There is, of course, so much talk about building "the wall," a physical barrier at the U.S. - Mexico border. From across the country in New England, I didn't realize how much of the wall already exists.
Today we visited the wall in two locations: on ranch land taken by the government and in Nogales - Nogales, AZ and Nogales, Mexico.
Our first stop was a meeting with Anthony Sedgwick on the ranch his family ran for
generations (they're still involved with the ranch but have passed ownership to the ranch manager). Tony took us to the section of wall on his property that was built during the Obama administration. We saw two types of barrier - the huge metal wall along with Normandy barriers. The latter are set in the path of the Santa Cruz river to allow for the flow of floodwaters in the rainy season (put in place after the expensive metal wall was knocked down twice by floodwaters). You can climb over the Normandy barriers, but they keep vehicles from driving across the border.
Tony is an amazing guy. He left ranching to start the Santa Fe Ranch Foundation (website is currently down, I'll keep trying). He and his family work to connect youth and disabled adults with the environment, along with preserving a nearby wetlands. I'm not capturing the scope very well - I'll update when I can access the website!
I was struck by Tony's honesty. He spoke of the challenges of ranching along the Mexico border even before the wall was built; US and Mexican ranchers tend to have different practices and goals, but the animals don't know that so break through fences and muck about with each other. So when the wall went up, it put an end to that frustration.
But those gains have, for Tony, been far outweighed by the negative impact of the wall, and the government's activities in the area. Tony has been particularly frustrated by the government's taking of family land for observation towers, roads and the wall. His family sued the government and eventually settled - Tony didn't want to settle, for principle's sake, but was outvoted. On his own land Border Patrol Agents stop him and claim he is in "known drug running area." He replies, "No, I'm in a known ranching area."
Tony knows immigrants used to enter the country on his land before the wall was built. His family used to leave out food and water, and provide medical aid on occasion. Now, Tony freely admits he is too afraid to provide any assistance to immigrants, including leaving out water. His father (who is a lawyer) tells him it is legal to leave out water, but Tony has been told to do so is a felony, and he doesn't want to be labeled as a felon, so he will not help.
Tony is a dad. He spoke of how different it is for his children to grow up in this area, compared to his own childhood. Border Patrol has grown in numbers and forcefulness. For his children, it is "normal" to see large numbers of people in uniforms carrying automatic weapons driving militarized vehicles at high speeds. For his children, going through border patrol checkpoints on a regular basis is "normal."
Humans are not the only creatures impacted by the wall. The wall is right in the path of the migration path of the black bear. It's jaguar territory too. This region is a migration path for many animals; thankfully the birds can fly over, but the wall is a significant impact on the environment of land-based animals.
We took a very steep climb up a hill where the views were amazing. And the big metal wall stretched so far in either direction, stopping only at the mountain which is a wall of its own. The vistas continue to take my breath away, and I'm unable to capture any of them in photos. But the black line of the wall feels like a scar on the view.
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