:00:00. > :00:00.to look at new measures to tackle the use of laser pens after concerns
:00:00. > :00:11.about their threat to air safety. They can cause blindness if shone
:00:12. > :00:18.directly into people's eyes. Thanks for your company this morning on BBC
:00:19. > :00:24.News. In Life In The Shadow Of The Wall, we travel the length of the
:00:25. > :00:25.border to see how President Trump's proposal could affect life of people
:00:26. > :00:27.on either side of the frontier. It was one of his main campaign
:00:28. > :00:43.pledges - to build a wall A third of it already
:00:44. > :00:47.has some sort of barrier, but what are the challenges
:00:48. > :00:56.of trying to seal it off completely? I'll be travelling the entire
:00:57. > :01:01.length of the US-Mexico border to find the stories
:01:02. > :01:03.of the people who call the borderlands home,
:01:04. > :01:06.to see how the fence that's already in place has
:01:07. > :01:07.affected their lives, and to try to find out
:01:08. > :01:09.what impact the wall that President Trump
:01:10. > :01:12.wants to build could have. And the journey starts
:01:13. > :01:15.here, at the very beginning of the border,
:01:16. > :01:17.where the Gulf of Mexico This is the kind of place that,
:01:18. > :01:42.to the Americans, justifies a wall. It is the most dangerous city
:01:43. > :01:44.on the border, a battlefield to control a key route for migrants
:01:45. > :01:46.and drug We are on a patrol with the special
:01:47. > :01:54.forces that guard this Long gun battles between government
:01:55. > :01:58.forces and drug cartels are common in this city, with people
:01:59. > :02:01.often caught in the middle. It's a place where
:02:02. > :02:02.local journalists have been attacked and threatened
:02:03. > :02:06.for reporting on the drug cartels. The presence of
:02:07. > :02:09.international media is rare here, and that's why we have
:02:10. > :02:12.to take these security measures. It has been a quiet
:02:13. > :02:15.shift, but it is not long before they are
:02:16. > :02:18.called into action. So, the officers just
:02:19. > :02:21.spotted two cars. And they have just got off
:02:22. > :02:28.the pick-ups to check what's The police believe something
:02:29. > :02:31.suspicious is going on. Here, different factions of cartels
:02:32. > :02:34.are at the heart of a long and violent feud to dominate
:02:35. > :02:43.a profitable business. According to the US
:02:44. > :02:44.government, drug trafficking is a $64 billion
:02:45. > :02:46.industry in the country. The police can't find anything,
:02:47. > :02:49.so the suspects are not Then, proof of how difficult
:02:50. > :02:58.it is to deal with the The colonel is listening
:02:59. > :03:47.in to cartel members. The migrants who arrive
:03:48. > :04:20.from the south, and those deported from the north, they are
:04:21. > :04:26.also targets for the cartels. This refuge offers
:04:27. > :04:28.them a respite in the These men have just
:04:29. > :04:33.been sent back from the US, where there are an estimated
:04:34. > :04:38.11 million unauthorised immigrants. This year, on average, the US
:04:39. > :04:41.authorities have apprehended nearly 600 people a day trying
:04:42. > :04:47.to cross the border. Sister Maria has seen more deportees
:04:48. > :05:17.in the last few months. Jorge Torres was deported twice
:05:18. > :05:20.in the last three weeks. He experienced this
:05:21. > :05:56.threat first-hand. We are on our way to
:05:57. > :06:00.interview a high-ranking official, to find out how
:06:01. > :06:03.the goverment is coping with this We also want to ask him
:06:04. > :06:08.what they are doing to prevent these people from becoming
:06:09. > :06:12.easy prey for the powerful cartels This is the most dangerous
:06:13. > :06:19.state along the whole border, and we need
:06:20. > :06:22.an armed escort to travel to the capital, where
:06:23. > :06:25.the This place has the nation's highest
:06:26. > :06:32.number of disappearances - close to It is a disturbing figure that
:06:33. > :06:37.could be much higher, since only a fraction
:06:38. > :06:38.of all The government is in
:06:39. > :06:47.a tough position. The local police was
:06:48. > :06:49.so corrupt, it was From up here, it's
:06:50. > :07:47.striking to see how close That river, called Rio
:07:48. > :07:56.Bravo by the Mexicans, and Rio Grande by the Americans,
:07:57. > :07:59.is the flowing border dividing and uniting both countries
:08:00. > :08:02.for hundreds of kilometres. In most of Texas is the place
:08:03. > :08:04.where the next phase of For many, that's a threat
:08:05. > :08:10.to their properties Building the wall will be difficult,
:08:11. > :08:19.and money may not be the biggest Getting the land is a major issue,
:08:20. > :08:25.because over 90% of the Under the Bush Administration, many
:08:26. > :08:32.landowners receive letters saying they would have to sell
:08:33. > :08:35.their land to the goverment. Noel first received
:08:36. > :08:39.a letter in 2008. For nine years, nothing
:08:40. > :08:41.happened, but he Why do you think
:08:42. > :08:51.there is no point in Because Homeland Security
:08:52. > :09:06.has all the... They can do and not do
:09:07. > :09:11.whatever they want. The land has been in his wife's
:09:12. > :09:14.family for more than 250 years, since it was granted
:09:15. > :09:19.by the King of Spain, before it was Mexican territory,
:09:20. > :09:22.long before it became the Right now, we're on
:09:23. > :09:28.the second bank of the This is the flood plain,
:09:29. > :09:34.and this is all going to be... Supposedly, this is where
:09:35. > :09:37.the wall's going to be. So, your land will be
:09:38. > :09:40.on the other side of the wall? Yes, part of the property
:09:41. > :09:42.will be on the It'll probably be approximately
:09:43. > :09:45.20 acres, maybe a Will you be able to
:09:46. > :09:48.access your property? They tell me that there's
:09:49. > :09:54.going to be openings where we can But I mean, like, it
:09:55. > :10:05.would be a continuous wall, More than likely, it'll be
:10:06. > :10:20.just an opening, which would defeat the purpose of the
:10:21. > :10:23.wall, but that's the goverment for Let's go and see what
:10:24. > :10:27.the river looks like. Ultimately, Congress has
:10:28. > :10:29.to approve President Trump's budget before
:10:30. > :10:30.construction can begin. If and when it comes,
:10:31. > :10:33.Noel doesn't believe Do you think the wall
:10:34. > :10:40.will serve its purposes? Well, the wall's supposed
:10:41. > :10:42.to keep people out, and I don't think it's
:10:43. > :10:44.going to do that. In the history of mankind, I don't
:10:45. > :10:47.think a wall has kept anything I think a virtual wall
:10:48. > :10:53.would be more effective than any wall made out of mortar,
:10:54. > :11:00.brick and what have you. This virtual wall that Noel
:11:01. > :11:03.is talking about already exists, and my next meeting
:11:04. > :11:09.is with the people who defend it. Border patrol agents
:11:10. > :11:16.practice how to deal with The Rio Grande Valley
:11:17. > :11:21.is popular with people trying 45% of all the apprehensions
:11:22. > :11:24.on the border take But patrols of the river
:11:25. > :11:31.are just one part of the We have centres, cameras,
:11:32. > :11:42.agents on patrol, different types of infrastructure - bridges, roads -
:11:43. > :11:44.that give us easier access to, like I said, those points that
:11:45. > :11:49.are breached on the border. We have different
:11:50. > :11:55.vehicles - cruisers, horses, bicycles and dirt
:11:56. > :11:58.bikes - so we have a multilayered approach
:11:59. > :11:59.to Agent Castro believes
:12:00. > :12:02.fencing deters some, but the key is more people on the
:12:03. > :12:05.ground, something President Trump The main needs are
:12:06. > :12:08.personnel, technology and The technology so we can have
:12:09. > :12:13.situational awareness of The infrastructure to get
:12:14. > :12:19.to that detection or that And of course, you
:12:20. > :12:24.need the personnel. You can have all the technology
:12:25. > :12:27.and infrastructure, but if you don't have the personnel to respond
:12:28. > :12:30.efficiently and effectively, then it I'm making a short detour
:12:31. > :12:41.from the border itself. We are on the outskirts
:12:42. > :12:44.of a town where a border patrol checkpoint has
:12:45. > :12:50.created a second frontier. Don White is a volunteer,
:12:51. > :12:52.and he's looking for More often than not,
:12:53. > :13:05.he only finds their remains. You look for the paths
:13:06. > :13:08.that they travel, and then backtrack those to see
:13:09. > :13:12.if anybody's been left behind. This toothpaste was
:13:13. > :13:16.probably left behind by migrants hiding
:13:17. > :13:17.in these ranchlands. And what is striking
:13:18. > :13:25.is that we are more than 100 kilometres north
:13:26. > :13:26.of the actual border with Mexico,
:13:27. > :13:29.and you can hear the cars This is a major corridor
:13:30. > :13:40.used by people-smugglers The migrants who made it
:13:41. > :13:45.across the Rio Grande must still avoid detection as they
:13:46. > :13:47.head to their final destinations. To circumvent the
:13:48. > :13:49.checkpoint, migrants are forced to walk through
:13:50. > :13:52.the surrounding brush for up to 40 This is not the place
:13:53. > :13:58.where the migrants expect I'm not worried
:13:59. > :14:06.about encountering the border crossers, I'm worried
:14:07. > :14:10.about the drug smugglers. That's why I carry what I
:14:11. > :14:13.carry, because that's They are carrying arms,
:14:14. > :14:19.and I want to make Don works with the Missing
:14:20. > :14:28.Migrant Initiative, a multi-agency project
:14:29. > :14:33.led by the border patrol. Their aim, to recover
:14:34. > :14:34.those left behind. It's easy to get lost,
:14:35. > :14:37.and many migrants die More than 550 in
:14:38. > :14:40.the last seven years. So, that was dropped
:14:41. > :14:43.three or four months ago. Half an hour into our patrol,
:14:44. > :14:48.Don finds something. A rancher found a skull one time,
:14:49. > :14:52.called it in, it was collected. And the Sheriff asked
:14:53. > :14:55.if I could do a follow-up search of the area
:14:56. > :15:00.with some anthropologists. We went out there,
:15:01. > :15:07.toward some rat mounds, Towards the rat mounds,
:15:08. > :15:20.a huge cactus, found several more bones, a cellphone, a photo ID,
:15:21. > :15:23.so that was an excellent follow-up Why does Don, who lives
:15:24. > :15:28.three hours away, often Decades ago, his niece
:15:29. > :15:34.was kidnapped and killed, and it took two months for her
:15:35. > :15:37.remains to be found. If you've lost somebody
:15:38. > :15:40.in your family and you don't know where they are lost,
:15:41. > :15:42.you don't know where they are at, where they
:15:43. > :15:44.are even buried, you have
:15:45. > :15:46.nothing that you can bury, nothing you can go
:15:47. > :15:53.and worship to, nothing you can visit
:15:54. > :15:56.or put flowers on... It's hard on the families,
:15:57. > :16:04.really hard on the So, I guess that's why I do it,
:16:05. > :16:09.just for the families that My next stop is in Laredo,
:16:10. > :16:17.where almost 60% of the trade between Mexico
:16:18. > :16:21.and the US passes. Jose is a trucker who takes
:16:22. > :16:26.cargo across every week. Today, he's starting out
:16:27. > :16:29.on a trip to Tennessee This is also a lucrative
:16:30. > :16:48.smuggling point. Jose just told me that
:16:49. > :16:50.many of his colleagues cartels to carry drugs into the US,
:16:51. > :16:55.and there's nothing they can do 850 trucks cross this bridge
:16:56. > :17:34.every hour, making it the busiest commercial crossing
:17:35. > :17:36.on the border and in the Western Many of them are
:17:37. > :17:44.inspected over there. Many of them are not,
:17:45. > :17:51.so goods and drugs flow into the US, goods and
:17:52. > :17:54.guns come into Mexico. Would a wall be able to stop
:17:55. > :18:00.all the illegal trafficking? So far, we've been through a lot
:18:01. > :18:03.of built-up areas, but our next I'm at the Big Bend
:18:04. > :18:09.National Park, a place with mountains, canyons,
:18:10. > :18:12.where It's a stunning, dramatic
:18:13. > :18:19.and desolate landscape. An Indian legend says that
:18:20. > :18:32.after the creation, all the remaining rocks were
:18:33. > :18:37.left in the Big Bend. Walls from another era,
:18:38. > :18:40.hundreds of metres high, in a place for the border bends, and from
:18:41. > :18:43.which the park takes its name. The river turns
:18:44. > :18:46.frequently, and it's not always easy to see which side
:18:47. > :18:52.is Mexico or the US. At this tiny border crossing
:18:53. > :19:01.point, I've arranged She tells me the park has
:19:02. > :19:05.the border's fewest illegal Routinely, the border patrol
:19:06. > :19:08.tells us that here in the Park we have the lowest statistics
:19:09. > :19:14.for any section of the US- Mexican border, and within the park,
:19:15. > :19:17.we protect 12% of the US- Mexican Im this vast, remote and lonely
:19:18. > :19:26.place, the binational cooperation is essential,
:19:27. > :19:28.and borders are hard to distinguish. Just on the other side
:19:29. > :19:31.of our river, well, we only have one half
:19:32. > :19:32.of the The other half is preserved
:19:33. > :19:35.by Mexican national parks, so we have canyons
:19:36. > :19:39.here, but we can only preserve one half of
:19:40. > :19:44.And then to have a partnership with Mexico to make sure this landscape
:19:45. > :20:02.is preserved as part of a larger ecosystem,
:20:03. > :20:04.that our vistas don't end at the political boundary, right in
:20:05. > :20:07.the middle of the Rio Grande, is a truly beautiful thing
:20:08. > :20:11.Many people who come here don't even realise that the other
:20:12. > :20:13.half of our canyon is Mexico, for example.
:20:14. > :20:16.The river is sometimes so shallow you don't even need a boat.
:20:17. > :20:18.Mike Davidson has been visiting this area for over 40 years.
:20:19. > :20:20.As a river guide, he knows this place
:20:21. > :20:22.intimately, and he's agreed to take me downstream.
:20:23. > :20:25.In terms of the number of people coming to the area,
:20:26. > :20:29.and a certain amount of development, there's
:20:30. > :20:31.been quite a few changes in
:20:32. > :20:40.For me, when you still get into the national park and go on
:20:41. > :20:43.the river, you can go places where you feel like you're the only
:20:44. > :20:46.That's what I really like about this area.
:20:47. > :20:49.As with other people that visit and work in this area,
:20:50. > :20:58.You know, the whole experience of Big Bend, with a
:20:59. > :21:00.big, tall, strong, beautiful wall, as they say, would severely degrade
:21:01. > :21:07.This is a lot of our national treasures.
:21:08. > :21:13.On the Mexican side is a small town called
:21:14. > :21:17.Months after the 9/11 attacks, the port of entry
:21:18. > :21:24.It wasn't reopened until four years ago, and Boquillas
:21:25. > :21:49.And this is one of these one size fits all solutions, where they
:21:50. > :21:51.treated the whole border like a big danger zone.
:21:52. > :21:55.So, now, with all this talk about building a
:21:56. > :21:58.border wall and really cracking down, you know, we worried that the
:21:59. > :22:01.gains we've made in international relations here, we fear that that
:22:02. > :22:03.may be left behind if they build this wall.
:22:04. > :22:06.I have now completed the first half of the trip, and so far,
:22:07. > :22:09.I have travelled along a border where the river is the natural
:22:10. > :22:13.But from now on, I'm going to be visiting places where fences
:22:14. > :22:21.So, we're going to be seeing much more
:22:22. > :22:30.Join me next time, when I will be with a Mexican who is
:22:31. > :22:31.helping the Americans build the wall.
:22:32. > :22:34.What have your friends or relatives told you about building
:22:35. > :22:42.They joke with me, tell me to leave just a little open
:22:43. > :22:50.And we visit the tunnel capital of the border.