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construction of a wall along the US-Mexico border but how would a | :00:00. | :00:00. | |
wall stop drugs and people illegally entering the United States? | :00:00. | :00:08. | |
It was one of his main campaign pledges - | :00:09. | :00:20. | |
to build a wall all along the US-Mexico border. | :00:21. | :00:27. | |
A third of it already has some sort of barrier, | :00:28. | :00:29. | |
but what are the challenges of trying to seal it off completely? | :00:30. | :00:35. | |
I have completed the first part of this trip and so far I have | :00:36. | :00:39. | |
travelled along a border where the river is | :00:40. | :00:40. | |
But from now on I am going to be visiting places where fences have | :00:41. | :00:46. | |
So we are going to be seeing much more of this. | :00:47. | :00:54. | |
After El Paso, Ciudad Juarez and Nogales I will finish | :00:55. | :00:59. | |
in the quintessential border town of Tijuana a place where some | :01:00. | :01:03. | |
Back home you just can't go anywhere here, you start selling drugs just | :01:04. | :01:10. | |
to get by or make money or hustle or whatever. | :01:11. | :01:13. | |
But I am starting my trip in a place where it is not always | :01:14. | :01:19. | |
to spot the divide - the twin towns of El Paso | :01:20. | :01:22. | |
Every morning Luiz drives from the Mexican side | :01:23. | :01:32. | |
We cannot show his face because his American company | :01:33. | :01:43. | |
I leave at 2.30am in the morning, it takes an hour to cross the border. | :01:44. | :01:51. | |
I don't like to be waiting in the line. | :01:52. | :01:55. | |
This is the kind of journey that many people make every day to go | :01:56. | :01:58. | |
I work for a company that does concrete and right now they sent | :01:59. | :02:19. | |
somebody to drive a bus, he is doing a job, you know. | :02:20. | :02:27. | |
For my job is just to make the wall this time. | :02:28. | :02:31. | |
What have your relatives or friends told you about building this fence? | :02:32. | :02:34. | |
They joke with me, they tell me to leave a little | :02:35. | :02:38. | |
This is the construction site where is currently working. | :02:39. | :02:54. | |
This is the construction site where he is currently working. | :02:55. | :02:56. | |
The first barriers went up in 1994 at the western end of the border. | :02:57. | :02:59. | |
Successive governments led by Clinton, Bush | :03:00. | :03:01. | |
and Obama extended them all along the frontier. | :03:02. | :03:08. | |
The fence here was erected ten years ago and Luiz is repairing a | :03:09. | :03:11. | |
He believes the American President is fooling himself if he thinks | :03:12. | :03:15. | |
the frontier can be completely sealed off. | :03:16. | :03:49. | |
Standing so close to it, it's obviously a very imposing structure. | :03:50. | :03:51. | |
There used to be a smaller fence here but it's now been replaced | :03:52. | :03:56. | |
with this five-metre high metal posts and the closer | :03:57. | :03:59. | |
you get to the fence, the more you wonder how the wall | :04:00. | :04:01. | |
President Trump wants to build will serve its purposes and how | :04:02. | :04:04. | |
will it affect the lives and businesses of people | :04:05. | :04:06. | |
Since the fence was built, Ciudad Juarez became one of the most | :04:07. | :04:13. | |
In contrast, El Paso is now among the safest cities in the US. | :04:14. | :04:18. | |
This is Mannys Rodriguez, the barrier runs through her backyard. | :04:19. | :04:30. | |
Days ago she saw migrants jumping it with a ladder. | :04:31. | :04:43. | |
We were fixing our truck back here and we heard the voices | :04:44. | :04:46. | |
and we looked outside but we couldn't see no one | :04:47. | :04:49. | |
and we said, where are the voices coming from? | :04:50. | :04:51. | |
When we saw they had a ladder, they built a big, like that swimming | :04:52. | :04:54. | |
pool ladder and they just, you know, hooked it up to the fence | :04:55. | :04:57. | |
and they crossed over, then the other one pulled it | :04:58. | :05:00. | |
I said oh, they just, you know, they said bye! | :05:01. | :05:05. | |
On the whole, though, she says things have improved. | :05:06. | :05:07. | |
We have less cargo as we say crossing over. | :05:08. | :05:11. | |
A granddaughter of Mexicans, Rodriguez supports | :05:12. | :05:17. | |
I believe that he is trying to protect the US. | :05:18. | :05:30. | |
The way I see it, I would go to Juarez but I won't | :05:31. | :05:33. | |
And I am not saying that I am against Mexicans | :05:34. | :05:43. | |
or Juarez or anything, I just wouldn't trust my | :05:44. | :05:45. | |
All along the border there are reminders, | :05:46. | :05:48. | |
like this jacket, that for some the impulse to cross this fence | :05:49. | :05:53. | |
or a future wall may be too strong to stop. | :05:54. | :05:58. | |
I am leaving El Paso and driving 500 kilometres west | :05:59. | :06:07. | |
The first fence went up here in the 90s, | :06:08. | :06:10. | |
The cartels who control the drug trade and the people smuggling | :06:11. | :06:20. | |
responded by going underground and they have turned this area | :06:21. | :06:23. | |
into the tunnel capital of the border. | :06:24. | :06:38. | |
We don't know who we might run into so the police go ahead of us. We | :06:39. | :06:46. | |
don't know what to expect. Caution is needed. What just happened? | :06:47. | :06:54. | |
Smugglers and migrants use the cover of darkness and wait for the right | :06:55. | :06:57. | |
moment to head towards the US end of the tunnel. | :06:58. | :07:02. | |
So the policeman just told me that after the turn on the flashlight | :07:03. | :07:07. | |
they saw someone and this person ran away. Minutes later, we catch a | :07:08. | :07:14. | |
glimpse of him in the distance. He is not moving. And they're pointing | :07:15. | :07:27. | |
at this person with a flashlight. He believes it's better to back up and | :07:28. | :07:34. | |
alert the police so we are heading towards the entrance of the tunnel. | :07:35. | :07:56. | |
The traffickers use not only the subter trainian infrastructure, the | :07:57. | :08:05. | |
authorities have found more than 110 tunnels built by Mexican cartels. | :08:06. | :08:10. | |
They call them narco tunnels. In this cemetery one of them hides in | :08:11. | :08:14. | |
plain sight. This is the entrance of a tunnel which was recently filled | :08:15. | :08:18. | |
in. They used to carry drugs to the other side of the border and as you | :08:19. | :08:24. | |
can see, the fence is just about 100 metres from here. On the American | :08:25. | :08:31. | |
side, Tony has been a sheriff for 25 years. They're very creative, if you | :08:32. | :08:40. | |
do anything they'll go under it. They'll go over it and they'll go | :08:41. | :08:43. | |
around it. So it's a phenomenon that's not going to stop, no wall, | :08:44. | :08:48. | |
no matter how beautiful and big and expensive is going to stop people | :08:49. | :08:52. | |
that are desperate, people that are needy, and people that are poor. | :08:53. | :08:58. | |
Undocumented immigrants in the US have increased by nearly 40% since | :08:59. | :09:04. | |
President Trump's crackdown. But he believes this is missing the point. | :09:05. | :09:10. | |
Illegal immigration as far as I am concerned peals compared to a drug | :09:11. | :09:16. | |
problem. When you are spending resources on illegal immigration and | :09:17. | :09:19. | |
you are talking about identifying people leaving the community that | :09:20. | :09:21. | |
have families and are contributing, it's useless. It's not putting | :09:22. | :09:28. | |
resources to the best. Go after them, let's get the criminal agents | :09:29. | :09:34. | |
but don't bother anybody else. This shelter in Nogales opened decades | :09:35. | :09:38. | |
ago. Since then it has received hundreds of thousands of migrants. | :09:39. | :09:45. | |
We find hope and faith but also sadness and pain. For the last 13 | :09:46. | :09:52. | |
years this man has worked in tomato fields. She was picked up trying to | :09:53. | :09:58. | |
get back into the US after visiting family in Mexico. | :09:59. | :10:11. | |
Despite the risky journey she's already planning to go back. | :10:12. | :10:34. | |
If anyone is able to judge the success of a wall, it is perhaps the | :10:35. | :10:43. | |
people smugglers. This one says it has reduced numbers. He was happy to | :10:44. | :10:49. | |
appear on camera but preferred not to be named. | :10:50. | :11:02. | |
For him a bigger wall could mean fewer clients but more money. | :11:03. | :11:25. | |
Nogales may be another example of the mixed and complex nature of | :11:26. | :11:33. | |
border towns. And of the unintended consequences of building barriers. A | :11:34. | :11:39. | |
wall will stop some people, but others will find a different way | :11:40. | :11:49. | |
around. My final destination on this road trip is Tijuana. No other place | :11:50. | :11:57. | |
on the US-Mexico frontier has a more intimate relationship with the wall | :11:58. | :12:00. | |
than this city. Here the US Government started building the | :12:01. | :12:04. | |
border's first barrier almost three decades ago. It has shaped the | :12:05. | :12:11. | |
lives, identities and faiths of millions. This is a graffiti artist | :12:12. | :12:21. | |
who has lived here for 25 years. The wall for him became a canvas, an | :12:22. | :12:26. | |
opportunity to express his feelings towards life in a place divided. | :12:27. | :13:45. | |
Painting on this is a cathartic experience but he wishes it wasn't | :13:46. | :13:52. | |
there at all. The most frequently crossed border | :13:53. | :14:13. | |
in the world unites two countries and there is no indifference to the | :14:14. | :14:18. | |
divisions that engenders. The barriers became a symbol and not a | :14:19. | :14:22. | |
solution to complex problems. This is another whose art is defined | :14:23. | :15:19. | |
by the wall. He is a hip hop artist living in the US but has family on | :15:20. | :15:28. | |
both sides of the border. As artists we have to reflect our reality. | :15:29. | :15:34. | |
Having to cross the border so many times growing up, it definitely | :15:35. | :15:40. | |
resonated with my understanding of restrictions and placing borders on | :15:41. | :15:45. | |
people. So in the same - I took that to my music, I attached that to my | :15:46. | :15:49. | |
music. It's like if I don't agree there is a border that needs to be | :15:50. | :15:53. | |
crossed in order for people to live in a particular place, I made the | :15:54. | :15:57. | |
effort not to put borders and restrictions on my music. There are | :15:58. | :16:03. | |
an estimated 11 million million undocumented immigrants living in | :16:04. | :16:10. | |
the US. He has relatives among them and Trump's rhetoric against these | :16:11. | :16:13. | |
people has left them dreading the prospect of his family breaking up. | :16:14. | :16:17. | |
I had a family member that had to go to a Government building, from the | :16:18. | :16:21. | |
moment we got the scheduled date to the actual date, there is a lot of | :16:22. | :16:25. | |
tension, there is a lot of arguments at home. Because why, because of the | :16:26. | :16:31. | |
fear. There is a very real fear that anything could happen to our | :16:32. | :16:45. | |
families at any given moment. He wants to continue highlighting what | :16:46. | :16:52. | |
he sees as controversial issues. It's abnormal behaviour and | :16:53. | :16:55. | |
relationships between Government agencies, federal agencies and local | :16:56. | :17:00. | |
enforcement, that's something that's abnormal, it's not normal. I feel | :17:01. | :17:06. | |
that's all we can do is challenge. I feel music needs to be an act of | :17:07. | :17:12. | |
expression that is thought-provoking and I don't agree that you can make | :17:13. | :17:17. | |
music without reflecting your reality. If deported, his relative | :17:18. | :17:27. | |
may end up here in Tijuana, the city receives more deportees than any | :17:28. | :17:31. | |
along the border. For them it's a painful contradiction, they feel | :17:32. | :17:34. | |
like foreigners in the country they were born in. That's my mother... | :17:35. | :17:43. | |
Chris's tattoos tell a story of a rough life. As a youngster he got | :17:44. | :17:48. | |
involved in gangs, guns and drugs, spending his teenager years in jail | :17:49. | :17:52. | |
in the US but he was deported to Mexico because he was born there. He | :17:53. | :17:57. | |
was dropped into a place he barely knew, having to speak a language he | :17:58. | :18:01. | |
had already forgotten. I think about what I want to say in English and I | :18:02. | :18:06. | |
have to translate in my mind to be able to say it. Some words I can't | :18:07. | :18:15. | |
even pronounce in Spanish. That's really the reason why call centres | :18:16. | :18:18. | |
have worked out for me. This is a call centre, many of the people | :18:19. | :18:22. | |
working here have been deported from the US. Hello, this is Chris, the | :18:23. | :18:27. | |
purpose for my call is to inform you that your manufacturer warranty has | :18:28. | :18:32. | |
expired on your 2012... It might be surprising to people in the States | :18:33. | :18:38. | |
to know they're talking to a Tattooed ex-gang members and surely | :18:39. | :18:44. | |
rival gangs in the same workplace is a recipe for disaster. You have | :18:45. | :18:51. | |
maybe some southerners, those are - they represent like the number 13, | :18:52. | :18:56. | |
usually they're from the south. And then you have a group of people like | :18:57. | :19:02. | |
us and some of my friends who are northerners and who are with the | :19:03. | :19:07. | |
number 14. In the States, we can't stand seeing each other and can't, | :19:08. | :19:12. | |
for the most part, there is not even talking, nothing like that, we see | :19:13. | :19:18. | |
open other and it's just, we just go at it. No questions asked. Here, you | :19:19. | :19:23. | |
know, we keep it respectful and make it work. For the sake of workplace | :19:24. | :19:29. | |
and trying to live a peaceful life. This gentleman right here in the row | :19:30. | :19:34. | |
where I am sitting, he has a tattoo on his arm and face... Chris is a | :19:35. | :19:39. | |
supervisor here and doesn't even think of going back to his old life. | :19:40. | :19:44. | |
But the new one hasn't been easy. Sometimes people give you that | :19:45. | :19:47. | |
opportunity, they see you and they're like, doesn't know any | :19:48. | :19:53. | |
better. Stupid little gangster want to be here, stupid druggy or addict, | :19:54. | :19:58. | |
deportee however they want to label you, they look down on you. Tijuana | :19:59. | :20:04. | |
may be a few miles from the States but it's a different world. Back | :20:05. | :20:09. | |
home, you just can't go anywhere here, you start selling drugs. To | :20:10. | :20:13. | |
get by or make money or hustle or whatever. It doesn't work like that. | :20:14. | :20:16. | |
You need permission I hear from somebody and who that is, God knows, | :20:17. | :20:21. | |
but, you know, if you don't have the permission, you can pretty much | :20:22. | :20:23. | |
count on you being found dead somewhere. | :20:24. | :20:34. | |
I have travelled across town to an evangelical Church Housing Hatian | :20:35. | :20:37. | |
migrants. It's a place to worship, it's also a shelter and a place of | :20:38. | :20:42. | |
limbo. Thousands of them are stranded. They fled their country | :20:43. | :20:49. | |
after the 2010 earthquawe but are unable to enter the US due to an | :20:50. | :20:56. | |
Obama policy aimed at diswading more from arriving. | :20:57. | :21:06. | |
Christopher and his countrymen are the latest example of the stories | :21:07. | :21:13. | |
that for decades have been part of this town. | :21:14. | :21:40. | |
Tijuana is a place of aspirations, broken dreams, of new beginnings, | :21:41. | :21:46. | |
it's a city where people have learned to navigate being so close | :21:47. | :21:57. | |
to the US, and yet so far. So that's it. The end of my road trip. It has | :21:58. | :22:05. | |
been a fascinating journey along a part of the world that belongs to | :22:06. | :22:10. | |
Mexico and the US and in a way to neither. This is a land of paradox, | :22:11. | :22:19. | |
a land of extremes. It can be cruel, violent and imposing and at the same | :22:20. | :22:23. | |
time beautiful, gentle, and gracious. It is a place where people | :22:24. | :22:28. | |
have learned to live in a strange intimacy with a wall and probably | :22:29. | :22:33. | |
many more will have to do the same. On this strip I have seen the | :22:34. | :22:38. | |
challenges of building more barriers, talked to people happy | :22:39. | :22:43. | |
with a wall in the backyard and to those that believe that more fences | :22:44. | :22:50. | |
won't stop migrants, nor drugs. This border is, after all, home to | :22:51. | :22:54. | |
millions of people that no matter what you think of the wall, now face | :22:55. | :23:02. | |
a dramatic, momentous and divisive time. | :23:03. | :23:10. |