Scenes from the Arizona Section of the U.S.-Mexico Border

By Ray Stern

Wednesday, June 28, 2017 at 7:06 a.m.

Ray Stern St. Francis Mission, Kupk 1/61

Ray Stern Cameras record the traffic entering the reservation just south of Stanfield on Indian Route 42. 2/61

Ray Stern Unoccupied Border Patrol truck in the Pozo Verde mountains. 3/61

Ray Stern The official border crossing in Sasabe is the least-used port-of-entry in Arizona. 4/61

Ray Stern Sasabe logged just 51 pedestrians and 2,000 personal vehicles crossing in all of 2016. The port of entry at Nogales, by comparison, received more than 300,000 pedestrians and personal vehicles in 2016. 5/61

Ray Stern A restaurant in El Sasabe, Mexico. Tourist amenities are nonexistent in El Sasabe, a prime staging area for would-be border crossers. 6/61

Ray Stern Long view of the border and fence near Sasabe. 7/61

Ray Stern A tall fence separates Nogales, Arizona, and the much larger city of Nogales, Mexico. 8/61

Ray Stern Medieval-looking gates allow quick access through the fence in Nogales when necessary 9/61

Ray Stern The Nogales fence is a stark reminder of border problems between the United States and Mexico. 10/61

Ray Stern A brightly lit no-man's-land helps border officers catch any fence-hoppers from Nogales, Mexico. 11/61

Ray Stern Vehicle barriers and pedestrian fence near Lochiel, Arizona. 12/61

Ray Stern Lochiel, Arizona, is the site of a long-closed U.S. Customs office. 13/61

Ray Stern Vehicle barriers and pedestrian fencing mark parts of the border between Nogales and Naco in Arizona. 14/61

Ray Stern One of many signs in Arizona warning of the danger of cross-border smuggling. 15/61

Ray Stern A U.S. Border Patrol mobile surveillance unit in the Coronado National Memorial. 16/61

Ray Stern Border fencing in Cochise County, near Naco, Arizona. 17/61

Ray Stern A massive double-fence marks the border in Douglas, Arizona. 18/61

Ray Stern Mural painted on south side of border fence in Agua Prieta, Mexico. 19/61

Ray Stern Border fencing as seen from Mexico side in Agua Prieta. 20/61

Ray Stern A Tohono O'odham tribal member who agreed to a photo, but declined to give his name. 21/61

Ray Stern The Catholic church in Cowlic. 22/61

Ray Stern Sights like this are common on the O'odham reservation, where per-capita income is less than $9,000. 23/61

Ray Stern Pam Pancho, a resident of Cowlic, said she sees migrants or suspected smugglers in her village twice a month or more. 24/61

Ray Stern A sign warning of a very frisky bobcat on the Tohono O'odham Nation. 25/61

Ray Stern Devans Chavez of Sells is one of many residents who strongly oppose Trump's planned border wall. 26/61

Ray Stern Most O'odham members are Catholic, and small churches like this one near Gu Oidak are very important to the community. 27/61

Ray Stern Black water jugs carried by migrants can be found discarded in the desert across southern Arizona. 28/61

Ray Stern Migrants often tie strips of cloth to water jugs to make them easier to carry over long distances. 29/61

Ray Stern Smugglers sometimes wear manufactured overshoes like these to help hide their footsteps. These overshoes were found off Indian Route 1, and were probably discarded as the smugglers ended their hike and got into a vehicle. 30/61

Ray Stern One of several emergency call stations — or "panic poles" in the Tohono O'odham desert. 31/61

Ray Stern The panic poles are about 40-feet high and topped with a bright light to make them easy for dehydrated migrants to find when they need them. 32/61

Ray Stern An unexpected sight in the rugged O'odham desert, miles from any village — a barefoot footprint. 33/61

Ray Stern A tribal member's future home under construction in Kupk. 34/61

Ray Stern A tribal member who did not want to give his name talked of his love for the serenity of the desert, but said it's common to see migrants and smugglers passing through. 35/61

Ray Stern The non-bustling village of Kupk is about 20 miles north of the Mexico border. 36/61

Ray Stern A tall fence helps discourage border crossers west of the official port of entry in Lukeville, Arizona. 37/61

Ray Stern The Organ Pipe National Monument visitor's center is named after Kris Eggle, a ranger who was shot to death on the job by suspected smugglers. 38/61

Ray Stern The Desert Diamond Casino in Why offers the only convenient lodging on the reservation. There's no hotel, but campers can stay in the adjacent Hickiwan Trails RV Park. 39/61

Ray Stern The remnants of an old trading post on the Tohono O'odham reservation. 40/61

Ray Stern Religious shrine off Indian Route 1. 41/61

Ray Stern A sign on Ofelia Rivas' property in Ali Chuk warns Border Patrol agents not to come in unless they have a warrant. 42/61

Ray Stern Vehicle barriers disappear into a hillside on the O'odham reservation near Menager's Dam. 43/61

Ray Stern Vehicle barriers on O'odham land delicately extend around a grand organ pipe cactus near Menager's Dam. 44/61

Ray Stern Mexican men install barbed wire on the north side of the vehicle barrier to prevent burros from coming north. 45/61

Ray Stern Easy-to-cross vehicle barriers are the biggest physical obstacle at the U.S.-Mexico border on the Tohono O'odham reservation. 46/61

Ray Stern Tribal members in Gu Vo said they found this young horse wandering around and captured it, hoping to use for ranch work someday. 47/61

Ray Stern Erik Breitske, a Homeland Security Investigations assistant special-agent-in-charge based in Sells, said about half his smuggling investigations involve O'odham members. 48/61

Ray Stern Typical border scene on the O'odham reservation. 49/61

Ray Stern Signs outside of the O'odham reservation warn the public of smuggling danger. On O'odham land, signs in Spanish warn migrants of the danger of the desert. 50/61

Ray Stern Vehicle barrier on the reservation. 51/61

Ray Stern Vehicle barriers on the reservation are easy for any pedestrian to cross. 52/61

Ray Stern A sign installed last year by a ranching family on the Mexico side of the San Miguel Gate near Newfield discourages tribal members from crossing there, as they have done for decades. 53/61

Ray Stern A Border Patrol van, with an agent inside, watches for any traffic at the San Miguel Gate. 54/61

Ray Stern Armed Mexican men in camouflage dropping off loads of something at the house in Mexico just north of the San Miguel Gate on January 28, 2017. 55/61

Ray Stern The men appeared to carry large packages into the building. 56/61

Ray Stern The two Hummers pulled up at about 4:30 p.m. on January 28. Some men kept watch while two others unloaded the packages. 57/61

Ray Stern As soon as the packages were put in the house, the two Hummers and the men left the scene. The whole operation took about five minutes. The Mexican consulate in Phoenix failed to return calls seeking comment about the activity. The O'odham tribe and the Border Patrol also would not comment about it. 58/61

Ray Stern The Tohono O'odham Nation's Legislative Council approved a resolution opposing the Trump wall in January. But of 22 members, four voted "no" on the resolution. 59/61

Ray Stern Signs taped to the Legislative Council building in Sells reflect the sentiment of many tribal members about Trump's planned wall. 60/61

Ray Stern A Mexican rancher and his wife, standing on the Mexican side of the border. They don't believe a wall would stop people from coming north, because too many want to go, they said. 61/61

Scenes from the Arizona Section of the U.S.-Mexico Border

The international border areas in Arizona have captured the attention of the world as President Donald Trump attempts to fulfill his campaign promise of a "big, beautiful" wall between the United Stated and Mexico.

Over the last several months, I toured the Tohono O'odham reservation and other border zones in Arizona, capturing some of the scenes, and the sentiment of the people, before the potential changes come.

Visitors to these areas are greeted with some of the most breathtaking landscapes in the world — but also to the reality of poverty and border strife. Where open land should rule, rusted metal lays in ugly lines, dividing two nations that have never fully trusted each other.

In the middle is the Tohono O'odham Nation, the second-largest Native American reservation in the country, behind the Navajo Nation. It's the size of Connecticut and home to about 10,000 people whose estimated per-capita income is less than $9,000.

Since the 1990s, border security has transformed the O'odham land into a militarized zone in many places, and many tribal members have been corrupted by the temptation of easy cartel cash.

Trump's wall is unthinkable to the O'odham people, but tough choices lie ahead with a Republican administration that aims to take border security to a new level.