Editor’s Note – The observations and opinions expressed here are mine alone. I do not speak for my friends and colleagues who joined me on this border trip - Mark Casey
I was disappointed. A little bit…
Well, not really. It was a just before 11AM. We’d pulled off AZ 286 just south of Three Points near the T R Ranch Road. On the blacktop’s wide shoulder, a group of Border Patrol agents, their faces grimy with dust, were wrapping up a night in the desert. They casually trailered their off-road vehicles and stowed a mini arsenal of rifles, knives, and holstered sidearms, apparently unused (thankfully).
It’s a good bet they’d been freewheeling through washes and dodging the desert’s thorny vegetation in search of the “catastrophe.” You know, the one House Speaker Mike Johnson keeps ranting about as he strangles the breath from of the Senate’s border compromise and fails to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorka. If these agents found a “catastrophe” or an “invasion” or “chaos” or an “overrun border,” they apparently left it behind. This moment had a very chill end-of-shift vibe. These guys were thinking sleep, or maybe a cold beer, certainly not speaking to our group who’d just happened to find them a few miles from Mexico.
We stood to the side as the ranking agent politely offered the phone number of a public information officer in Tucson. If he’d seen the “catastrophe” he wasn’t talking. Given how relaxed his colleagues were, my guess is it’d been a bumpy overnight of nothingness. Hence my disappointment… or actually, relief.
Four of us on a border field trip
Dr. Terry Wimmer, a Pulitzer Prize winning reporter and U of A Professor Emeritus in journalism. 50 years ago we were classmates studying journalism at West Virginia University. Terry has spent a lot of time around the border in Cochise County where he edited the Tombstone Epitaph. Yeah, that Tombstone!
Also with me was Lyle Muller, a longtime friend from Iowa. Lyle is the former editor of the Cedar Rapids Gazette, former director of the Iowa Center for Public Affairs Journalism, and Iowa editor of Politifact. Nowadays he’s advising student journalists at Grinnell College. His Arizona visit was an escape from a blizzard and the Iowa Caucus, which he’s covered over many presidential election cycles.
My son Matthew was our guide and fixer. He’d reported on immigration and the border for years on the Fronteras Desk at KJZZ, the NPR station in Phoenix.
We were parachuting in for the day just like so many congressmen and presidential candidates and governors – mostly Trumpian Republicans. They come for the photo op and to scare the Bejesus out of White America with tales of cartels, fentanyl mules, human trafficking, and ISIS/Hamas/Chinese “terrorists streaming across our open borders.”
Only we weren’t buying the FOX News/Trumpian narrative at face value. We wanted to see firsthand a small slice of the U.S. Mexican Borderlands in southern Arizona and tell you what happened in this little patch on January 15, 2024. Personally, I wanted an answer for everybody I know who doesn’t live in Arizona. They constantly ask “how bad is it” living next to Mexico? After mainlining conservative media’s propaganda like lab rats, they’re all in on the border as a hellscape of badass banditos coming for their children and as The Mad King claims “poisoning the blood of our country.”
Well… no hellscape on January 15…
Here’s the short story. We saw more than a dozen Border Patrol agents motoring Arizona 286 and throughout the massive Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge a few miles north of Mexico. We enjoyed a very scenic desert landscape between the border town of Sasabe and the hippie village of Arivaca. The high country running north-south on the western side of our tour area was really impressive. It’s a great day when one can see both the Baboquivari Mountains, sacred to the Tohono O’odham, and the Quinlan Mountains where the Kitt Peak National Observatory peers light years beyond the border searching for space aliens. All around us, the wildlife refuge offered world class birding, some rugged off-road pathways, and this time of year, hunting. Our “invaders” were birders and hunters peacefully enjoying the Yucca filled grasslands of the refuge. The Wall was an intimidating but orderly iron snake winding through Nogales and Sasabe. We saw no terrorists, fentanyl, human trafficking, headless bodies, or an overrun border.
To be fair, there most certainly is fentanyl, human trafficking, and other nasty stuff on the Arizona-Mexico border. Arizonans are victimized here. So are those who’ve walked the length of Central America and Mexico to chase the American Dream. There’s fallout too in a small Arizona town with a box seat to true chaos… only it’s across the border in Mexico.
Sasabe, And A Dangerous Trek
That snapshot came from the Sasabe Store in tiny Sasabe, Arizona – population eight. Sasabe sits a few football fields from a border checkpoint framed by miles of iron and concrete border wall. Here, we heard of ongoing violence in the northern part of the Mexican state of Sonora. The cartels are in a nasty fight on Mexican soil, not in Arizona, for control of the area.
But, for the Sasabe Store in Sasabe, Arizona, the cartel dustup is killing business at the height of their tourist season. It’s especially hurtful, we were told, when reports contain a “Sasabe, Sonora” dateline. A nice reminder of the power of information, and misinformation. There was no shooting in Mexico or Arizona when we visited. A hunter stopped for lunch (beef tamales). Some locals gassed up their vehicles. Except for Border Patrol trucks, Arizona 286 was quiet.
Next stop was Arivaca, Arizona, population 692, an artist and tourism hamlet east of Sasabe. To get there, we left 286 and shifted to four-wheel-drive across a dirt road through the Buenos Aires refuge. At one point, we left the truck and walked about half a mile to experience a tiny slice of what someone crossing the desert from Mexico might see and do.
About 20 yards off trail, we spotted a wooden cross. Its markings match crosses being placed by local artist Alvaro Enciso at spots where immigrants died. Since the year 2000 at least 3,600 have perished crossing the Arizona desert. Enciso told the BBC he is “marking the spot where the dream ended.” He is certain to be busy for a long time.
Our short walk made clear how difficult and desperate border crossers must be to attempt this journey. Decades ago, as U.S. border policy stalled with Republicans and Democrats, this very rugged landscape was believed to be a near impenetrable barrier. Summer temperatures topped 100 degrees. The mountains were high, the low areas rocky and covered with thorny vegetation. Good luck finding drinking water. And, oh yeah, there are lots of rattlesnakes. The D.C. bureaucrats saw Arizona differently when compared to California, New Mexico and Texas. They were convinced this landscape was impassable to human smugglers or anyone hoping to walk to America. So, no fence needed here. Recent years proved Washington wrong. Mountains and desert and nasty cacti be damned. People come on foot.
Hippies, Border Walls, and Big Business
We saw no one walking into Arivaca on January 15, 2024. The locals were friendly, serving Mexican food and stiff drinks at a cantina. The only discouraging words flew toward the TV, where the Pittsburgh Steelers were getting whacked by the Buffalo Bills in a blizzardy NFL play-off game. It was 70 degrees in Arivaca and we ate outdoors enjoying the mountain views. Five hours into our little expedition and still no signs of “catastrophe.” I considered sending my observations to Speaker Johnson, but why bother? He had his Trumpian talking points. It was time to hit our final spot, Nogales Arizona.
Nogales, in fact this whole area of Southern Arizona and Northern Mexico, first saw Europeans in the 1500’s when the Spaniards arrived seeking the legendary Seven Cities of Gold. They didn’t find “Cibola,” as it was known. So instead, the conquistadores and the Franciscan Order established missions throughout Arizona, New Mexico and California, enslaving and converting the natives in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Expeditions from Nogales in the 1700’s opened a trade route to the Pacific – the Juan Bautista de Anza Trail - which is now Interstate 8 through Yuma, California’s Imperial Valley, and San Diego. Seems “California Dreaming” has roots in Nogales, which thrived before there was a Mexico and U.S. Border.
Today the international border divides two Nogales – Arizona and Mexico – with high and hostile iron fences and razor wire. But the militarized look doesn’t reflect reality here.
As we arrived at the Morley Gate Border Station about 6:30PM, locals moved back and forth through the checkpoints as if the border wasn’t there. A thriving downtown Nogales, AZ retail district, 25 yards or so from the fence, demonstrates the importance of business between Arizona and Mexico. Every hour of every day, Mexicans cross the border to shop and work in Nogales, some send their kids to Arizona schools, some visit with relatives. Going the other way, Arizonans and Americans enter Mexico as tourists or to score cheap prescription drugs and dental care they can’t get in the U.S.
A little north of Nogales in Rio Rico, Arizona, refrigerated warehouses line the frontage roads along Interstate 19. If you enjoy fruits and vegetables and leafy greens in winter, chances are pretty good they came across the border.
40 percent of fresh produce consumed in the U.S. moves through the Nogales port of entry. In these massive buildings, workers from Mexico and the U.S. stand side-by-side sorting and packing the harvest for shipment to the produce section at your local supermarket. State officials estimate $14.1 billion in commerce between Arizona and Mexico.
So, where’s the “catastrophe”…
…the “invasion,” and the “terrorists operating on our southern border?” We didn’t see any of it. To be accurate, we covered just 90 of a 2,000-mile border extending across four states. And, though not this day, border dysfunction has happened in Arizona recently.
From December 4 to early January, 180 miles west of Sasabe, thousands of asylum seekers, economic refugees, and American Dream chasers overwhelmed the border crossing at Lukeville, Arizona. The entry point was closed while Border Patrol and Immigration officers sorted the groups and filed paperwork. Some were sent back to their home countries and others allowed to enter the U.S. pending court dates in the distant future.
Politicians from both parties used the stunning visuals of immigrants shivering on freezing December mornings to advance their agendas without offering a solution other than “close the border.” Yet again, Lukeville proved we – the American people and our elected so-called “representatives” – suck at border management and the important business of dealing with refugees. Why?
Don’t “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”
We don’t have functional immigration and border policies due to nationalism and racism. Let me repeat my “woke” statement. The central and core reason for this mess is OUR nationalism and racism.
Further, it’s not new or surprising that our so-called “nation of immigrants” is suspicious and openly hostile to those coming from somewhere else. I could list hundreds of historic examples, the most awful being the failure to admit European Jews who were murdered in the Holocaust. But you can, as the Trumpers like to say, “do your own research.”
Arizonans need look no further for recent examples than the infamous “show me your papers” SB 1070 law and former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s lawless immigration sweeps. The experiences represents two of the more hideous aspects of the fever now entrancing the American electorate’s distaste for immigrants. Outright racism is # 1 followed closely in its awfulness by # 2, exploiting racist fears for political power.
SB 1070 was the former, the outright racism. It was simply a way to push immigrants out of Arizona, especially targeting Latinos and people of color from around the world. The end game was clear: keep Arizona White, and keep White people in control of the political system. The Supreme Court killed the law, but it lives on through all the White Nationalists in the state Legislature and representing Arizona in Congress. Many of them are believers in the Great Replacement.
Arpaio is the latter, the power hungry exploiter. Sheriff Joe didn’t particularly dislike Latinos any more or less than he disliked anyone of any color who wouldn’t bend the knee at his throne. But, Joe saw political opportunity in race-baiting, in playing on the uneasiness of Whites as Maricopa County and Phoenix rapidly grew more diverse. So, he leveraged fear, branded Latinos as lawbreakers, human smugglers, the cartels, as “here illegally.” The fear mongers at FOX News and Trump World learned from Joe. Today’s hyped up news accounts of “the catastrophe at our Southern border” are very effective in delivering viewers and donations, just as they were for the “World’s Toughest Sheriff.” They may not believe what they’re peddling, but they understand how to transform the fear it brings into nearly unchecked power. It’s unforgivable.
Democrats have been sucked into this xenophobic vortex as we saw with President Biden’s recent pledge to “shut down the border.” So have some familiar opportunists. I’m looking at you, Senator Kyrsten Sinema.
Only She Can Fix This….
Imagine Arizona’s shock when former Democrat (now Independent) Senator Sinema raced out of her Capitol Hill burrow (just days after Punxsutawney Phil crawled out of his) to push her border compromise in an appearance on CBS Face The Nation. Many Democrats and Republicans, she says, believe hers is the solution America demands. Of course, the good Senator is always keen to take credit. I’m sure we’ll hear soon how she’s “laser focused” on doing this for Arizonans.
Sinema’s compromise isn’t the answer. Elvia Diaz, The Arizona Republic Editorial Page Senior Director, got it right when she called it a “poison pill” for Democrats. Diaz predicts, and I agree the end result will be continued inhumane treatment of immigrants. Sinema filibustered on CBS for 13 minutes, ever arrogant and patronizing, before re-entering her news blackout.
It’s unclear is she saw her shadow. But, it’s pretty clear the senator fooled no one in Arizona. I’m sure her winter of discontent will continue with the those who elected her once and won’t make that mistake again.
So Now What?
As I’ve done recently in conversations with friends in media, and in my last post on the mess in Gaza, I’m going to place the responsibility for guiding a fix on Arizona journalists. If you believe polling (I mostly do), immigration has passed inflation as the top issue in the upcoming election. Your newsroom may be sick of this, but America and Arizona are not. The world isn’t either. Climate Change and authoritarian regimes have refugees on the move, and America is their haven of hope. This isn’t going away soon.
True, the hype and the fear brought by Trump’s GOP may be inflating immigration’s importance. Still, there’s no question most people feel the current system needs an overhaul because it actually does. To make informed decisions, our community deserves credible information, not Trump or Biden talking points.
To date, your approach with mostly surface reporting and “let the network cover it” hasn’t helped you or Arizona. It’s time to commit real resources to show our community what’s truly happening on the border, what’s happening worldwide to force people here, and to challenge our community to rethink its beliefs. Here are five suggestions:
Dump the talking points and photo op grandstanding. Ron DeSantis at the border with Greg Abbott and the Border Patrol unions manipulate us. They’re delivering talking points pulled from focus groups designed to fire up the build-the-wall crowd. Ditto for Democrats who’ve changed their positions so much they lack complete credibility. Not surprisingly, no one truthfully answers questions. We end up with propaganda on the evening news and social media feeds. Please, don’t take their remarks live. Just let the AP cover these things and decide if the outcome has any value before posting any content.
Open bureaus in Nogales and Yuma – 400 miles apart – staffed with veteran reporters and photojournalists. Commit to deep reporting on what’s happening in Arizona’s two largest border towns and the vast space in-between. Ignore the endless political photo ops, grandstanding and talking points. Go speak with people who live at the border. Go explain what life is like there. Facts and truth await you.
Energize and expand your Tucson presence. It’s a proud multi-cultural city with years of experience and engagement with immigrant newcomers and those with roots across generations. Tucson has a massive Border Patrol sector and plays big in the border security game. Large ownership groups including Scripps, TEGNA, Gray, Univision, and Telemundo need to step up and staff up here.
Explore partnerships across media. This is expensive coverage, likely outsized for your budgets and staffing. True collaboration will help you and help Arizona. It can be done well if you get the right people together (collaborative, patient, open-minded) and back them up. Engage the new Arizona Media Association to help put this together.
The Arizona Republic should refresh and republish its 2018 Pulitzer Prize winning “The Wall.” Daniel Gonzalez’s work as part of a Gannett team delivered the deep coverage needed to explain Donald Trump’s Border Wall plan. Bring it back with updated reporting and find a partner to get wide distribution as an hour-long documentary.
I hear your criticism. 12 hours at the border does not make me an expert on what’s happening there. I haven’t led a newsroom in two years, what do I know about the pressures you’re under? Especially in an election year. Especially as pressure grows to cut jobs.
Critique accepted, but at least my buddies and I took the time to check some stuff out. What will you find? I’m anxious to see.