1
00:00:06,400 --> 00:00:10,880
Speaker 1: It's October twenty third, twenty twenty three. It's a Monday,

2
00:00:11,640 --> 00:00:16,440
Speaker 1: and Dora Rodriguez is in the tiny town of Sasabe, Mexico.

3
00:00:17,079 --> 00:00:21,079
Speaker 1: It's just across the US border with Arizona, and today

4
00:00:21,280 --> 00:00:25,800
Speaker 1: it's sunny and a little bit dusty.

5
00:00:25,960 --> 00:00:30,320
Speaker 2: We were building a beautiful library for the community because

6
00:00:30,320 --> 00:00:32,000
Speaker 2: they never had a public library.

7
00:00:32,840 --> 00:00:36,919
Speaker 1: Dora is an advocate, she's an activist for migrant rights,

8
00:00:36,960 --> 00:00:38,360
Speaker 1: and she's based in Tucson.

9
00:00:38,960 --> 00:00:42,839
Speaker 2: Excited that this beautiful library is coming up, that murals

10
00:00:42,880 --> 00:00:45,400
Speaker 2: are done. It is very welcoming.

11
00:00:46,200 --> 00:00:49,680
Speaker 1: The reason why Dora is in Sasabe, Mexico, is because

12
00:00:50,080 --> 00:00:53,080
Speaker 1: she's been running a shelter for migrants there and she's

13
00:00:53,200 --> 00:00:57,000
Speaker 1: also been getting involved in improving this town as a whole.

14
00:00:57,760 --> 00:01:01,280
Speaker 1: Dora might be petite by but she's not small in

15
00:01:01,360 --> 00:01:03,840
Speaker 1: terms of the impact that she has in this area

16
00:01:03,920 --> 00:01:07,840
Speaker 1: of the border. And this morning at the library, something

17
00:01:08,160 --> 00:01:09,679
Speaker 1: feels off.

18
00:01:10,319 --> 00:01:13,679
Speaker 2: But I could sense it was a different vife. It

19
00:01:13,760 --> 00:01:16,760
Speaker 2: really was a different vibe that the locals were telling

20
00:01:16,800 --> 00:01:21,600
Speaker 2: me something's happening. This is scary because there was so

21
00:01:21,800 --> 00:01:27,039
Speaker 2: many trocks. Different brain new why big trokes. You could

22
00:01:27,040 --> 00:01:31,680
Speaker 2: not see who was inside because they were dark, but

23
00:01:32,000 --> 00:01:36,920
Speaker 2: going fast and driving or slowing down, so it was different.

24
00:01:37,520 --> 00:01:39,520
Speaker 2: They were weing seen all this time.

25
00:01:44,680 --> 00:01:47,440
Speaker 1: At the end of the day, Dora drives back across

26
00:01:47,480 --> 00:01:50,560
Speaker 1: the small port of entry back into the US and

27
00:01:50,680 --> 00:01:52,160
Speaker 1: she drives home to Tucson.

28
00:01:52,960 --> 00:02:00,080
Speaker 2: The next morning, we're lorapar karaging back to Sasaw with brooms,

29
00:02:00,080 --> 00:02:02,080
Speaker 2: with things to clean up.

30
00:02:02,600 --> 00:02:05,720
Speaker 1: And during the hour and a half drive south to

31
00:02:05,800 --> 00:02:08,760
Speaker 1: the border, Dora gets a warning.

32
00:02:09,760 --> 00:02:11,480
Speaker 2: I get a phone call for one of the women

33
00:02:11,560 --> 00:02:14,960
Speaker 2: they work at the center. It says, Dorita, don't come.

34
00:02:16,200 --> 00:02:20,320
Speaker 2: We are in a war. There is a fight. There's

35
00:02:20,400 --> 00:02:25,960
Speaker 2: gunshots all over these mountains in town. Some houses are burning.

36
00:02:26,639 --> 00:02:29,160
Speaker 2: We don't know what's happening. Police don't come.

37
00:02:32,400 --> 00:02:35,560
Speaker 1: At the time, Sasa, Mexico was a town of about

38
00:02:35,639 --> 00:02:40,360
Speaker 1: one thousand residents. Families had been there for generations. There's

39
00:02:40,639 --> 00:02:43,840
Speaker 1: kind of not much here. There are no big stores,

40
00:02:44,080 --> 00:02:49,000
Speaker 1: no chain restaurants, no banks. Everyone shops at the one

41
00:02:49,120 --> 00:02:52,839
Speaker 1: outpost where the owner runs the register and knows most

42
00:02:52,880 --> 00:02:57,639
Speaker 1: of her customers. There is a small official US port

43
00:02:57,639 --> 00:03:00,679
Speaker 1: of entry, and for decades this has been a corridor

44
00:03:00,840 --> 00:03:05,440
Speaker 1: for migrants crossing the border. The press has reported that

45
00:03:05,520 --> 00:03:08,320
Speaker 1: for the last twelve years, the local boss of the

46
00:03:08,320 --> 00:03:14,480
Speaker 1: Sinaloa cartel managing Sasabe Mexico basically left the townspeople alone

47
00:03:14,520 --> 00:03:17,720
Speaker 1: and allowed them to work. And everyone sort of knew

48
00:03:17,760 --> 00:03:21,040
Speaker 1: that the cartel was smuggling people, but they all went

49
00:03:21,080 --> 00:03:30,359
Speaker 1: about their business without getting involved until now. Now you

50
00:03:30,360 --> 00:03:33,480
Speaker 1: should know that there are two Sasabs split up by

51
00:03:33,520 --> 00:03:38,760
Speaker 1: the international border boundary. There's Sasabe Mexico and sasave Us

52
00:03:39,400 --> 00:03:42,760
Speaker 1: And in the area dividing the two there's about a

53
00:03:42,920 --> 00:03:47,080
Speaker 1: twenty miles stretch of border wall. And over the years

54
00:03:47,440 --> 00:03:50,920
Speaker 1: that stretch of wall has had more than twenty gaps

55
00:03:51,080 --> 00:03:55,080
Speaker 1: or openings, holes in the wall that can be huge

56
00:03:55,480 --> 00:03:58,680
Speaker 1: enough to fit a herd of cows, for example, or

57
00:03:58,960 --> 00:04:04,640
Speaker 1: small enough to fit a person sliding under the wall,

58
00:04:04,640 --> 00:04:09,200
Speaker 1: and those have been repaired multiple times, mostly because of

59
00:04:09,240 --> 00:04:13,760
Speaker 1: erosion during and after the monsoon seasons when torrential rains

60
00:04:13,800 --> 00:04:18,800
Speaker 1: cause damage, and because people crossing cut holes into the fence.

61
00:04:21,640 --> 00:04:25,479
Speaker 3: The wall certainly looks impressive, but in parts of Arizona's

62
00:04:25,480 --> 00:04:26,960
Speaker 3: border with Mexico.

63
00:04:26,600 --> 00:04:29,760
Speaker 4: This new wall is proving to be little more than

64
00:04:29,800 --> 00:04:32,120
Speaker 4: a temporary obstacle.

65
00:04:31,760 --> 00:04:35,560
Speaker 5: For smugglers to young gentlemen cutting through the wall with

66
00:04:35,839 --> 00:04:38,920
Speaker 5: an angle grinder that you could pick up at Walmart or.

67
00:04:40,960 --> 00:04:41,479
Speaker 2: See.

68
00:04:41,520 --> 00:04:45,279
Speaker 1: That same week that Dora got that warning call, something

69
00:04:45,360 --> 00:04:49,280
Speaker 1: happened at the border wall nearby that she says also

70
00:04:49,440 --> 00:04:55,560
Speaker 1: contributed to the spark that set things off. There was

71
00:04:55,600 --> 00:04:59,640
Speaker 1: this one specific opening in the border wall, not too

72
00:04:59,720 --> 00:05:03,680
Speaker 1: far from the sasab Us port of entry, about a

73
00:05:03,800 --> 00:05:09,280
Speaker 1: forty foot gap where large groups of migrants refugees, most

74
00:05:09,320 --> 00:05:12,800
Speaker 1: of them families, had been crossing, where they'd wait on

75
00:05:12,880 --> 00:05:15,400
Speaker 1: the other side of the border wall for the border

76
00:05:15,400 --> 00:05:19,080
Speaker 1: patrol to turn themselves in and ask for asylum.

77
00:05:19,360 --> 00:05:22,719
Speaker 2: That gap was very easy for that group there was

78
00:05:22,839 --> 00:05:25,440
Speaker 2: already in that town now.

79
00:05:25,920 --> 00:05:30,120
Speaker 1: The cartel group that ran that area, Dora says, had

80
00:05:30,160 --> 00:05:33,760
Speaker 1: been using this opening because not only was it huge,

81
00:05:34,279 --> 00:05:38,040
Speaker 1: it was easier to access than the more rugged mountainous terrain.

82
00:05:38,360 --> 00:05:43,760
Speaker 1: Until the construction company doing repairs closed that huge opening

83
00:05:44,120 --> 00:05:48,320
Speaker 1: in late October of twenty twenty three. According to Dora

84
00:05:48,560 --> 00:05:51,160
Speaker 1: and to other people we spoke to, including a Mexican

85
00:05:51,279 --> 00:05:55,440
Speaker 1: security analyst, this caused the cartel smuggling operation to be

86
00:05:55,520 --> 00:06:01,159
Speaker 1: pushed further east into another group's smuggling tears territory. All

87
00:06:01,200 --> 00:06:03,480
Speaker 1: of this under control of the Sina Lower cartel.

88
00:06:04,320 --> 00:06:08,039
Speaker 2: It's pretty much the same organized crime group. They're just

89
00:06:08,120 --> 00:06:10,800
Speaker 2: different Jamitas.

90
00:06:11,920 --> 00:06:17,280
Speaker 1: When the infighting within the cartel and the closing of

91
00:06:17,320 --> 00:06:21,920
Speaker 1: that gap in the wall collided, and Dora says, the

92
00:06:21,920 --> 00:06:28,200
Speaker 1: fighting escalated daily within two weeks. At the beginning of November,

93
00:06:28,720 --> 00:06:32,680
Speaker 1: locals woke up to find several homes set on fire

94
00:06:32,800 --> 00:06:36,960
Speaker 1: in their town, so they ran to US border officials

95
00:06:37,000 --> 00:06:37,839
Speaker 1: seeking help.

96
00:06:38,800 --> 00:06:43,080
Speaker 2: People were trapped. They could not go south to Mexico,

97
00:06:43,279 --> 00:06:47,760
Speaker 2: to another towns near Mexico because it was already controlled

98
00:06:47,800 --> 00:06:52,880
Speaker 2: by the new cartel group coming in taking over. And

99
00:06:52,920 --> 00:06:55,360
Speaker 2: then they could not come north to the port of

100
00:06:55,640 --> 00:07:01,680
Speaker 2: entry because they denied protection to this people over and over.

101
00:07:02,440 --> 00:07:06,760
Speaker 2: So I started getting these phone calls, well what we do.

102
00:07:14,240 --> 00:07:18,239
Speaker 1: From Futuro Media and PRX. It's Latino USA. I'm Maria

103
00:07:18,360 --> 00:07:23,000
Speaker 1: no Josa today Fernanda Chavarri, senior producer at Vuduro Studios,

104
00:07:23,000 --> 00:07:26,160
Speaker 1: and I are bringing you the story of what's happening

105
00:07:26,480 --> 00:07:29,880
Speaker 1: in this remote area of the US Mexico border.

106
00:07:30,240 --> 00:07:32,600
Speaker 5: We're going to see what the border wall is and

107
00:07:32,880 --> 00:07:36,520
Speaker 5: isn't doing, and get past the rhetoric of an election cycle.

108
00:07:36,920 --> 00:07:39,080
Speaker 1: We're going to hear from people on both sides of

109
00:07:39,120 --> 00:07:43,480
Speaker 1: the wall, from humanitarian volunteers who are beacons of light,

110
00:07:43,920 --> 00:07:46,720
Speaker 1: and we're going to ask border patrol how they handle

111
00:07:46,880 --> 00:07:47,480
Speaker 1: the every day.

112
00:07:47,840 --> 00:07:50,040
Speaker 5: We're going to bring you the realities of a remote

113
00:07:50,080 --> 00:07:53,880
Speaker 5: border area that could easily be forgotten or overlooked. But

114
00:07:53,960 --> 00:07:57,040
Speaker 5: from what we saw, it's where politics are abstract and

115
00:07:57,160 --> 00:07:58,160
Speaker 5: policies are real.

116
00:07:58,720 --> 00:08:02,280
Speaker 1: This story is part of our life coverage, the Latino factor,

117
00:08:02,720 --> 00:08:13,320
Speaker 1: how we vote, Immigration and the border are very much

118
00:08:13,440 --> 00:08:16,240
Speaker 1: front of mine. As we get closer to election day,

119
00:08:16,800 --> 00:08:20,000
Speaker 1: tensions and divisions on border policies are heightened, as a

120
00:08:20,040 --> 00:08:24,560
Speaker 1: new Gallup poll shows that significantly more Americans named immigration

121
00:08:25,120 --> 00:08:28,080
Speaker 1: as the most important problem facing the US.

122
00:08:29,040 --> 00:08:32,440
Speaker 5: As we enter this all too familiar deja vu moment

123
00:08:32,600 --> 00:08:35,880
Speaker 5: with a second Joe Biden Donald Trump face off, and

124
00:08:35,960 --> 00:08:39,400
Speaker 5: I want to talk about another topician, the border. I'm

125
00:08:39,440 --> 00:08:40,480
Speaker 5: ready to solve the problem.

126
00:08:40,480 --> 00:08:43,480
Speaker 3: I really am massive changes and I mean it sincerely.

127
00:08:44,040 --> 00:08:46,600
Speaker 5: Democrats say, please, don't call them animals. They're humans.

128
00:08:46,600 --> 00:08:49,600
Speaker 6: I said, no, they're not yeamans, they're not yemens, they're animals.

129
00:08:50,080 --> 00:08:54,559
Speaker 5: Immigrants the border all the time. Here's speaker Johnson, I'm

130
00:08:54,559 --> 00:08:56,360
Speaker 5: going to tell the President when I'm telling all of you,

131
00:08:56,400 --> 00:09:00,320
Speaker 5: and we've told the American people border, border, border.

132
00:09:02,240 --> 00:09:05,640
Speaker 1: The border is likely to be all talk for a

133
00:09:05,720 --> 00:09:09,080
Speaker 1: lot of people, many who will say that the US

134
00:09:09,400 --> 00:09:14,640
Speaker 1: is battling an invasion to describe desperate families asking for

135
00:09:14,840 --> 00:09:20,080
Speaker 1: refuge legally for Dora, the humanitarian powerhouse, It's not.

136
00:09:20,920 --> 00:09:24,360
Speaker 2: I had not seen an invasion. There is no invasion

137
00:09:24,440 --> 00:09:28,400
Speaker 2: in our wall, in our borderlens. It has never been

138
00:09:28,440 --> 00:09:31,120
Speaker 2: one in forty years have been around those border lens.

139
00:09:34,559 --> 00:09:39,120
Speaker 5: What is new is the unprecedented cartel battle happening in Sassaba, Mexico,

140
00:09:39,600 --> 00:09:42,040
Speaker 5: a conflict that has given birth to a new group

141
00:09:42,080 --> 00:09:45,079
Speaker 5: of asylum seekers, the locals who had lived their whole

142
00:09:45,080 --> 00:09:47,760
Speaker 5: lives in the shadow of the wall without intentions to

143
00:09:47,800 --> 00:09:51,040
Speaker 5: ever come north. And here's the thing, and this is

144
00:09:51,080 --> 00:09:54,960
Speaker 5: really important. Yes, there are millions and millions of dollars

145
00:09:55,040 --> 00:09:57,480
Speaker 5: to be made in the drug smuggling business. There has

146
00:09:57,520 --> 00:10:00,640
Speaker 5: been for decades. But there are now also millions and

147
00:10:00,720 --> 00:10:04,120
Speaker 5: millions more to be made in the people smuggling business.

148
00:10:04,840 --> 00:10:08,240
Speaker 1: And the people being smuggled, they're the ones living the

149
00:10:08,280 --> 00:10:12,199
Speaker 1: consequences of shifts in this business and in US policies.

150
00:10:14,800 --> 00:10:18,560
Speaker 1: It's by fifty one in the morning. It's still pretty

151
00:10:18,600 --> 00:10:19,840
Speaker 1: much pitch black out there.

152
00:10:20,280 --> 00:10:22,000
Speaker 5: There's forty seven degrees, only.

153
00:10:22,000 --> 00:10:24,080
Speaker 1: Forty seven degrees, but it's rain forty six.

154
00:10:24,960 --> 00:10:27,720
Speaker 5: It's a cold and rainy March morning in the desert.

155
00:10:27,960 --> 00:10:30,439
Speaker 5: We've been driving for about an hour from Tucson south

156
00:10:30,480 --> 00:10:34,080
Speaker 5: to the border near the town of Sasabe, Arizona. Bob Key,

157
00:10:34,240 --> 00:10:36,520
Speaker 5: a soft spoken retiree, is at the wheel.

158
00:10:37,040 --> 00:10:42,000
Speaker 3: My name is Bob Key. I live in Tucson, Arizona.

159
00:10:42,120 --> 00:10:44,640
Speaker 3: And what do you do. I'm a member of the

160
00:10:44,679 --> 00:10:47,319
Speaker 3: Tucson Samaritans and Green Valley Samaritans.

161
00:10:48,480 --> 00:10:49,439
Speaker 5: And back here we have.

162
00:10:50,800 --> 00:10:54,079
Speaker 7: I'm Debbie McCullough. I also a member of the Green

163
00:10:54,160 --> 00:10:57,080
Speaker 7: Valley and the Tucson Samaritans, and I live in Green Valley.

164
00:10:57,120 --> 00:11:00,240
Speaker 1: I live in We are on the US side of

165
00:11:00,280 --> 00:11:04,080
Speaker 1: the border, and we're driving parallel to the wall. We're

166
00:11:04,120 --> 00:11:07,880
Speaker 1: heading east now past that forty foot opening that we

167
00:11:08,000 --> 00:11:10,600
Speaker 1: mentioned at the top of this episode, the one that

168
00:11:10,640 --> 00:11:13,640
Speaker 1: construction workers had closed up this past fall.

169
00:11:14,240 --> 00:11:17,959
Speaker 5: We're on our way to another opening, many many miles away,

170
00:11:18,200 --> 00:11:22,240
Speaker 5: where the wall just ends. We wanted to see where

171
00:11:22,320 --> 00:11:25,400
Speaker 5: people have been pushed to cross, so.

172
00:11:25,240 --> 00:11:28,080
Speaker 3: We know that that people have been out here overnight,

173
00:11:29,920 --> 00:11:32,280
Speaker 3: children as well. There was a family where the baby

174
00:11:32,400 --> 00:11:35,960
Speaker 3: one month old. They're cold and the rain that semen.

175
00:11:36,040 --> 00:11:38,840
Speaker 5: Bob and Debbie have been volunteering with migrant rights groups

176
00:11:38,840 --> 00:11:43,400
Speaker 5: for twenty years. They've seen migration trends shift, the demographics evolved,

177
00:11:43,760 --> 00:11:45,840
Speaker 5: but the need and their role remain.

178
00:11:46,160 --> 00:11:46,360
Speaker 6: You know.

179
00:11:46,400 --> 00:11:50,120
Speaker 3: Once I made that connection with people, it just it

180
00:11:50,200 --> 00:11:54,400
Speaker 3: really became my calling. I found what I was meant

181
00:11:54,400 --> 00:11:54,960
Speaker 3: to be here for.

182
00:11:55,679 --> 00:11:58,719
Speaker 5: It's hard to describe just how intense this terrain we're

183
00:11:58,800 --> 00:12:01,400
Speaker 5: driving through right now is. It's a four wheel drive

184
00:12:01,440 --> 00:12:03,800
Speaker 5: type of road with the border fence to our right.

185
00:12:04,520 --> 00:12:07,080
Speaker 5: The hills go up and down so steep that when

186
00:12:07,160 --> 00:12:10,400
Speaker 5: Bob approaches the top we can't even really see what's below.

187
00:12:11,040 --> 00:12:13,960
Speaker 5: To rain that migrants have walked in the dark and

188
00:12:14,160 --> 00:12:17,880
Speaker 5: under extreme weather conditions. Oof, this is a steep drop.

189
00:12:18,240 --> 00:12:25,000
Speaker 5: I don't like it. Talking about the wall as in

190
00:12:25,120 --> 00:12:29,720
Speaker 5: Capital T Capitol W, has become synonymous with border security,

191
00:12:29,760 --> 00:12:34,319
Speaker 5: illegal immigration, and anti immigrant rhetoric, even though the wall itself,

192
00:12:34,480 --> 00:12:37,839
Speaker 5: as border patrol agents has said, is just a tool

193
00:12:38,000 --> 00:12:41,160
Speaker 5: in the larger picture. A slow down mechanism, but not

194
00:12:41,240 --> 00:12:44,680
Speaker 5: a stop to border crossings. And if you haven't looked closely,

195
00:12:44,880 --> 00:12:47,480
Speaker 5: the wall is really more of a fence. There are

196
00:12:47,559 --> 00:12:50,800
Speaker 5: six inch steel ballards four inches apart.

197
00:12:52,000 --> 00:12:55,640
Speaker 1: Before Trump's build the Wall chance became a center of

198
00:12:55,679 --> 00:12:59,800
Speaker 1: his first presidential campaign in twenty sixteen, there were already

199
00:12:59,840 --> 00:13:03,319
Speaker 1: more than six hundred and fifty miles of border barriers

200
00:13:03,360 --> 00:13:04,720
Speaker 1: along the southern border.

201
00:13:05,640 --> 00:13:09,640
Speaker 5: Build that wall, Build that wall.

202
00:13:10,640 --> 00:13:14,960
Speaker 1: During his presidency, Trump did build almost fifty miles of

203
00:13:15,040 --> 00:13:18,959
Speaker 1: new border wall where there had never been barriers before,

204
00:13:19,040 --> 00:13:22,800
Speaker 1: but the majority of his claim to fame was replacing

205
00:13:22,920 --> 00:13:26,280
Speaker 1: more than four hundred and fifty miles of smaller, dilapidated

206
00:13:26,320 --> 00:13:31,720
Speaker 1: sections of the wall with this huge, menacing, thirty foot fence.

207
00:13:32,640 --> 00:13:34,880
Speaker 5: Now fast forward to Biden's first day in office.

208
00:13:35,000 --> 00:13:39,520
Speaker 3: CNN projects Joseph R. Biden Junior is elected the forty

209
00:13:39,600 --> 00:13:41,520
Speaker 3: sixth president of the United States.

210
00:13:41,600 --> 00:13:45,160
Speaker 5: He signed an executive order saying that his administration would

211
00:13:45,200 --> 00:13:49,120
Speaker 5: not build one more inch of new border wall, but

212
00:13:49,160 --> 00:13:51,800
Speaker 5: that didn't stop the work to repair damage sections of

213
00:13:51,880 --> 00:13:55,000
Speaker 5: the old wall. Biden has said that his administration was

214
00:13:55,120 --> 00:13:58,679
Speaker 5: forced to continue spending the money that Congress had allocated

215
00:13:58,800 --> 00:13:59,640
Speaker 5: for these repairs.

216
00:14:00,080 --> 00:14:03,320
Speaker 8: I tried to get them reappropriate to redirect that money.

217
00:14:03,960 --> 00:14:04,480
Speaker 7: They didn't.

218
00:14:04,520 --> 00:14:05,079
Speaker 1: They wouldn't.

219
00:14:05,200 --> 00:14:06,520
Speaker 5: I can't stop that, do you.

220
00:14:08,440 --> 00:14:08,640
Speaker 9: No.

221
00:14:09,960 --> 00:14:12,760
Speaker 5: So in the last four years, the construction company has

222
00:14:12,800 --> 00:14:15,679
Speaker 5: continued to close gaps and welded shut some of the

223
00:14:15,720 --> 00:14:18,640
Speaker 5: open parts without building new sections of the wall.

224
00:14:20,640 --> 00:14:22,960
Speaker 1: How do you process what we're seeing here, which is

225
00:14:23,000 --> 00:14:26,000
Speaker 1: the wall is here and now it's I'm confused. Yeah,

226
00:14:26,120 --> 00:14:28,320
Speaker 1: it's supposed to be a border wall, but you're saying

227
00:14:28,320 --> 00:14:30,360
Speaker 1: there's ten miles of no border wall.

228
00:14:30,440 --> 00:14:34,800
Speaker 8: Yeah, because well they just haven't they stopped.

229
00:14:34,800 --> 00:14:36,840
Speaker 3: So here's here's an indicator.

230
00:14:42,560 --> 00:14:45,480
Speaker 8: They always date when they put the last ballard in

231
00:14:45,600 --> 00:14:49,000
Speaker 8: for the day. This last this ballard was one thirteen,

232
00:14:49,520 --> 00:14:53,760
Speaker 8: twenty twenty one week before inauguration, and that was the

233
00:14:53,840 --> 00:14:55,120
Speaker 8: last of the wall building.

234
00:14:58,720 --> 00:15:02,760
Speaker 1: After the stomach turning drive up and down the roller

235
00:15:02,800 --> 00:15:05,920
Speaker 1: coaster of the muddy Hills at the border, we arrive

236
00:15:06,000 --> 00:15:09,760
Speaker 1: at a camp that volunteers have built on the US side.

237
00:15:09,920 --> 00:15:13,040
Speaker 1: It's literally a stone's throw from the wall.

238
00:15:13,960 --> 00:15:17,360
Speaker 3: This is the camp that was set up. We're here, Yeah,

239
00:15:17,480 --> 00:15:19,800
Speaker 3: this is the camp off to the left that's set

240
00:15:19,880 --> 00:15:24,640
Speaker 3: up to accommodate people with tents and food and water.

241
00:15:25,280 --> 00:15:28,920
Speaker 1: This makeshift resting camp was set up in December of

242
00:15:28,960 --> 00:15:32,360
Speaker 1: twenty twenty three, about a month after the cartel war

243
00:15:32,480 --> 00:15:36,560
Speaker 1: took over Sasabe, Mexico, and when the forty foot gap

244
00:15:36,600 --> 00:15:40,840
Speaker 1: that was more easily accessible was closed. It was built

245
00:15:40,880 --> 00:15:44,560
Speaker 1: in response to the grave need for humanitarian aid for

246
00:15:44,720 --> 00:15:48,760
Speaker 1: asylum seekers who were pushed to cross further away into

247
00:15:48,840 --> 00:15:53,200
Speaker 1: the mountainous desert area and therefore have to wait for

248
00:15:53,280 --> 00:15:55,960
Speaker 1: the border patrol to come and get them.

249
00:15:56,240 --> 00:15:57,440
Speaker 5: I got really cold.

250
00:15:57,520 --> 00:15:58,360
Speaker 4: It's so cold.

251
00:15:58,400 --> 00:15:59,720
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, I get sew my breast.

252
00:16:00,080 --> 00:16:00,520
Speaker 3: Yeah, you can.

253
00:16:00,600 --> 00:16:01,440
Speaker 8: Oh jeez.

254
00:16:01,520 --> 00:16:03,560
Speaker 5: Now, if you haven't lived in the desert, you may

255
00:16:03,560 --> 00:16:06,600
Speaker 5: not realize just how extreme the weather is down here.

256
00:16:07,120 --> 00:16:10,240
Speaker 5: The summers reach over one hundred and ten degrees, but

257
00:16:10,320 --> 00:16:12,640
Speaker 5: in the early months of the year the temperatures can

258
00:16:12,720 --> 00:16:15,600
Speaker 5: drop in the low thirties at night. And yes, it

259
00:16:15,800 --> 00:16:19,040
Speaker 5: has snow down here. Next to the fire where we're standing,

260
00:16:19,080 --> 00:16:23,360
Speaker 5: we're standing over the sort of leftover smoke from a fire.

261
00:16:23,480 --> 00:16:28,280
Speaker 5: There are about four milk crates and a little like

262
00:16:28,400 --> 00:16:30,960
Speaker 5: little mermaid towel on top of one of them.

263
00:16:31,520 --> 00:16:33,080
Speaker 1: Maybe some long underwear.

264
00:16:32,920 --> 00:16:35,880
Speaker 5: Long underwear. Yeah, there's also there there's a jacket hanging

265
00:16:35,880 --> 00:16:38,040
Speaker 5: from a tree. I mean I would say this is

266
00:16:38,080 --> 00:16:40,680
Speaker 5: probably one, two, three, four, five, six seventy.

267
00:16:40,920 --> 00:16:41,720
Speaker 4: I kind of love it.

268
00:16:41,840 --> 00:16:46,040
Speaker 5: Twelve maybe about fifteen tents, and by tents we mean

269
00:16:46,280 --> 00:16:51,000
Speaker 5: tarp that's been hung up on trees, not Arii style tents.

270
00:16:52,120 --> 00:16:54,480
Speaker 5: In the middle of the camp, there's a large canopy

271
00:16:54,600 --> 00:16:58,280
Speaker 5: with supplies, lots and lots of water, coffee.

272
00:16:58,720 --> 00:17:02,800
Speaker 7: There is a campstone so that people can come and

273
00:17:02,840 --> 00:17:07,520
Speaker 7: make the hot coffee or ramen and refried beans, lots

274
00:17:07,560 --> 00:17:10,280
Speaker 7: of refried beans. So that's kind of just our go

275
00:17:10,320 --> 00:17:11,399
Speaker 7: to meals.

276
00:17:11,880 --> 00:17:16,119
Speaker 1: And as Debbie shows us around, suddenly a tiny creature approaches.

277
00:17:16,400 --> 00:17:19,480
Speaker 5: Oh, this is the camp catt.

278
00:17:19,640 --> 00:17:21,760
Speaker 7: Yeah, yeah, this cat is.

279
00:17:22,359 --> 00:17:23,320
Speaker 5: What's the kitty's name?

280
00:17:23,480 --> 00:17:26,359
Speaker 7: We don't know campcat. I guess c K.

281
00:17:26,760 --> 00:17:32,480
Speaker 5: Right, Camp cat. Clearly CEK stands for Camp Kitty, not campcat.

282
00:17:32,840 --> 00:17:35,000
Speaker 5: But fun fact, Camp Kitty used to live at the

283
00:17:35,000 --> 00:17:38,159
Speaker 5: Border Patrol station in Sasaba, Arizona with the Border Patrol

284
00:17:38,200 --> 00:17:40,719
Speaker 5: agents until one day it's not into one of their

285
00:17:40,800 --> 00:17:43,080
Speaker 5: vans headed for the camp and never went back.

286
00:17:46,520 --> 00:17:49,720
Speaker 1: As we move further into the camp, we see this

287
00:17:50,200 --> 00:17:53,520
Speaker 1: decked out sprinter van and that's where we meet Andy

288
00:17:53,560 --> 00:17:55,560
Speaker 1: Winter and the campgrown host.

289
00:17:56,600 --> 00:17:59,280
Speaker 5: Andy and his little dog Grapha are usually the only

290
00:17:59,320 --> 00:18:07,120
Speaker 5: ones who stay the camp after sunset.

291
00:18:04,359 --> 00:18:06,600
Speaker 4: And I must talk about.

292
00:18:09,119 --> 00:18:12,240
Speaker 1: He's often the first face that migrants see when they

293
00:18:12,359 --> 00:18:15,159
Speaker 1: arrive at the camp and he speaks to them in Spanish,

294
00:18:15,400 --> 00:18:18,480
Speaker 1: talks about how the camp works, offers them hot coffee.

295
00:18:18,920 --> 00:18:22,639
Speaker 1: And Andy is a retired educator from Vermont. He's a

296
00:18:22,640 --> 00:18:26,520
Speaker 1: former tennis pro. He's probably more than six feet tall.

297
00:18:26,560 --> 00:18:31,520
Speaker 1: He is very all American, and his van is next level.

298
00:18:32,400 --> 00:18:36,040
Speaker 4: This is like the most popular, you know, like RV

299
00:18:36,119 --> 00:18:38,280
Speaker 4: in America right now for folks. It's a it's a

300
00:18:38,320 --> 00:18:41,960
Speaker 4: Mercedes Sprinter and it's just souped up a little bit.

301
00:18:42,000 --> 00:18:44,800
Speaker 4: So it's scott It's got four wheel drives, you know,

302
00:18:44,880 --> 00:18:50,639
Speaker 4: solar panels across the roof from satellite. It's supermass right now.

303
00:18:50,640 --> 00:18:51,960
Speaker 4: But yeah, of course, I mean.

304
00:18:52,040 --> 00:18:55,560
Speaker 5: Yeah, Andy's van is the Wi Fi charging van, an

305
00:18:55,560 --> 00:18:59,160
Speaker 5: indispensable tool in this remote camp where there is little

306
00:18:59,160 --> 00:19:03,360
Speaker 5: to no phone signs, no Wi Fi, no electricity. This

307
00:19:03,520 --> 00:19:05,920
Speaker 5: is where people can charge their phones and once they

308
00:19:05,920 --> 00:19:08,480
Speaker 5: are connected to Wi Fi, they can call their family

309
00:19:08,520 --> 00:19:11,399
Speaker 5: members who haven't heard from them in days. Sometimes weeks

310
00:19:11,760 --> 00:19:13,879
Speaker 5: and tell them that they've made it to the US.

311
00:19:16,240 --> 00:19:18,400
Speaker 4: There's a group last night, right before border patrol picked

312
00:19:18,400 --> 00:19:20,359
Speaker 4: them up, we were waiting. It was like nine thirty

313
00:19:20,400 --> 00:19:23,080
Speaker 4: and it's dark, dark, dark, you know, we got a

314
00:19:23,160 --> 00:19:25,760
Speaker 4: fire going, and the stars out here in the desert.

315
00:19:25,960 --> 00:19:27,919
Speaker 4: It looks like they drop down as the night, you know,

316
00:19:27,960 --> 00:19:30,240
Speaker 4: as it gets dark and darker, And we were just

317
00:19:30,280 --> 00:19:32,840
Speaker 4: talking about how this isn't this moment is such a

318
00:19:34,359 --> 00:19:37,359
Speaker 4: completely unique, like everything's changing for them in this moment,

319
00:19:37,480 --> 00:19:40,399
Speaker 4: like this night, waiting for border patrol to pick them up,

320
00:19:40,400 --> 00:19:43,159
Speaker 4: for this whole new experience that they have no idea

321
00:19:43,240 --> 00:19:44,600
Speaker 4: what's going to happen.

322
00:19:52,760 --> 00:19:55,800
Speaker 5: And the future looks different for folks. Some people could

323
00:19:55,800 --> 00:19:58,359
Speaker 5: go from the camp to a detention center, or they

324
00:19:58,359 --> 00:20:01,280
Speaker 5: could be deported quickly and you will petition asylum and

325
00:20:01,320 --> 00:20:03,800
Speaker 5: get released into the United States with a chord date

326
00:20:04,080 --> 00:20:07,040
Speaker 5: years from now, and others might not even get the

327
00:20:07,119 --> 00:20:10,679
Speaker 5: chance to ask for asylum anymore. After President Biden's recent

328
00:20:10,720 --> 00:20:14,480
Speaker 5: crackdown at the border, critics like the ACLU just sued

329
00:20:14,720 --> 00:20:18,320
Speaker 5: challenging Biden's new order to turn asylum seekers back once

330
00:20:18,359 --> 00:20:19,720
Speaker 5: they reach a certain number.

331
00:20:21,119 --> 00:20:24,080
Speaker 1: Last fiscal year, there was a sky high number of

332
00:20:24,119 --> 00:20:27,439
Speaker 1: what Border Patrol calls encounters with three point two million,

333
00:20:27,840 --> 00:20:30,359
Speaker 1: and twenty twenty four is on track to hit an

334
00:20:30,400 --> 00:20:35,800
Speaker 1: all time high. We're talking families, little kids, elderly folks

335
00:20:35,920 --> 00:20:40,080
Speaker 1: from all over the world, Central and South America, Africa, India,

336
00:20:40,240 --> 00:20:42,320
Speaker 1: families from Afghanistan.

337
00:20:43,000 --> 00:20:46,600
Speaker 5: And that's largely because of something that significantly changed at

338
00:20:46,600 --> 00:20:49,520
Speaker 5: the border a year ago.

339
00:20:48,760 --> 00:21:03,720
Speaker 1: And that's coming up after the break. Yes, welcome back

340
00:21:03,760 --> 00:21:06,720
Speaker 1: to Latino USA. I'm Marien no Josin.

341
00:21:06,600 --> 00:21:07,840
Speaker 5: And I'm Fernande Chari.

342
00:21:10,119 --> 00:21:14,200
Speaker 1: To understand the rise in large groups of people crossing

343
00:21:14,240 --> 00:21:17,800
Speaker 1: the border to turn themselves over to the border patrol

344
00:21:17,880 --> 00:21:20,560
Speaker 1: to petition asylum, we have to look at something that

345
00:21:20,640 --> 00:21:23,000
Speaker 1: happened a year ago, the.

346
00:21:22,960 --> 00:21:26,560
Speaker 5: End of a Trump era border closure policy known as

347
00:21:26,640 --> 00:21:27,640
Speaker 5: Title forty two.

348
00:21:28,320 --> 00:21:31,560
Speaker 2: The countdown is over and the next phase has begun.

349
00:21:31,720 --> 00:21:34,399
Speaker 9: Title forty two is now expired as of an hour ago.

350
00:21:34,840 --> 00:21:38,800
Speaker 1: Title forty two is an obscure health law. It was

351
00:21:38,920 --> 00:21:42,679
Speaker 1: first invoked by the Trump administration at the height of

352
00:21:42,760 --> 00:21:46,800
Speaker 1: the COVID pandemic in twenty twenty. Essentially, it closed the

353
00:21:46,880 --> 00:21:51,960
Speaker 1: border by turning people seeking asylum right back around without

354
00:21:52,119 --> 00:21:54,400
Speaker 1: giving them a proper asylum screening.

355
00:21:54,800 --> 00:21:56,480
Speaker 5: We closed the borders very early.

356
00:21:56,880 --> 00:21:58,000
Speaker 10: We made a great decision.

357
00:21:58,040 --> 00:22:00,280
Speaker 2: Took a lot of heat over that decision, but it

358
00:22:00,280 --> 00:22:02,200
Speaker 2: turned out to be the right decision.

359
00:22:02,400 --> 00:22:05,600
Speaker 5: And as the years went on, vaccines became available. Mandated

360
00:22:05,680 --> 00:22:09,960
Speaker 5: masking ended in Trump left office. Border agents continued using

361
00:22:10,000 --> 00:22:14,000
Speaker 5: it at the direction of now President Joe Biden, even

362
00:22:14,160 --> 00:22:17,239
Speaker 5: as he declared an end to the pandemic. Is the

363
00:22:17,240 --> 00:22:22,359
Speaker 5: pandemic over? The pandemic is over? President Biden declared the

364
00:22:22,400 --> 00:22:24,040
Speaker 5: coronavirus pandemic is over.

365
00:22:24,359 --> 00:22:29,560
Speaker 1: President Biden promised to end Title forty two. Instead, he

366
00:22:29,640 --> 00:22:32,760
Speaker 1: is now expanding restrictions on asylum seekers.

367
00:22:33,840 --> 00:22:36,399
Speaker 5: So much for a temporary policy that was supposed to

368
00:22:36,400 --> 00:22:37,360
Speaker 5: be about the pandemic.

369
00:22:37,440 --> 00:22:42,160
Speaker 2: Huh.

370
00:22:42,720 --> 00:22:46,280
Speaker 1: And here's the thing. The whole time this policy was

371
00:22:46,320 --> 00:22:49,560
Speaker 1: in place, hundreds of thousands of people from all of

372
00:22:49,680 --> 00:22:54,280
Speaker 1: the world stayed in Mexican border cities waiting.

373
00:22:55,000 --> 00:22:57,399
Speaker 5: So when the policy ends, that's when we start to

374
00:22:57,400 --> 00:23:01,040
Speaker 5: see large groups of women, children, families all crossing the

375
00:23:01,080 --> 00:23:03,720
Speaker 5: border wanting to turn themselves into the border patrol to

376
00:23:03,800 --> 00:23:06,640
Speaker 5: begin the asylum process that had been denied to them

377
00:23:06,680 --> 00:23:07,520
Speaker 5: for so many years.

378
00:23:07,920 --> 00:23:11,159
Speaker 11: The number of people crossing illegally into America. This past

379
00:23:11,240 --> 00:23:15,080
Speaker 11: year has been staggering, ten thousand a day last week.

380
00:23:15,400 --> 00:23:18,679
Speaker 11: It has been a record breaking year. And objectively, it

381
00:23:18,760 --> 00:23:21,600
Speaker 11: seems clear that the US government has lost any sense

382
00:23:21,640 --> 00:23:23,360
Speaker 11: of control in Mexico.

383
00:23:23,520 --> 00:23:26,959
Speaker 5: These groups have been managed, you could say, by smugglers

384
00:23:27,000 --> 00:23:30,359
Speaker 5: working for Mexican drug cartels and they started pushing large

385
00:23:30,400 --> 00:23:31,600
Speaker 5: groups through SASAB.

386
00:23:32,359 --> 00:23:36,320
Speaker 2: That's when we started seeing the hundreds and hundreds and

387
00:23:36,400 --> 00:23:40,240
Speaker 2: hundreds of people presented in our borders. But this is

388
00:23:40,359 --> 00:23:44,920
Speaker 2: people who were already a lot of it in Mexico.

389
00:23:45,359 --> 00:23:47,200
Speaker 2: So this is the consequences.

390
00:23:48,000 --> 00:23:52,639
Speaker 1: That's Dora Rodriguez once again, she's the humanitarian migrant rights

391
00:23:52,720 --> 00:23:54,560
Speaker 1: activist from southern Arizona.

392
00:23:55,240 --> 00:23:59,160
Speaker 2: It is millions of dollars being made by this bottleneck

393
00:23:59,480 --> 00:24:02,639
Speaker 2: they had had happened in Mexico due to the policies

394
00:24:02,840 --> 00:24:06,000
Speaker 2: they were created during the last administration.

395
00:24:06,960 --> 00:24:10,399
Speaker 5: Davizeo Sto, a security consultant in Mexico and expert in

396
00:24:10,480 --> 00:24:13,760
Speaker 5: drug cartels, says that the cartels take advantage of this.

397
00:24:14,160 --> 00:24:19,359
Speaker 12: That's political Mia Todias, the Staunidos, Sona Procellas and Balquiers

398
00:24:19,400 --> 00:24:21,919
Speaker 12: and Dillo Andicans.

399
00:24:22,119 --> 00:24:25,360
Speaker 5: They look at changes to US immigration policy, even if

400
00:24:25,400 --> 00:24:28,919
Speaker 5: the migrants themselves are completely unaware of any of it.

401
00:24:30,760 --> 00:24:33,560
Speaker 1: If we look back to the early two thousands, we

402
00:24:33,600 --> 00:24:38,080
Speaker 1: would see small, sometimes family run groups known as bojeros

403
00:24:38,320 --> 00:24:41,960
Speaker 1: or coyotes, and they would organize how and where people

404
00:24:42,000 --> 00:24:46,040
Speaker 1: could cross illegally into the US trying to go undetected.

405
00:24:46,600 --> 00:24:48,280
Speaker 12: Thenano neloso Muloo.

406
00:24:48,600 --> 00:24:51,320
Speaker 5: They had a lucrative business, but it was essentially a

407
00:24:51,359 --> 00:24:52,960
Speaker 5: family business.

408
00:24:53,040 --> 00:24:58,840
Speaker 12: Quera jevra a migrantes Meicanos or Central Americanos as cieros

409
00:24:58,840 --> 00:24:59,960
Speaker 12: andsca and Americano.

410
00:25:00,800 --> 00:25:04,639
Speaker 1: At the time, David says, the smugglers' clients were mostly

411
00:25:04,680 --> 00:25:09,840
Speaker 1: Mexican or Central American adults migrating for economic opportunities, and

412
00:25:09,960 --> 00:25:14,800
Speaker 1: about fifteen years ago the big Mexican drug cartels began

413
00:25:14,920 --> 00:25:17,960
Speaker 1: to take notice they could make a lot of money

414
00:25:18,160 --> 00:25:19,600
Speaker 1: trafficking people.

415
00:25:19,720 --> 00:25:22,040
Speaker 12: At primero reclutardos POJOs.

416
00:25:22,400 --> 00:25:26,959
Speaker 5: So first the cartels started recruiting those pojeros and coyotes.

417
00:25:26,480 --> 00:25:32,160
Speaker 12: Explicit pleados complete byandoe angeos based delocretivo Nelosia.

418
00:25:32,240 --> 00:25:36,240
Speaker 1: Only to displace them all together and take over the

419
00:25:36,400 --> 00:25:38,480
Speaker 1: business of smuggling migrants.

420
00:25:39,000 --> 00:25:41,840
Speaker 5: Plus David says, the cartels could make even more money

421
00:25:41,920 --> 00:25:45,760
Speaker 5: by kidnapping or extorting migrants along their journey at the

422
00:25:45,840 --> 00:25:47,680
Speaker 5: hands of their own cartel.

423
00:25:47,400 --> 00:25:52,200
Speaker 12: Members luchots, sons, fuestrados, prorominos cartels.

424
00:25:52,720 --> 00:25:56,760
Speaker 1: An extension of the realities of Mexican victims of crimes

425
00:25:57,040 --> 00:26:00,679
Speaker 1: at the hands of the ruthless cartels in Mexico making

426
00:26:00,920 --> 00:26:04,359
Speaker 1: now even more money off of migrants.

427
00:26:10,040 --> 00:26:12,960
Speaker 5: With that much money to be made, the territorial disputes

428
00:26:12,960 --> 00:26:15,280
Speaker 5: that we talked about that happened in October and November

429
00:26:15,320 --> 00:26:17,800
Speaker 5: and Sasabaw, Mexico when Dora was working at the library,

430
00:26:18,680 --> 00:26:21,400
Speaker 5: all of that heated up. That's also at the time

431
00:26:21,400 --> 00:26:23,920
Speaker 5: when the construction company had closed the gap in front

432
00:26:23,920 --> 00:26:24,359
Speaker 5: of the town.

433
00:26:25,000 --> 00:26:28,200
Speaker 1: Remember, two wings of the Sinadoua cartels started to fight

434
00:26:28,359 --> 00:26:33,040
Speaker 1: for territory to smuggle people, and that violence affected the

435
00:26:33,160 --> 00:26:37,520
Speaker 1: quiet border town, forcing locals now to seek refuge in

436
00:26:37,600 --> 00:26:38,119
Speaker 1: the US.

437
00:26:38,760 --> 00:26:41,880
Speaker 5: It was a turf war unlike anything sasab In Mexico

438
00:26:42,000 --> 00:26:44,520
Speaker 5: had ever seen. Many residents told.

439
00:26:44,440 --> 00:26:50,440
Speaker 2: Doras Ninos, we are going to die.

440
00:26:50,960 --> 00:26:56,880
Speaker 1: They're going to kill our children. So Dora says, hundreds

441
00:26:56,960 --> 00:26:59,520
Speaker 1: of residents ran to the border of entry on the

442
00:26:59,600 --> 00:27:04,080
Speaker 1: Mexican inside and begged Mexican customs officials to help them.

443
00:27:04,760 --> 00:27:07,920
Speaker 1: Many of the men ended up sleeping right there outside

444
00:27:08,080 --> 00:27:09,880
Speaker 1: of the Mexican border office.

445
00:27:11,000 --> 00:27:13,440
Speaker 2: This went by for almost a week and a half

446
00:27:13,920 --> 00:27:17,720
Speaker 2: and there was no one, no one shut up from

447
00:27:17,800 --> 00:27:21,680
Speaker 2: the Mexican government to protect these people. That own National

448
00:27:21,760 --> 00:27:24,200
Speaker 2: Guard that is right across the street from our own

449
00:27:25,040 --> 00:27:33,160
Speaker 2: resource center, shut their door and hide. And then November six,

450
00:27:35,320 --> 00:27:39,359
Speaker 2: a young man calls and says, Dorita, we cannot let

451
00:27:39,440 --> 00:27:43,480
Speaker 2: our people die here. We have to do something, and

452
00:27:43,640 --> 00:27:47,040
Speaker 2: I say, do whatever you want to save your family.

453
00:27:49,720 --> 00:27:52,280
Speaker 5: Dota drove to the border and saw that people had

454
00:27:52,320 --> 00:27:54,800
Speaker 5: cut a hole in the fence and were rushing through

455
00:27:56,000 --> 00:27:56,280
Speaker 5: with the.

456
00:27:56,400 --> 00:28:02,119
Speaker 2: Little ones in their arms, people in wheelchairs, women with

457
00:28:02,280 --> 00:28:06,520
Speaker 2: their walker, a man with a broken leg. That kind

458
00:28:06,600 --> 00:28:11,360
Speaker 2: of scenario, running all over like we're.

459
00:28:11,240 --> 00:28:16,000
Speaker 1: Out Artel violence has sent people living in the border

460
00:28:16,080 --> 00:28:19,440
Speaker 1: town of Sasabi, Sonora fleeing for their lives, crossing the

461
00:28:19,480 --> 00:28:21,679
Speaker 1: border into Arizona.

462
00:28:21,280 --> 00:28:24,160
Speaker 12: Seltoes Adado and d Sintos.

463
00:28:25,320 --> 00:28:30,400
Speaker 5: De Vido, a Frienta minto s Armados entregroupolys.

464
00:28:29,080 --> 00:28:32,680
Speaker 2: Caught in the crossfire. Residents then scrambled into the US.

465
00:28:33,760 --> 00:28:36,199
Speaker 2: It was crazy. It was something that you see in movies.

466
00:28:44,200 --> 00:28:47,200
Speaker 1: We asked Customs and Border Protection for comment on what

467
00:28:47,400 --> 00:28:51,200
Speaker 1: their agents saw at the official port of entry in Sasame,

468
00:28:51,680 --> 00:28:54,640
Speaker 1: and they sent us this written statement from the time

469
00:28:54,720 --> 00:28:58,680
Speaker 1: of the outbreak back in November. It says, quote, Customs

470
00:28:58,720 --> 00:29:03,440
Speaker 1: and Border Protection is aware of the recent violence in Sasabe, Sonora, Mexico.

471
00:29:04,040 --> 00:29:08,080
Speaker 1: Many residents of this town found haven at the Mexican

472
00:29:08,200 --> 00:29:15,040
Speaker 1: immigration authorities and Mexican customs until the violence subsided. Individuals

473
00:29:15,080 --> 00:29:18,160
Speaker 1: who presented themselves at the port of Sasabe Arizona were

474
00:29:18,240 --> 00:29:22,840
Speaker 1: evaluated on a case by case basis end quote.

475
00:29:23,400 --> 00:29:26,160
Speaker 5: We also asked officials with a Mexican government for comment,

476
00:29:26,280 --> 00:29:30,120
Speaker 5: but they did not respond. As the violence continued, Sasabe,

477
00:29:30,240 --> 00:29:31,800
Speaker 5: Mexico became a ghost town.

478
00:29:32,520 --> 00:29:36,560
Speaker 2: So this town is this place got to be from

479
00:29:36,640 --> 00:29:38,959
Speaker 2: twenty five hundred people to what fifteen now.

480
00:29:39,840 --> 00:29:44,560
Speaker 5: Endora had to make a difficult choice to close Casa Esperanza.

481
00:29:47,960 --> 00:29:52,720
Speaker 2: It was not likely. So this is what is really

482
00:29:53,000 --> 00:29:58,640
Speaker 2: harder personally, because I knew we were pretty much saving lives.

483
00:30:05,640 --> 00:30:08,360
Speaker 2: At least we had a center where we couldn't help them.

484
00:30:13,200 --> 00:30:17,000
Speaker 1: Dora hasn't crossed into Sasabe Mexico, a place that she

485
00:30:17,040 --> 00:30:20,080
Speaker 1: would go to several times a week. She hasn't been

486
00:30:20,160 --> 00:30:23,280
Speaker 1: back since the day that she closed Casade Esperanza Shelter

487
00:30:23,760 --> 00:30:24,320
Speaker 1: last fall.

488
00:30:25,120 --> 00:30:27,240
Speaker 2: My heart breaks, my heart hurts.

489
00:30:34,040 --> 00:30:38,600
Speaker 1: Now she's focused on helping residents of Sasabe, Mexico who

490
00:30:38,720 --> 00:30:42,920
Speaker 1: crossed into the United States during the crisis. Dora says

491
00:30:42,960 --> 00:30:45,040
Speaker 1: that some of them hope to stay in Tucson, but

492
00:30:45,520 --> 00:30:48,640
Speaker 1: others really want to go back to their homes, and

493
00:30:48,840 --> 00:30:50,040
Speaker 1: some already have.

494
00:30:53,960 --> 00:30:55,720
Speaker 5: During our visit to the US side of the border

495
00:30:55,880 --> 00:30:59,160
Speaker 5: in Sasabe Arizona, we hadn't planned on crossing into Sasabe,

496
00:30:59,320 --> 00:31:02,640
Speaker 5: Mexico because of this violence. But when Gail Coserek, a

497
00:31:02,720 --> 00:31:05,640
Speaker 5: volunteer with the Samaritans and Tucson, tells us that she's

498
00:31:05,680 --> 00:31:07,720
Speaker 5: going to cross just feet from the port of entry,

499
00:31:08,080 --> 00:31:10,280
Speaker 5: we decide to cross with her for a few minutes

500
00:31:10,440 --> 00:31:12,400
Speaker 5: in the cold and windy, pouring rain.

501
00:31:15,680 --> 00:31:18,480
Speaker 6: Okay, let's come over here with the bag.

502
00:31:19,480 --> 00:31:23,520
Speaker 1: Gail is crossing to bring food to the abandoned dogs

503
00:31:24,000 --> 00:31:26,880
Speaker 1: that the Sasabe residents had to leave behind in November

504
00:31:27,240 --> 00:31:29,520
Speaker 1: when they were running north to save their lives.

505
00:31:30,120 --> 00:31:32,920
Speaker 6: You see, there's some doggoes there right now. Go so're

506
00:31:32,960 --> 00:31:35,760
Speaker 6: you're so happy when they see us, they're gonna go on.

507
00:31:35,880 --> 00:31:36,360
Speaker 11: He comes that.

508
00:31:36,520 --> 00:31:43,000
Speaker 1: Lady Gail is super energetic, super fierce. She also used

509
00:31:43,000 --> 00:31:47,120
Speaker 1: to run Casade l'esperanzada's shelter with Dora, but unlike Dora,

510
00:31:47,480 --> 00:31:51,120
Speaker 1: Gail has been crossing at least once a week back

511
00:31:51,240 --> 00:31:56,280
Speaker 1: into Sasabe with her fifty pound bags of dog kibble.

512
00:31:56,400 --> 00:31:58,640
Speaker 6: And look what happens when you bring the food. They

513
00:31:58,760 --> 00:32:01,959
Speaker 6: know when they saw the car, those dogs came car

514
00:32:02,080 --> 00:32:03,280
Speaker 6: crazy running over here.

515
00:32:04,120 --> 00:32:07,280
Speaker 5: Oh my goodness, there's so many of you. They're about

516
00:32:07,440 --> 00:32:10,920
Speaker 5: fifteen dogs that run straight to Gale once they hear

517
00:32:11,000 --> 00:32:13,640
Speaker 5: her calling them and shaking the bag of food. It's

518
00:32:13,680 --> 00:32:14,680
Speaker 5: a pretty wild sight.

519
00:32:15,120 --> 00:32:17,719
Speaker 6: And usually and Onceday, I bring food for people too,

520
00:32:18,440 --> 00:32:22,560
Speaker 6: so because food is very expensive here. There's no jobs

521
00:32:22,800 --> 00:32:25,280
Speaker 6: and it's really difficult for the people that have returned

522
00:32:25,360 --> 00:32:26,200
Speaker 6: to this community.

523
00:32:27,440 --> 00:32:31,480
Speaker 1: Not long after the dogs surround us, two women start

524
00:32:31,640 --> 00:32:32,840
Speaker 1: walking over to us.

525
00:32:35,800 --> 00:32:38,000
Speaker 5: One of them tells us that she and her family

526
00:32:38,240 --> 00:32:41,480
Speaker 5: left back when the locals fled in November, but came

527
00:32:41,520 --> 00:32:45,160
Speaker 5: back recently and looking around right now, she can still

528
00:32:45,280 --> 00:32:48,280
Speaker 5: remember the fear she had as she saw houses being

529
00:32:48,360 --> 00:32:51,600
Speaker 5: set on fire all around her. She adds that while

530
00:32:51,680 --> 00:32:55,000
Speaker 5: things have been much more calm, she's sad to see

531
00:32:55,000 --> 00:33:01,480
Speaker 5: her hometown become a ghost town. If you've been around

532
00:33:01,520 --> 00:33:04,080
Speaker 5: the borderlands long enough, you may have heard this expression

533
00:33:04,440 --> 00:33:08,600
Speaker 5: when the US Niezes Mexico catches a cold. That's because

534
00:33:08,640 --> 00:33:11,840
Speaker 5: the deep connection between the two countries is really palpable

535
00:33:11,920 --> 00:33:13,120
Speaker 5: here at the border.

536
00:33:13,320 --> 00:33:17,400
Speaker 1: And the cartel violence that ravaged Sasa Mexico since last

537
00:33:17,480 --> 00:33:21,680
Speaker 1: fall has not only affected the locals, it's put vigrants

538
00:33:21,760 --> 00:33:24,880
Speaker 1: and asylum seekers from all over the world right into

539
00:33:24,960 --> 00:33:25,719
Speaker 1: the crossfire.

540
00:33:31,880 --> 00:33:34,400
Speaker 5: That's Migel. We're not going to reveal his name or

541
00:33:34,480 --> 00:33:37,640
Speaker 5: exact age because he fears for his safety. Just know

542
00:33:37,800 --> 00:33:40,960
Speaker 5: that he's a young adult from southern Mexico and he

543
00:33:41,120 --> 00:33:44,320
Speaker 5: saw first hand the cartel violence that was happening at

544
00:33:44,360 --> 00:33:44,720
Speaker 5: the border.

545
00:33:45,400 --> 00:33:48,360
Speaker 1: Miel tells us that his uncle lived in Tucson and

546
00:33:48,480 --> 00:33:51,720
Speaker 1: had been working at a restaurant for many years. Miel

547
00:33:52,040 --> 00:33:54,880
Speaker 1: was in Mexico starting a family and he needed money,

548
00:33:55,120 --> 00:33:57,400
Speaker 1: so his uncle told him he would pay for smugglers

549
00:33:57,440 --> 00:33:59,560
Speaker 1: to get him across so he could make a living

550
00:34:00,040 --> 00:34:05,840
Speaker 1: by his house and start his new family. Miguel had

551
00:34:05,880 --> 00:34:08,880
Speaker 1: no idea what was going on. It was his uncle

552
00:34:09,000 --> 00:34:11,600
Speaker 1: who took care of everything. He paid the smugglers. He

553
00:34:11,719 --> 00:34:13,960
Speaker 1: left his home in Tucson in order to make that

554
00:34:14,200 --> 00:34:17,799
Speaker 1: trek north with his nephew. Miguel tells us that they

555
00:34:17,840 --> 00:34:21,520
Speaker 1: met up with coyotes who transported them mostly by bus,

556
00:34:21,680 --> 00:34:25,279
Speaker 1: from his town to right near the border, and their

557
00:34:25,400 --> 00:34:28,560
Speaker 1: journey of about fifteen hundred miles went pretty much okay,

558
00:34:28,760 --> 00:34:33,600
Speaker 1: Neel said, until they got to the Sasabe area in Mexico.

559
00:34:34,400 --> 00:34:39,759
Speaker 1: Remember this is just months after that gun battle crisis

560
00:34:40,120 --> 00:34:44,759
Speaker 1: that forced residents in Sasabe to escape their town, but

561
00:34:45,080 --> 00:34:55,360
Speaker 1: Miguel and his uncle didn't know anything about that. In

562
00:34:58,680 --> 00:35:02,160
Speaker 1: the darkness of night, Miguel and the group of about

563
00:35:02,200 --> 00:35:06,359
Speaker 1: twenty five people mostly from Central America were walking. They

564
00:35:06,400 --> 00:35:09,640
Speaker 1: were being led by a smuggler, and then out of nowhere,

565
00:35:10,080 --> 00:35:12,719
Speaker 1: they were suddenly surrounded by a group of men with

566
00:35:12,960 --> 00:35:14,680
Speaker 1: flashlights and guns.

567
00:35:16,719 --> 00:35:20,600
Speaker 5: Is He concimbian and the armed men asked the group

568
00:35:20,880 --> 00:35:21,720
Speaker 5: who they came.

569
00:35:21,600 --> 00:35:27,800
Speaker 9: With, paro comona contesto.

570
00:35:34,120 --> 00:35:36,560
Speaker 5: They wanted the name of the smuggler, but no one

571
00:35:36,640 --> 00:35:40,279
Speaker 5: in the group said anything, so the ambushing group told

572
00:35:40,360 --> 00:35:43,000
Speaker 5: all the men to run and began shooting at them,

573
00:35:43,280 --> 00:35:44,600
Speaker 5: separating the women and.

574
00:35:44,719 --> 00:35:49,799
Speaker 2: Children by is Mitio Grito Anto.

575
00:35:51,280 --> 00:35:55,720
Speaker 5: He says his uncle was shot in the leg. Miguel

576
00:35:55,800 --> 00:35:58,320
Speaker 5: took off his jacket, put it on his uncle and

577
00:35:58,480 --> 00:36:06,160
Speaker 5: hugged them marie Is. He laid on top of his

578
00:36:06,320 --> 00:36:09,840
Speaker 5: uncle and could hear gunshots, screams, and people running around.

579
00:36:13,080 --> 00:36:16,600
Speaker 5: His uncle told them to leave him behind. Gianano, I

580
00:36:16,719 --> 00:36:19,920
Speaker 5: can't take it. He told Miguel to take care of himself.

581
00:36:23,080 --> 00:36:25,839
Speaker 5: Five minutes later, he died in Miguel's arms.

582
00:36:37,160 --> 00:36:43,240
Speaker 4: Gundoo is the boys Lone Superman Premierceto.

583
00:36:44,960 --> 00:36:49,040
Speaker 1: Miel stayed with his uncle's body until dawn in the

584
00:36:49,120 --> 00:36:53,440
Speaker 1: desolate Mexican desert, all alone, and with the light of day,

585
00:36:53,480 --> 00:36:55,399
Speaker 1: he went up a hill and that's when he saw

586
00:36:55,480 --> 00:36:58,520
Speaker 1: the border wall and the United States right from where

587
00:36:58,520 --> 00:36:59,600
Speaker 1: he was standing.

588
00:37:01,680 --> 00:37:05,319
Speaker 5: Contra his feet covering blisters, Miguel walked by the dead

589
00:37:05,360 --> 00:37:08,480
Speaker 5: bodies of people in his group. He was too afraid

590
00:37:08,560 --> 00:37:11,719
Speaker 5: to go back. Once he got to the opening that

591
00:37:11,760 --> 00:37:14,439
Speaker 5: we've been describing throughout the episode where the thirty foot

592
00:37:14,480 --> 00:37:18,640
Speaker 5: wall just ends, he crossed and he kept walking. He

593
00:37:18,760 --> 00:37:20,920
Speaker 5: made it to the camp where the Samaritans were, but

594
00:37:21,040 --> 00:37:24,320
Speaker 5: he didn't stop. He needed to keep going, so he

595
00:37:24,440 --> 00:37:27,279
Speaker 5: kept walking until a Border patrol helicopter went by in

596
00:37:27,400 --> 00:37:31,720
Speaker 5: the desert and he signaled to it. And now Dora

597
00:37:31,920 --> 00:37:33,680
Speaker 5: is trying to help Miguel in Tucson.

598
00:37:34,239 --> 00:37:38,560
Speaker 2: He deserves protection because cap forbid if anyone finds out

599
00:37:38,760 --> 00:37:42,720
Speaker 2: that he was part of the murderer of them bush

600
00:37:42,880 --> 00:37:45,719
Speaker 2: that they did to these people, who knows if they're

601
00:37:45,719 --> 00:37:46,759
Speaker 2: gonna come after him.

602
00:37:49,840 --> 00:37:54,360
Speaker 1: Even though at first Miguel was an economic migrant, Dora says,

603
00:37:54,880 --> 00:37:58,600
Speaker 1: now he's the victim of organized crime and he fears

604
00:37:58,680 --> 00:38:01,000
Speaker 1: for his life if he were to be sent back

605
00:38:01,040 --> 00:38:05,840
Speaker 1: to Mexico. So he's asking for asylum and Dora is

606
00:38:05,960 --> 00:38:07,600
Speaker 1: helping his case in Tucson.

607
00:38:08,400 --> 00:38:12,200
Speaker 2: Miguel is real his uncle died at this moment, I

608
00:38:12,239 --> 00:38:15,160
Speaker 2: don't know how I gonna help Miel to get to

609
00:38:15,320 --> 00:38:18,560
Speaker 2: find his his uncle, to at least give him a

610
00:38:18,719 --> 00:38:22,000
Speaker 2: discant death, a dient' grave.

611
00:38:23,640 --> 00:38:27,319
Speaker 1: Hearing me get describe what he experienced, it's really clear

612
00:38:27,719 --> 00:38:31,920
Speaker 1: that he is still in shock and attempting to process

613
00:38:32,120 --> 00:38:39,160
Speaker 1: the traumado. He's met with a psychologist and had therapy

614
00:38:39,400 --> 00:38:46,960
Speaker 1: for the first time. Medikomel trying to help him calm

615
00:38:47,120 --> 00:38:49,239
Speaker 1: his nerves and control his fear.

616
00:38:50,120 --> 00:38:54,799
Speaker 2: The people who is coming north seeking asylum or migrating,

617
00:38:55,640 --> 00:38:58,040
Speaker 2: they are coming into a war zone that they don't

618
00:38:58,120 --> 00:39:03,239
Speaker 2: even know. They are trapped too, because these groups are

619
00:39:03,320 --> 00:39:06,920
Speaker 2: not telling them, hey, we're fighting for this area. They're not.

620
00:39:07,680 --> 00:39:08,520
Speaker 2: They want their money.

621
00:39:10,600 --> 00:39:10,880
Speaker 7: Money.

622
00:39:11,400 --> 00:39:14,280
Speaker 5: Like most things, this is all about money.

623
00:39:16,840 --> 00:39:43,320
Speaker 1: That's coming up after the break. Yes, welcome back to Latino, USA.

624
00:39:43,640 --> 00:39:45,400
Speaker 1: I'm Maria in Jssan and.

625
00:39:45,480 --> 00:39:49,239
Speaker 5: I'm Fernande Charvari. That cold rainy morning in March at

626
00:39:49,280 --> 00:39:52,160
Speaker 5: the humanitarian camp on the US side of the Sasavi border,

627
00:39:52,960 --> 00:39:55,359
Speaker 5: just as the rain started to pick up, we saw

628
00:39:55,480 --> 00:39:59,160
Speaker 5: two young looking men walking up. Gail, the fears and

629
00:39:59,200 --> 00:40:01,720
Speaker 5: Bubbaly dog of her who crosses to feed the dogs

630
00:40:01,719 --> 00:40:04,440
Speaker 5: in Mexico once a week, had just driven the two

631
00:40:04,520 --> 00:40:06,400
Speaker 5: men here from a few miles away.

632
00:40:06,960 --> 00:40:08,520
Speaker 6: We went to the end of the wall. We turned

633
00:40:08,520 --> 00:40:10,600
Speaker 6: around and came back and I said, oh my gosh,

634
00:40:10,640 --> 00:40:13,640
Speaker 6: there's two men sitting there and they were praying.

635
00:40:14,640 --> 00:40:16,719
Speaker 5: So Gail turned to the other volunteer that was in

636
00:40:16,800 --> 00:40:19,719
Speaker 5: the car with her and said, it's pouring We're not

637
00:40:19,840 --> 00:40:23,200
Speaker 5: leaving these people here. The men were so deep in

638
00:40:23,280 --> 00:40:26,319
Speaker 5: prayer and relieved to have entered the US that they

639
00:40:26,360 --> 00:40:28,680
Speaker 5: didn't even look back at Gail as she drove up

640
00:40:28,719 --> 00:40:32,400
Speaker 5: to them. The men were Angel and Emanuel. They had

641
00:40:32,520 --> 00:40:35,400
Speaker 5: both left their homes in Guatemala six weeks earlier.

642
00:40:35,880 --> 00:40:39,320
Speaker 2: Yeahs pi entrants still only.

643
00:40:43,040 --> 00:40:45,040
Speaker 5: They didn't know each other, but met along the way,

644
00:40:45,480 --> 00:40:46,760
Speaker 5: and they'd become like brothers.

645
00:40:47,160 --> 00:40:55,640
Speaker 1: Gonzo, they are looking so exhausted. They tell us that

646
00:40:55,760 --> 00:40:58,680
Speaker 1: once they got closer to the border, they didn't join

647
00:40:58,880 --> 00:41:02,120
Speaker 1: any large group led by any smuggler, which is not

648
00:41:02,280 --> 00:41:06,520
Speaker 1: the norm these days. Instead, they quietly followed a group

649
00:41:06,719 --> 00:41:12,239
Speaker 1: from a distance and hid behind them and almost handed

650
00:41:12,320 --> 00:41:17,840
Speaker 1: when the almost chaos the way. Say they waited until

651
00:41:18,160 --> 00:41:21,200
Speaker 1: just this morning to cross, and they did it by

652
00:41:21,320 --> 00:41:26,000
Speaker 1: simply going around the waist high vehicle barriers where the

653
00:41:26,120 --> 00:41:31,440
Speaker 1: thirty foot wall just ends. When we ask them who

654
00:41:31,600 --> 00:41:34,719
Speaker 1: they left behind back at home, they both break down,

655
00:41:34,840 --> 00:41:39,120
Speaker 1: talking about their families, their young children, and then Anghil

656
00:41:39,200 --> 00:41:41,719
Speaker 1: starts weeping uncontrollably.

657
00:41:43,280 --> 00:41:55,279
Speaker 2: From so was your that?

658
00:41:57,440 --> 00:41:59,719
Speaker 5: A handful of the Samaritans who are there bring over

659
00:41:59,840 --> 00:42:02,840
Speaker 5: one blankets and hot coffee. They welcome the men to

660
00:42:02,920 --> 00:42:07,239
Speaker 5: the camp, offer hugs, sports of encouragement, a laugh, and

661
00:42:07,360 --> 00:42:09,799
Speaker 5: of course a charger for their phones and Wi Fi

662
00:42:09,960 --> 00:42:12,040
Speaker 5: to connect with family members who hadn't heard from them

663
00:42:12,080 --> 00:42:12,520
Speaker 5: in days.

664
00:42:18,080 --> 00:42:20,840
Speaker 1: The plan, as it usually goes, is to wait for

665
00:42:20,920 --> 00:42:23,520
Speaker 1: border patrol to come by and check if anyone needs

666
00:42:23,560 --> 00:42:26,600
Speaker 1: to be picked up from the camp. Whether or not

667
00:42:26,800 --> 00:42:30,920
Speaker 1: Anghil and Emanuel have an asylum claim, that's unknown, and

668
00:42:31,040 --> 00:42:34,439
Speaker 1: that's up to US asylum officials. But for now they're

669
00:42:34,480 --> 00:42:36,839
Speaker 1: going to wait to be picked up, processed by border

670
00:42:36,880 --> 00:42:41,160
Speaker 1: patrol and either get deported immediately or open an asylum

671
00:42:41,280 --> 00:42:42,680
Speaker 1: case and remain in the US.

672
00:42:43,640 --> 00:42:46,360
Speaker 5: Not far from where akilen Emanuel we're sitting trying to

673
00:42:46,400 --> 00:42:49,359
Speaker 5: stay warm and dry off, there is a metal sign.

674
00:42:49,800 --> 00:42:53,200
Speaker 3: Well, this is a news sign. Oh yes, wow.

675
00:42:56,880 --> 00:43:00,400
Speaker 7: Transportation of undocumented non citizens is a federal crime.

676
00:43:01,320 --> 00:43:05,719
Speaker 1: These new signs are posted near the border wall, and

677
00:43:05,840 --> 00:43:09,759
Speaker 1: Debbie believes that they're posted in direct response to the

678
00:43:09,840 --> 00:43:14,799
Speaker 1: humanitarian workers who are driving people to this tent camp.

679
00:43:15,400 --> 00:43:19,880
Speaker 7: These people are seeking asylum. We believe that that is

680
00:43:20,640 --> 00:43:23,799
Speaker 7: not a crime. To help them get to the authorities.

681
00:43:25,320 --> 00:43:29,080
Speaker 6: I don't care what they're signs say, it's not against

682
00:43:29,120 --> 00:43:29,640
Speaker 6: the law.

683
00:43:30,160 --> 00:43:33,080
Speaker 1: The way she sees it. She drives people along the

684
00:43:33,200 --> 00:43:36,760
Speaker 1: wall to the camp for shelter, but she doesn't transport

685
00:43:36,840 --> 00:43:38,360
Speaker 1: anyone into the country.

686
00:43:38,840 --> 00:43:42,160
Speaker 6: We aren't in furthering anything by making a lateral move

687
00:43:42,760 --> 00:43:45,200
Speaker 6: to a camp or a Border Patole comes.

688
00:43:45,000 --> 00:43:45,560
Speaker 5: To pick them up.

689
00:43:46,080 --> 00:43:49,200
Speaker 1: And it's not just Gael. The Samaritans do use their

690
00:43:49,280 --> 00:43:51,719
Speaker 1: vehicles to bring people to the camp sometimes as well.

691
00:43:52,560 --> 00:43:55,880
Speaker 7: If we need to move them from these extremely remote

692
00:43:55,920 --> 00:43:59,520
Speaker 7: areas where there's no way to contact Border Patrol, or

693
00:44:00,040 --> 00:44:03,160
Speaker 7: they're in medical distress a pregnant woman in labor, for example,

694
00:44:03,760 --> 00:44:08,880
Speaker 7: we have a protocol to call nine one one. Sometimes

695
00:44:08,960 --> 00:44:12,200
Speaker 7: we can't get cell reception. We'll move them to where

696
00:44:12,200 --> 00:44:14,960
Speaker 7: it's an ambulance can get to them, but.

697
00:44:15,040 --> 00:44:16,279
Speaker 1: You have to call it nine one one and let

698
00:44:16,320 --> 00:44:17,840
Speaker 1: them know you're doing it so it's on record.

699
00:44:18,080 --> 00:44:21,800
Speaker 5: Yes, we heard from the Samaritans and other volunteers that

700
00:44:21,920 --> 00:44:25,239
Speaker 5: there's a relatively good open communication line between them and

701
00:44:25,360 --> 00:44:28,520
Speaker 5: many Border Patrol agents in the area right now, and

702
00:44:28,640 --> 00:44:30,400
Speaker 5: we saw that during one of our visits to the

703
00:44:30,480 --> 00:44:33,760
Speaker 5: camp when we spoke with Border Patrol Supervisor.

704
00:44:33,280 --> 00:44:34,160
Speaker 2: Marlon la Yugen.

705
00:44:35,120 --> 00:44:35,560
Speaker 11: I want.

706
00:44:37,760 --> 00:44:40,680
Speaker 5: No Key and his team stopped by the camp to

707
00:44:40,760 --> 00:44:48,319
Speaker 5: take a man into custody. He asks the man if

708
00:44:48,320 --> 00:44:50,879
Speaker 5: he's hurt or if he needs medical attention. The man

709
00:44:50,920 --> 00:44:54,080
Speaker 5: says no. Then he asks them if he has any weapons.

710
00:44:54,360 --> 00:44:57,319
Speaker 5: You know, Adamas, I'll go commit with us a na

711
00:45:00,040 --> 00:45:02,600
Speaker 5: and lightens the mood by following up with I'll go

712
00:45:03,560 --> 00:45:06,879
Speaker 5: bobas atomicas do you have an atomic bomb?

713
00:45:07,920 --> 00:45:10,400
Speaker 1: The man is in his sixties and he says that

714
00:45:10,520 --> 00:45:12,840
Speaker 1: he had worked in a ranch for decades in a

715
00:45:12,960 --> 00:45:17,400
Speaker 1: nearby town close to Sasabe, but with the spike in violence,

716
00:45:17,760 --> 00:45:21,280
Speaker 1: cartels burned down the ranch where he worked. They killed

717
00:45:21,400 --> 00:45:24,840
Speaker 1: anyone who was inside. So he ran away with nothing

718
00:45:25,080 --> 00:45:28,440
Speaker 1: but his backpack, and now he liked to get protection

719
00:45:28,640 --> 00:45:29,600
Speaker 1: in the United States.

720
00:45:30,120 --> 00:45:31,560
Speaker 5: What the Borbi show does is we have to know

721
00:45:31,719 --> 00:45:32,879
Speaker 5: who he is first, right.

722
00:45:34,280 --> 00:45:37,960
Speaker 3: They've after we run records, then we're able to make

723
00:45:38,000 --> 00:45:40,680
Speaker 3: a determination as to whether the guy has to see

724
00:45:40,719 --> 00:45:44,160
Speaker 3: the judge or for like a criminal prosecution, or.

725
00:45:44,200 --> 00:45:48,240
Speaker 5: If if he claims asylum, that's a whole nother pathway.

726
00:45:48,680 --> 00:45:51,880
Speaker 5: So today he says, this is a slow day, but

727
00:45:52,000 --> 00:45:54,239
Speaker 5: in his experience, that could suddenly change.

728
00:45:54,600 --> 00:45:57,600
Speaker 4: We'll have nothing, and then suddenly there's one hundred and

729
00:45:57,640 --> 00:45:59,960
Speaker 4: fifty people here, and you know these guys are helping

730
00:46:00,360 --> 00:46:01,800
Speaker 4: you just get overwhelmed very quickly.

731
00:46:01,880 --> 00:46:02,040
Speaker 2: You know.

732
00:46:05,400 --> 00:46:08,320
Speaker 1: In recent months, the Tucson sector has been the busiest

733
00:46:08,560 --> 00:46:12,560
Speaker 1: or one of the busiest nationwide. The sector covers most

734
00:46:12,680 --> 00:46:16,520
Speaker 1: of the Arizona border, spanning across two hundred and sixty miles,

735
00:46:16,960 --> 00:46:19,440
Speaker 1: with more than thirty five hundred agents assigned to it.

736
00:46:19,800 --> 00:46:22,600
Speaker 1: Now here are some statistics. Encounters here at the Tucson

737
00:46:22,719 --> 00:46:25,440
Speaker 1: sector have gone up one hundred and forty percent in

738
00:46:25,520 --> 00:46:27,120
Speaker 1: the fiscal year of twenty twenty four.

739
00:46:28,120 --> 00:46:31,279
Speaker 9: Crossing the US Mexico border has climbed and it has

740
00:46:31,440 --> 00:46:34,680
Speaker 9: only continued to climb, and it is now pushing border

741
00:46:34,760 --> 00:46:37,880
Speaker 9: towns to their limit. One of the busiest spots is

742
00:46:38,080 --> 00:46:39,319
Speaker 9: right here in Arizona.

743
00:46:42,000 --> 00:46:46,560
Speaker 1: At this very camp, volunteers have helped groups of fifty

744
00:46:46,920 --> 00:46:51,200
Speaker 1: one hundred sometimes even more smugglers guide them to the

745
00:46:51,480 --> 00:46:54,480
Speaker 1: end of the wall and then tell them to cross.

746
00:46:55,040 --> 00:46:59,560
Speaker 5: People from Africa, India, Haiti, Venezuela who have no idea

747
00:46:59,719 --> 00:47:02,080
Speaker 5: that it will take them hours to walk the ten

748
00:47:02,200 --> 00:47:05,080
Speaker 5: miles up and down those steep hills to get to

749
00:47:05,160 --> 00:47:08,520
Speaker 5: the nearest border patrol station. So they are relieved when

750
00:47:08,560 --> 00:47:10,560
Speaker 5: they get to the camp and they can catch a break.

751
00:47:11,120 --> 00:47:14,560
Speaker 1: We spoke with US Customs and Border Protection multiple times

752
00:47:14,800 --> 00:47:17,839
Speaker 1: to get an interview scheduled, but in the end they

753
00:47:17,920 --> 00:47:20,840
Speaker 1: said they could not accommodate our request.

754
00:47:21,600 --> 00:47:24,560
Speaker 5: So we then send them specific questions related to the story,

755
00:47:24,920 --> 00:47:27,279
Speaker 5: and they sent an email with only this answer on

756
00:47:27,400 --> 00:47:32,520
Speaker 5: the record. Quote. CBP remains vigilant to continually shifting migration

757
00:47:32,719 --> 00:47:36,800
Speaker 5: patterns and will continue to adjust operations as necessary. CBP

758
00:47:37,000 --> 00:47:40,200
Speaker 5: continues to work with our partners throughout the hemisphere, including

759
00:47:40,239 --> 00:47:43,160
Speaker 5: the government of Mexico and around the world, to disrupt

760
00:47:43,280 --> 00:47:47,040
Speaker 5: the criminal organizations and transportation networks who take advantage of

761
00:47:47,400 --> 00:47:49,240
Speaker 5: in profit from vulnerable migrants.

762
00:47:49,680 --> 00:47:50,160
Speaker 6: End quote.

763
00:47:54,840 --> 00:47:57,680
Speaker 5: Standing here in the barren desert, it's hard not to

764
00:47:57,760 --> 00:48:00,120
Speaker 5: think about how politicized this area will be in the

765
00:48:00,160 --> 00:48:02,839
Speaker 5: coming months leading up to the election. And as we're

766
00:48:02,920 --> 00:48:05,560
Speaker 5: leaving the camp, we run into someone who knows about

767
00:48:05,640 --> 00:48:09,440
Speaker 5: that all too well, rancher Jim Chilton, one of the

768
00:48:09,520 --> 00:48:13,040
Speaker 5: most prominent voices in the area. Back in twenty sixteen,

769
00:48:13,080 --> 00:48:16,360
Speaker 5: when Trump promised to expand the border wall, Chilton was

770
00:48:16,600 --> 00:48:20,279
Speaker 5: quote elated. He's a fifth generation ranter in his mid

771
00:48:20,400 --> 00:48:22,560
Speaker 5: eighties whose property touches the border.

772
00:48:23,040 --> 00:48:27,400
Speaker 10: I have five and a half miles of the international boundary.

773
00:48:28,000 --> 00:48:31,480
Speaker 1: Over the last twenty years, Chilton has testified in Congress

774
00:48:31,719 --> 00:48:35,439
Speaker 1: multiple times regarding the politics and policies of the US

775
00:48:35,520 --> 00:48:39,160
Speaker 1: Mexico border. He's been an avid supporter of the border

776
00:48:39,280 --> 00:48:41,920
Speaker 1: wall and at times of Trump.

777
00:48:42,200 --> 00:48:45,040
Speaker 5: But he has also seen the shift in demographics at

778
00:48:45,080 --> 00:48:48,239
Speaker 5: the border from the Mexican single men crossing trying to

779
00:48:48,360 --> 00:48:52,760
Speaker 5: evade the authorities, to the multinational families seeking asylum.

780
00:48:53,320 --> 00:48:57,680
Speaker 10: I have twenty four wells thirteen and a half miles

781
00:48:57,719 --> 00:49:02,000
Speaker 10: of pipeline, and they go to water troughs for my

782
00:49:02,200 --> 00:49:06,120
Speaker 10: cattle to drink, and I put fountains on them so

783
00:49:06,880 --> 00:49:10,600
Speaker 10: people can come along and get a drink their water,

784
00:49:10,719 --> 00:49:13,640
Speaker 10: and fill up their water bottle and go on. Since

785
00:49:13,719 --> 00:49:16,880
Speaker 10: I've been on this ranch, over thirty five people have

786
00:49:17,000 --> 00:49:20,359
Speaker 10: died on the ranch. It's just horrible. I don't care

787
00:49:20,400 --> 00:49:26,800
Speaker 10: whether they're drug packers whom I really dislike, or just

788
00:49:27,840 --> 00:49:32,040
Speaker 10: immigrants coming through. No one needs to die. No one

789
00:49:32,160 --> 00:49:33,720
Speaker 10: needs to die on my ranch.

790
00:49:34,840 --> 00:49:39,200
Speaker 1: According to a recent NPR PBS Maris poll, almost forty

791
00:49:39,320 --> 00:49:43,640
Speaker 1: percent of Republicans and twenty percent of independence say immigration

792
00:49:44,000 --> 00:49:47,880
Speaker 1: is the number one issue in the upcoming election, and

793
00:49:48,120 --> 00:49:51,760
Speaker 1: like in previous elections. Chiltern will be talking to anyone

794
00:49:52,040 --> 00:49:52,719
Speaker 1: who will listen.

795
00:49:54,320 --> 00:49:54,480
Speaker 2: WELLO.

796
00:49:54,640 --> 00:49:59,880
Speaker 10: Some people call it an invasion. All I know is

797
00:50:00,160 --> 00:50:04,960
Speaker 10: is a large, huge number every day come across the

798
00:50:05,960 --> 00:50:09,040
Speaker 10: end of the wall which is on my ranch and

799
00:50:10,400 --> 00:50:16,279
Speaker 10: come walking down towards Sassaby in the border patrol. They

800
00:50:16,360 --> 00:50:20,479
Speaker 10: want to be apprehended. The ones I'm concerned about coming

801
00:50:20,600 --> 00:50:26,960
Speaker 10: through my ranch are walking north in camouflage, and many

802
00:50:27,000 --> 00:50:28,280
Speaker 10: of them are packing drugs.

803
00:50:29,000 --> 00:50:31,680
Speaker 5: Recently or a couple of years ago.

804
00:50:31,880 --> 00:50:33,120
Speaker 10: A couple of years ago.

805
00:50:34,160 --> 00:50:37,239
Speaker 5: I asked Chiltern about the shift in recent years now

806
00:50:37,320 --> 00:50:40,080
Speaker 5: that it's mostly asylum seekers who are looking for a

807
00:50:40,120 --> 00:50:42,480
Speaker 5: border patrol rather than evading them.

808
00:50:43,160 --> 00:50:46,680
Speaker 10: Yes, the two different types, and so the cartels have

809
00:50:46,840 --> 00:50:52,360
Speaker 10: shifted people this way. One time I came along this

810
00:50:52,560 --> 00:50:55,799
Speaker 10: road and saw two hundred and five people. I counted them.

811
00:50:56,560 --> 00:50:59,359
Speaker 10: I've heard that as many as four hundred people would

812
00:50:59,400 --> 00:51:07,080
Speaker 10: walk in a day. The Samaritans, the humanitarian Humane Borders

813
00:51:07,120 --> 00:51:12,759
Speaker 10: people help them and it's really nice. It's very significant

814
00:51:13,640 --> 00:51:14,440
Speaker 10: and wonderful.

815
00:51:17,000 --> 00:51:18,760
Speaker 5: There's a lot that can be said about the border,

816
00:51:19,160 --> 00:51:23,080
Speaker 5: good and bad, terrifying and hopeful and at the risk

817
00:51:23,160 --> 00:51:26,080
Speaker 5: of sounding super cheesy, the more time we spent with

818
00:51:26,160 --> 00:51:29,720
Speaker 5: the Samaritans. Honestly, the more we saw these kind hearted

819
00:51:29,760 --> 00:51:33,080
Speaker 5: folks as beacons of light in oblique situation.

820
00:51:33,520 --> 00:51:37,360
Speaker 1: Especially Dora, who you've been hearing from throughout our episode,

821
00:51:37,960 --> 00:51:41,280
Speaker 1: and she also has a message to anyone hearing about

822
00:51:41,360 --> 00:51:43,960
Speaker 1: a so called invasion at the border.

823
00:51:44,719 --> 00:51:47,640
Speaker 2: I really want people to understand that it's a very

824
00:51:48,080 --> 00:51:58,120
Speaker 2: very dangerous war. To use words make a difference. They're

825
00:51:58,239 --> 00:52:03,040
Speaker 2: not going into our community is illegally. There are processed,

826
00:52:03,160 --> 00:52:06,080
Speaker 2: they have a paper in their hands. They allow them

827
00:52:06,160 --> 00:52:10,759
Speaker 2: to be here with documents. You know there is no invasion.

828
00:52:12,160 --> 00:52:14,920
Speaker 1: In the last couple of months, the number of people

829
00:52:15,080 --> 00:52:17,880
Speaker 1: that the border Patrol has taken into custody have in

830
00:52:18,040 --> 00:52:22,120
Speaker 1: fact decreased, not just in Arizona, but across the US

831
00:52:22,200 --> 00:52:22,920
Speaker 1: Mexico border.

832
00:52:23,360 --> 00:52:25,719
Speaker 5: And there are many factors that contribute to the number

833
00:52:25,760 --> 00:52:28,200
Speaker 5: of people coming across the border at any given time.

834
00:52:29,080 --> 00:52:31,920
Speaker 5: You have Mexico's own ebbs and flows of how it

835
00:52:32,040 --> 00:52:34,800
Speaker 5: works as an extension of the wall by stopping or

836
00:52:34,880 --> 00:52:38,200
Speaker 5: detaining non Mexican migrants along the journey. You have the

837
00:52:38,280 --> 00:52:41,920
Speaker 5: smuggling tactics and patterns at the hands of cartels, spikes

838
00:52:41,960 --> 00:52:44,880
Speaker 5: and violence in Mexican border towns like what happened in Sasab.

839
00:52:45,640 --> 00:52:49,200
Speaker 5: There's also natural disasters in certain countries, changes in political

840
00:52:49,239 --> 00:52:53,479
Speaker 5: stability and others, and of course changes in policy coming

841
00:52:53,600 --> 00:52:54,680
Speaker 5: out of the White.

842
00:52:54,480 --> 00:53:03,239
Speaker 2: House, Washington, seeous way out there making these decisions. These

843
00:53:03,400 --> 00:53:07,880
Speaker 2: policies are signed in the morning and the night and afternoon.

844
00:53:08,080 --> 00:53:10,960
Speaker 2: We already had the effects of those policies and our borderline.

845
00:53:13,760 --> 00:53:17,120
Speaker 2: We have those people who already are either not allowed

846
00:53:17,200 --> 00:53:19,560
Speaker 2: to cross in that area, who are going to be

847
00:53:19,680 --> 00:53:23,400
Speaker 2: processed differently, who are going to be pushed to the

848
00:53:23,520 --> 00:53:27,960
Speaker 2: most remote areas to cross and die, or who have

849
00:53:28,120 --> 00:53:31,440
Speaker 2: to pay thousands and thousands of dollars to this organized

850
00:53:31,520 --> 00:53:35,520
Speaker 2: crime in order to seek protection. It is not okay.

851
00:53:40,280 --> 00:53:44,680
Speaker 1: As political ads saturate our media consumption in a presidential

852
00:53:44,760 --> 00:53:48,640
Speaker 1: election year, it might be tough to separate the politics

853
00:53:48,960 --> 00:53:52,320
Speaker 1: from the day to day at the border and here.

854
00:53:52,400 --> 00:53:54,919
Speaker 5: In this barren patch of desert where a thirty foot

855
00:53:55,000 --> 00:53:58,440
Speaker 5: border wall just ends. The realities of what happens to

856
00:53:58,560 --> 00:54:01,320
Speaker 5: the community south of that world and the thousands of

857
00:54:01,360 --> 00:54:03,560
Speaker 5: people from all over the world who make it past

858
00:54:03,680 --> 00:54:07,919
Speaker 5: that wall are not abstract. They're not politics. They're real

859
00:54:08,960 --> 00:54:12,160
Speaker 5: and there's sometimes a matter of life and death.

860
00:54:55,760 --> 00:54:59,440
Speaker 1: This episode was reported and produced by Finnanda Chavarri and

861
00:54:59,640 --> 00:55:03,239
Speaker 1: My It was edited by Benni le Ramides. The sound

862
00:55:03,320 --> 00:55:06,960
Speaker 1: design is by Jacob Rosati. It was mixed by Stephanie

863
00:55:07,040 --> 00:55:10,960
Speaker 1: Lebau and Julia Caruso. Fact checking for this episode by

864
00:55:11,239 --> 00:55:16,760
Speaker 1: Roxana Guire. The Latino USA team includes Victoria Estrada, Jessica Ellis,

865
00:55:16,840 --> 00:55:21,840
Speaker 1: Renaldo Leanos Junior, Andrea Lopez Cruzado, Dorori mar Marquez, Marta Martinez,

866
00:55:21,920 --> 00:55:25,840
Speaker 1: Mike Sargent, Nor Saudi and Nancy Trujillo. Bennile ramidz Is

867
00:55:25,880 --> 00:55:29,800
Speaker 1: our co executive producer. Our marketing manager is Luis Luna.

868
00:55:29,880 --> 00:55:32,880
Speaker 1: Our theme music was composed by Sea Ruinos. I'm your

869
00:55:32,920 --> 00:55:36,000
Speaker 1: host and co executive producer Maria noo Posa. Remember join

870
00:55:36,080 --> 00:55:37,719
Speaker 1: us on our next episode. In the meantime, look for

871
00:55:37,840 --> 00:55:39,400
Speaker 1: us on all of your social media. I'll see you

872
00:55:39,480 --> 00:55:42,120
Speaker 1: on Instagram, where I have a lot of fun and

873
00:55:42,200 --> 00:55:43,680
Speaker 1: remember no deeva yas ciao.

874
00:55:46,080 --> 00:55:49,920
Speaker 2: Latino USA is made possible in part by the Heisin

875
00:55:50,000 --> 00:55:54,800
Speaker 2: Simons Foundation Unlocking knowledge, opportunity and possibilities.

876
00:55:55,400 --> 00:56:01,400
Speaker 5: More at hsfoundation dot org, The Tao Foundation and w

877
00:56:01,760 --> 00:56:06,760
Speaker 5: k Kellogg Foundation, a partner with communities where children come first.