, warm

wall

, building a wall was one of his main campaign promises to build a world along the US-Mexico

border

, a third already have some kind of barrier, but what are the challenges of trying to seal it completely? I will travel along the entire US-Mexico

border

to find the stories of people surveying the border areas to see how it has affected the fence that is already in place. lives and trying to find out what impact the world president had in building a good center and the journey begins here at the beginning of the border, the Gulf of Mexico meets the Rio Grande.

Reynosa is the kind of place that for Americans justifies a wall it is the most dangerous city on the border a battleground to control a key route for migrants and drug traffickers we are on patrol with the Special Forces guarding this place the long gunfights between Government forces and drug cartels are common in the city with people often caught in the middle. It is a place where local

news

papers have been attacked and threatened for reporting on drug cartels. The presence of international media is rare here and it is That's why we have to take these safety measures.

It's been a quiet change but it doesn't take long before they are called to action, so the officers only saw two cars, one of them appears to be abandoned and they just got out of the car. the trucks to check what is happening. Police believe something suspicious is going on here. Different factions of the Gulf Cartels and Los Zetas are at the center of a long and violent flight to dominate a profitable business according to the US government. Drug trafficking is a sixty-four billion dollar industry in the country. police can't find anything so the suspects are not arrested then proof of how difficult it is to deal with the cartels Colonel Solis is listening to the cartel members Alan Amidala mixer in cages who have a code for them that we are like squalus to control the matter of the extra killing super sand way these hooks are a constant menace being Bannon for command La Ruta case agin Mo's to allow people who are in some activity visit Legree to escape before rejig to DiNozzo's when we are close to the point even to no yaga natira pancha anta's to be marlon tone Ostrow nostril eleven to Obion to prevent Mosab from continuing to insult the immigrants who arrived from the south and two deportees from the north are also targets of the cartels this refuge offers them a respite in the midst of these uncertain times men have just been sent back from the United States where there are an It is estimated that this year there are an average of 11 million unauthorized immigrants.

US authorities have detained nearly 600 people a day trying to cross the border. Sister Mariana Delvia has seen more deportees in recent months. Yaga Maha strim selling the 20e some easy prey from Valencia some of the bridge based on wreckage Eidos will run for sequester or for robbery check is Munna person that Yaga and so be all I love them for a long time in the United States I don't know Mahina the risk problem that styler from Sarah Rita Jorge Torres was deported two in the last three weeks experienced this fret first hand RK k saw wet that is to return to a real tsar we are doing untag are ours, we eat a cobra so much and the PA known in levity in scarlet labs, you know the club, they report lovullo telev anton t sequester and Ockendon aero plane Petar

life

and questioned time ce SS the risk is very very dangerous Reynosa we are on our way to interview a high-ranking official to find out how he is dealing with the government with this new influx of devotees to Reynosa we also want to ask him what they are doing to prevent these people from becoming easy prey for the powerful cartels that terrorized the city.

This is the most dangerous state along the entire border and we need an armed escort to travel to the capital where the government has its offices. molle bus has the highest number of disappearances in the country, close to 6000 people, it is a disturbing figure that could be much higher since only a fraction of all cases are reported the government is in a difficult position the local police were so corrupt that It was dismantled years ago I tried to see Esme at your school, she lost ammos a font in dokgo motile tom portal being our security rooms dodd we currently have a huge deficit in the issue of state force we have a raid or two min SETI hundreds police for such a state Bastogne lkd we were to have a minimum of means that the cartels take advantage of this organized crime ah from Astana vetoes direcor their hand and obviously also material resources I mean money therefore every K Yaga batch of Patriot any a our so on Terrace a Austin tend to our toes to look for extortion Those to look for Margot's kidnapping are low so to look to lock up or assume our losses Alinea says that the attack from up here is surprising to see how close Mexico is to the United States United that river called Rio Bravo because the Mexicans and Rio Grande because the Americans are the border that divides and unites both countries along hundreds of kilometers in most of Texas and is the place where the next will be built phase of the wall, for many this is a threat to property and the landscape itself.

Building the wall will be difficult. and money may not be the biggest obstacle getting the land is a major problem because more than 90% of the border in Texas is privately owned under the Bush administration many landowners received letters saying they would have to sell the land to the Noel government when the areas received a letter in 2008 for nine years nothing happened, but recently received another. You are realistic about the situation, so why do you think there is no point in fighting the government over this fight against the sale? Yes, because Homeland Security has all the power in the world right now they can do and not do whatever they want with the land it has been in his wife's family for over 250 years since it was granted by the king of Spain before It was Mexican territory long before it became American territory.

So where exactly are we now? As I said, we are on the second edge of the property. This is the floodplain and supposedly all of this is going to be this is where the walls will be so your land will be on the other side of the. world, yes, part of the property will be on the other side and it will probably be about 20 acres or maybe a little more and you will be able to access your property. How will they tell me that there will be vacancies or that we can? access the property, but I mean what I mean, it won't be a continuous wall or if you have a key, oh, that's a good question, most likely it will just be an opening that, defeating the purpose of the wall, but that's a government for you, let's go see what the river looks like, ultimately Congress has to approve President Trump's budget before construction can begin, if and when it arrives, Noel doesn't believe that the wall will do the job and you believe that the wall will do its job.

Well, walls are supposed to keep people out and I don't think it's going to do that and the history of humanity. I don't think a wall has kept anything or anyone out. I think a virtual wall would be more effective than any wall. made of mortar and crushed stone and whatever, this virtual world that Noil talks about already exists and my next meeting is with the people who defend it. This is a training exercise. Border Patrol agents practice dealing with drowning migrants in Rio. Grande Valley is popular with people trying to enter the country. 45 percent of all border apprehensions take place in this sector, but river patrols are only part of the strategy.

We have sensors. We have cameras. We have agents patrolling. different types of infrastructure bridges roads that give us easier access to, like I said, those points that cross the border we have different types of vehicles we have four-wheeled vehicles horses bicycles and dirt bikes, so we have a different approach multi-layered approach to the border Security agent Castro believes the fences deter some, but the key is more people on the ground, something President Trump has promised to meet the main needs, of course, our personnel, technology and infrastructure , technology so that we can have knowledge of the sexual situation of what is coming in the infrastructure to achieve. for that detection or that breach in the border and of course you need the personnel, you can have all the technology and infrastructure, but if you don't have the personnel to respond efficiently and effectively then it becomes useless.

I'm making a small detour from the border itself we are on the outskirts of a furious where a Border Patrol checkpoint has created a second border. Don White is a volunteer and is looking for migrants most of the time he finds their remains alone, so you look for the paths they travel and then backtrack to see if anyone was left behind. This toothpaste was probably left by the migrants who hid these branches and many of them died here and the amazing thing is that we are more than 100 kilometers north of the actual border with Mexico and you can hear the cars passing by on the road this is a major corridor used by human smugglers and drug smugglers Migrants who managed to cross the Rio Grande still must avoid detection as they head to their final destinations to bypass the checkpoint Migrants are forced to walk around brush for up to 40 kilometers this is not the place where immigrants expect to die but they do it is also dangerous for Don I am not worried about meeting those who cross the border I am worried about drug traffickers that is why I carry what I carry what is best for the drug traffickers there they are carrying weapons I want make sure we can stop them don works with the missing migrants initiative a multi-agency project led by the Border Patrol its goal is to recover those left behind it is easy to get lost and many migrants die from heat and exhaustion more than 550 in the last seven years the leaves turned into this one so it fell off three four months ago - now we're on our patrol we didn't find something the rancher's family stole once he called They picked it up the sheriff asked me if he could do a follow up search on the area with some anthropologists.

We went down there, busted up some rat mounds and these are big rats. We drove the mounds of rats with huge characters, but the week we found several bones. My cell phone. a photo ID, so it was a great public search, really good, why does Dawn, who lives three hours away, often spend days here decades ago, her niece was kidnapped and murdered and it took two months to find her remains if you have lost? someone in your family and you don't know where they were was lost you don't know where they are you don't even know if they are buried you have nothing you can nothing you can bury nothing you can go worship nothing, you can go visit nothing, you can put flowers, that's it , uh, that's pretty hard about your death, I'm sorry, it's really hard on the families, so I guess that's why I did it only for the families that are still alive, my next stop is In Loreto was concentrated almost the 60% of trade between Mexico and the United States.

Jose Antonio Garcia is a truck driver who carries cargo every week. Today he is going to undertake a trip to Tennessee that will take 27 hours when Tascioni hopes that his work in the villa process carries risks. This is also a lucrative smuggling point. okay no no The deal was that Antonio just told me that many of his colleagues have been forced by the cartels to bring drugs to the United States. and there's nothing they can do about it I just want to go home like a scary teenage thing for this the - family - Janos asked Adam summit at home so what's in 4 million? only for what not that this is Kelly giving me another business of the illegal loi is suna things that have to happen opposes it was possible that happens ok because a necessity the drugs to consume United States let's go Mexico Mexico kill aggressor may he might make it at weapons in money Tina capacity Ponte possible 850 trucks cross this bridge every hour making it the busiest commercial border crossing and in the Western Hemisphere many of them are inspected there, many of them are not so good and drugs goods and weapons flow into the US and enter Mexico.

Could a wall stop all illegal traffic so far? We've passed through many built-up areas, but our next destination is a little more remote. I'm somewhere in Big Bend National Park. with mountains with canyons, well, the desert meets the Rio Grande, it is a stunning, dramatic and desolate landscape, let's take a look. An Indian legend says that after creation, all the remaining rocks were left on the walls of Big Bend from another era, hundreds of feet high in one place. Where the border curves and from which the park takes its name, the river turns withfrequency and it is not always easy to see which side Mexico or the United States is on.

At this small border crossing point I have met park ranger Janet Dorado. She tells me that the park has borders with fewer illegal crossings. Border Patrol tells us that here in Big Bend National Park we have the lowest statistics for any section of the US-Mexico border and within the park we protect 12 percent of the US-Mexico border, so it is an important piece in this vast and remote place. Binational cooperation is essential and borders are difficult to distinguish just across our river. Well, just to start with, we have half the river and the other half is preserved by the Mexican national parks, so we have canyons here, but we can only preserve half the canyon, half the river and then have a partnership with Mexico to make sure that this landscape is preserved as part of a larger ecosystem, that our views don't end right at that political boundary right in the middle of the Rio Grande.

It's a really beautiful thing we have here, a lot of people who come here don't even realize that. The other half of our canyon is Mexico, for example, the river is sometimes so shallow that you don't even need a boat. Mike Davidson has been visiting this area for over 40 years as a river guide, knows this place intimately and agreed to take me down the river in terms of the number of people coming to the area at a certain degree of development, there have been quite a few changes. At that time for me, when you still enter the National Park and go along the river, you can go to places where you feel like you've been the only person there, so that's what I really like about this area, as with others people who visit and work in this area, he is worried about the future.

He knows the whole Big Ben experience with a big, tall, strong, beautiful wall. They say this would seriously degrade the visitor experience here. This is one of our national treasures on the Mexican side. It is a small town called Bocas del Carmen. Months after the 9/11 attacks, the port of entry was closed and not reopened for four years. ago and bokya suffered you know it was a big change that really ruined this city and this is one of those unique solutions where they treated the whole border as one big danger zone and they really didn't deserve that.

And now, with all this talk about building a border wall and cracking down, you know, we're worried that the progress we've made in international relations here, we fear that maybe they'll be left behind if they build a little wall that I've already completed. The first half of the trip and so far I have traveled along a border where the river is the natural barrier, but from now on I will be visiting places where fences have existed for years, so we will see a lot more. For several years now, a wall has divided the border cities of El Paso and Ciudad Juárez and it is here that I want to see how its residents have adapted each morning that Lewis drives from the Mexican side of the border to the US to For many here it is a way of

life

we ​​cannot show our faces because their American company does not allow them to speak alive until 2:30 in the morning it takes an hour to cross the border this is the type of trip that many people in your Huaraz all make the days to go to work in a hustle and bustle my job is a construction job for a company and they make concrete and right now when we do it in the water it is not work like if they send someone to drive a bus she is doing a job, you know , and my job is simply to build the wall this time, well, what have your family or friends told you about building this defense?

They joke with me like a dead Tommy only to live a little open to them the price. It is the construction site where he currently works. The first warriors were erected in 1994 at the western end of the border. Successive governments led by Clinton Bush and Obama extended them along the entire border. The fence here was erected 10 years ago and Lewis He is repairing a two-kilometer stretch. It relieves that the American president is deceiving himself. He believes that the border can be closed completely. Okay, okay. Still. Wall, do you know which Reforma we are going to cross?

Jame I said no, no, no, by medina the Manos at work that the kibosh, okay, Nina said, come on, Darren El Campo and then elfine the construction no moon shows the real American skating and the rest anyway, like that that you know, second, everyone we are catching is going incredible, it is not clear that Boise Letran is doing a little deterioration, so Java is stopped. near it, it is obviously a very imposing structure, there used to be a smaller fence here, but now it is being replaced by five meter high metal posts and the closer you get to the fence, the more you wonder how the president of the wall his will.

Will it serve its purposes and how will it affect the lives and businesses of people in the border towns since the fence was built, Juarez became one of the most violent places in the world, in contrast, El Paso is now among the most insurance companies in the United States. She is Manis Rodriguez the barrier passes through her backyard days ago she saw the migrants jumping her with a ladder we were fixing our truck back here and we heard the voices and we looked outside but we couldn't see anyone inside and we said the voice is coming from well, when we sewed they had a letter, you know, they built a big one that simple later and they just connected it to the fence and crossed, then the other one pulled it to the other side and they crossed down. and then they just jumped I said uh, just you know, they said in general although she says things have improved we have less people crossing we have less cargo as we say crossing now you know we feel safe a granddaughter of Mexicans Rodriguez supports the president Trump's plans like security yes security yes I think he's trying to protect the United States.

The way I see it, I would go to what it is, but I won't trust my daughter to go to Weiss, that's how I feel and I'm not saying she's against Mexicans or pourrais or anything. I just won't do it. I trust my daughter to go alone along the border. There are reminders like this jacket that, for some, the urge to cross this fence or a future wall may be too strong to stop. I live in Paso and drive 500 kilometers west to the twin location. Towns of Nogales The first friends came here in the 90s, dividing the town in half.

The cartels that controlled drug trafficking and human smuggling responded by going underground and have turned this area into the capital of the border channel. I join the patrol of the water tunnels that connect Mexico and the United States we don't know who we might run into so the police go ahead of us we don't know what to expect caution is needed so what just happened what happened rezian smugglers and migrants usa the cover of darkness and wait for the right moment to head towards the US. At the end of the tunnel, so the policeman just told me, but after that they turned on the flashlight, saw someone and this person ran away.

I mean, later we glimpse him in the distance, he's not moving and here's Boyd pointing at this person. with a flashlight Serco relief sheets ready to back up and alert the police so we headed towards the entrance of the tunnel I found the polarizing court or of gasoline Paola Linea sigmatropic a length person now look I have superficial system we are screwed You know, Now traffickers used not only underground infrastructure. Authorities have found more than 110 tunnels built by Mexican cartels. They call them narcotunnels. In this cemetery one of them is hiding in plain sight. This is the entrance to a tunnel that was recently filled.

They used to bring drugs across the border, and as you can see, the fence is about 100 meters from here on the US side. Tony Estrada has been sheriff for 25 years and is in charge of guaranteeing the wall that President Trump wants to build. They will be effective, they are very creative, if you do something, they will go under it, over it and around it, so it is a phenomenon that will not stop any wall, no matter how beautiful, big or tall it is. At the cost of that, it will stop the desperate, needy and poor people.

Arrests of undocumented immigrants in the U.S. have increased by nearly 40 percent since President Trump's crackdown, but Estrada believes this misses illegal immigration as far as I'm concerned. My concern pales in comparison to a drug problem when you're spending all your resources on illegal immigration and you're talking about relocating, identifying people who live in the community who have families and are contributing. It's useless you're not putting your resources into the best criminal aliens I've said it for years yes go later let's get out of the criminal agent but don't bother anyone else this shelter in Nogales opened three decades ago since then it has received hundreds of thousands of migrants we find hope and faith but also sadness pain for the last 13 years who saved you Ortiz has lived in Florida she is working in tomato fields they picked her trying to return to the US after visiting her family in Mexico you have to make a career but miss PES no one you are anemic a member maysun days in MVP despite the risky trip she is already planning to return six kilograms the stars in her cabin if anyone is capable of judging the success of a wall maybe it is human traffickers this one says that has reduced the number he was happy to appear on camera but preferred not to be named he was Nancy works what does that say ah very young today dela look they in a documented gang questioned the wall for him a bigger wall could mean fewer customers buying more money possibly delicacy Korriban satiate valasco brás of two of fourteen davis Vesuvian very much covetous Many people bah-bah Sudhir Elavon dopest ECM privacy Viper people than Papa gar Novelis perhaps another example of the mixed and complex nature of border cities and of the consequences not desires to build barriers that a wall will stop some people but others will find a different path.

My final destination on this road trip is Tijuana and no other place on the US-Mexico border has a more intimate relationship with the world and the city here where the US government first began building the borders. barrier almost three decades ago has shaped the lives, identities and destinies of millions throughout the Silurian disaster el nor daniel is a graffiti artist who has lived here for 25 years the world for him became a canvas an opportunity to Expressing your feelings towards life in a divided place is always important as the topic is affected by the social political situation in the community.

The topic is the family, the people, and it is something that always interests me. Yaran likes me in Lima. - k APPA knows that his chiral condition is McGraw remove Sununu Guara another is so in situation a place with the Salle's Suja tada we were being prisoners or Seco states in some way not because it is a monkey C so big again he saw his bone of the desire to show how barriers affect people and his own family - I recent meant a few I am Father you can have said three months then I see my mommy wife carrying our son And my wife work San Diego I work in Tijuana and I am also part is appreci unfroze Teresa that to know from my imagination I can in the day I gave a special prison to he can we are not separated ways the creates - from our children to Golondrina lives in the let's note in a place right now can not Zulu was the Frontera but not animism you paint on this bricks it is a cathartic experience but I wish it wasn't there at all is we have more problem with a with the United States police for Paint the wall on the Mexican side than with the children Mexican police town of birria is on both sides in reality what I always live should not be ozs world should be the area is good but it is not a Galleria's the most frequently crossed border in the world unites two countries and there is no indifference to the divisions that the different ones engender became a solution Sunday for the moment will do is another whose art is defined in the world: he is a hip-hop artist who lives in the US but has family on both sides of the border and you know Nina Simone said as best you can know, that as artists we had to reflect our reality crossing the border so many times growing up that it definitely resonated with my understanding of restrictions and placement.

The boundaries with people are the same and I got that from my music. I attached it to my music, so if I don't agree that there is a border, then it needs to be crossed for people to live in a particular place. Wouldn't I make an effort not to put boundaries and restrictions on my music? There are an estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the United States. Omega has relatives among them and Frederick's opposition to these people has left him fearing the prospect of his family breaking up. I had a family member who had to go to a government building and from the moment theythat we got the scheduled date to the actual date there.

There is a lot of tension, there are many arguments at home because because of fear there is a very real fear that anything could happen to our families at any given moment, they make us see Cetus as an artistic beauty to continue highlighting what he sees as controversial topics. . This very abnormal behavior and the relationships between government agencies, federal agencies and local authorities, that is something abnormal, it is not normal. I feel like that's all we can do is challenge. I feel that music should be an act of expression that stops provoking and no, I do not agree that you can make music without reflecting your reality.

If your family member is deported, he or she may end up here in Tijuana, the city receives more deportees than any other in the city. border for deportees is a painful contradiction they feel like foreigners in The country I was born in is my ear and you know, we always try to represent as much as possible so that five 300 is just the area code where I'm from. Chris's tattoos tell the story of our hard life when he was young. Involved in gangs, guns and drugs, he spent his adolescence in prison in the US, but was deported to Mexico because he was born there, he was thrown into a place he barely knew, he had to speak a language he already knew. had forgotten.

I think about what I want. say in English and I have to translate it in my mind so I can say some words that I can't even pronounce in Spanish, so you know, that's really the main reason why call centers have worked for me, these are I called the Center in Tijuana in northern Mexico and many of the people who work here have been deported from the U.S. Hi Sharon, I'm Chris. The purpose of my call is to inform you that the manufacturer's warranty on our new 2012 Chevy Equinox has expired. You might find it surprising.

Letting people in the United States know that they are talking to tattooed egg gang members and surely rival gangs in the same workplace is a recipe for disaster. Maybe you have some rednecks, those are memories that represent like the number 13, you should be there from the south, that's what southerners are and then you have a group of people like us and some of my friends who are northerners and who we are. identify with the number 14 in the states we can't stand to see each other and we can for the most part not even talk civilly or anything like that it's just that you know we see each other and it's bad business and we just do it without asking questions here you know we keep a respectful attitude and we make it work for the good of the workplace and trying to live a peaceful life, this gentleman right here on the road where I'm sitting has a couple of tattoos on his arm and face.

Chris is a supervisor here and doesn't even think about going back to his usual life, but the new one hasn't been easy, sometimes people don't even give you that chance. Look, you know, they don't know any better, some stupid little wannabe gangster or you know some stupid drug, you're an addict or a deportee, you know whatever, like they would like a us, but that's what they look down on you for. Tijuana may be a few miles from the United States, but it's a different world, believe me, you have a trip back home, you just can't go anywhere here and start selling drugs just to survive or make money, or whatever.

Whether it doesn't work that way, you need some kind of permission I heard from someone who is God knows, but you know if you don't have that permission you can count on being found dead somewhere. I have traveled across the city to an evangelical church that houses immigrant patients. a place of worship but it is also a refuge and a place of limbo. Thousands of them are stranded, they fled the country after the 2010 earthquake but now can't enter the US due to an Obama policy aimed at deterring more Haitians from arriving it scares me but one thing I KNOW I'm not going to count among the people that a Zelda poulter because I am not leaving for a year Christopher and his compatriots are the latest example of the stories that for decades have been part of this town mahaki I prefer Guilherme as a cavalry VC I prefer Kellerman ki same infinite as a friend I'm totally so difficult Valles the laptop I know how the houses are IME vice is nothing Good don't see a key how to improve the universe Tijuana is a place of aspirations of broken dreams of new beginnings it is a city where people have learned to navigate being so close to the US and yet so far, that is the end of my road trip, it has been a fascinating journey. throughout a part of the world that belongs to Mexico and the United States and in some ways this is a land of paradoxes a land of extremes can be cruel, violent and imposing and at the same time beautiful, gentle and kind, it is a place where People have learned to live in strange intimacy with a wall and many more of us will probably have to do the same on this journey.

I have seen the challenges of building a more varied conversation with people happy with a wall in their backyard and with those who believe that more fences will not stop immigrants, no drugs, after all, this border is home to millions of people who, no matter what they think of the wall, now face a dramatic, momentous and divisive moment.