Right got it right for. The film were about to show you first in two thousand and seven it questions a policy thats become even more contentious today. The Sonoran Desert in the south of the United States a harsh hot and im forgiving landscape straddling the border with mexico a natural barrier not so much a protective wall but a regional belt dividing the bodies of two nations. Thousands of Illegal Migrants cross into this area of arizona every year to them it represents a gateway to a better life. In reality its often a cold glitter of death from which they may never return. Crossing the desert to avoid these. Steel and concrete pools which mark the border in areas that were on a main road like this would look for people. Anybody out here they could be standing on the side of the road if they had made it this far need help. Little. Volunteer Catherine Ferguson and physician norma price all samaritans. Rescuing those who are in desperate need of help illegal shed been physically and mentally defeated by the deadly conditions people walk not only trails but they walk in circles because theyre lost so you could have a child walking out here you could have a man a grandmother or you could have a group of people and all im doing is looking for anything that looks like a human being. But katherine and norma arent the only ones on the lookout. And then. Tell first to groups to help us the United States government has. As many Border Patrol and Border Patrol backup as there are stars in the sky. In an attempt to secure its borders the Current Administration is spending billions of dollars on enforcement money many argue is doing little to stop the human traffic merely rebooting it since theyve closed the ports it forces people out into the secure. Desert and people are dying so. It is supposed to send a message back to the villages and mexico that if you come here youll die out of the desert its a policy of death. And they really dont know what theyre facing i mean they dont know how hot and dry it is most of them if they havent been here before they dont know about the desert and mostly women in high heel shoes are wedge issues and they all have one bob. Water and this environment that is so hot and dry and death or life. They need if they have any degree of. Illness they need to be in tech my hospital me and the heat literally just close the door rang the heart the kidney will see a lot of pregnant women and that also. Increases the risk that theyll get into trouble. The worst saddest of all courses the children and we see a situation where children. Bob for those making the passage its a terrible choice a gamble really face death and avoid capture or seek help even if that means deportation order. Head in the distance emerging from the scrub stands a solitary figure. His decision has been made paying with his life is too high a price for passage to the promised land. But does this in europe. So most. Frightened disorientated and exhausted his story is like so many of those left behind when he couldnt keep up with the group. At the specialist one of the toughest. Thing. To get out of. The. What could be an iraqi. Face and what if. You want us to. Think. Ok. But all. With. Me that. I found myself a white boy and. Opening up for what i had committed you know we all need to work a little bit more chief and. Just been you know they want to thank you for you before you. Went. Through with with. Me are you thinking. The samaritans presenting him with his options but his face betrays the. P. S. U. Since he. Played the fed up. To a c. Us nor means the samaritans can do nothing but call Border Patrol placing an illegal in their own car would mean a possible jail sentence anybody that gives them a ride would be arrested if theyre caught we cant do that they could spend five years in prison for transporting. And ten years for conspiring against the United States government. With little time to collect his thoughts and belongings hes arrested by the Border Patrol. This is the first time blew up the. Stand back and really its got. I i apologize for america theyre really nice. Americans here those guys were nice. But if the authorities appear to be taking a hard line theres a reason for their lack of hospitality the truth is many who attempt to cross illegally will do so again and again until they succeed. Means zero tolerance. Your. Life. For all. Those you know well ok. They have a warrant oh my goodness these are human beings were dealing with intelligent feelings since you know beans and we cant give them socks or water theres something very wrong with that. We have a schizo frank sign at the border where this big sign that says keep out and at the same time metaphorically we have the sign that says help wanted we have theres a tremendous number of jobs we have significant sectors of the economy that need large numbers of low skilled workers that were not producing in the native born population and there are no legal channels for those workers to command and therefore the only way those workers can enter in large numbers its illegally. Judas is an academic and an immigration expert she knows the statistics speak for themselves since two thousand people have been entering at the rate of about eight hundred fifty thousand a year there are currently an estimated twelve Million People in the country illegally and thats a huge number but the other thing is happening is that immigrants are going to what we call nontraditional states communities all over the country are suddenly waking up to find large foreign born populations in their midst and their schools i mean it seemed like it happened overnight in felicitous and wait a minute whats going on and theres a feeling that the systems out of control which in fact it so i mean there are Serious Problems with their. Gratian system. A series of fences dotted along the three thousand kilometer border between the United States and mexico were designed to stem the flow of Illegal Movement in urban areas based on current estimates the system is a failure. The walls have not been an effective deterrent theyve changed their way and the costs and getting at the time of the fence was put up in california the assumption was that the desert was too difficult environment in the desert itself would be an effective wall and people would come in through the desert that has turned out to be fast people have come into the desert and now a lot of people are back trying to cross. Despite this the walls will continue to go up with president bush signing off on the secure fence act in two thousand and six approving the construction of a war stretching one thousand kilometers on the other side of the fence the lure of the american dollar appeals to both citizens and the Mexican Government alike mexico benefits tremendously by having its workers here. Remittances money being sent home by mexican citizens working in the United States to their families in mexico is the second largest source of foreign currency in mexico but lessens the social pressure within the country so mexico in a real way doesnt have a huge incentive to stop this. Over door all she can see is a separation barrier which has divided her family. But i. Dont want bookkeepers. Im on the other. Hand theyre not but without legal status one cannot move between the two countries so for the past fourteen years he hasnt seen his family in mexico. You know that. Its a sacrifice millions have been willing to make and many more seem certain to follow. Through with. Mexico a country of more than one hundred Million People but where more than forty percent live below the poverty line for so many the poverty line here a border with the United States. On the other side stands opportunity employment and dreams of earning a high old way. But standing in their way a group such as the. This is american Border Patrol u. S. Citizens doing their bit to keep illegals. The organization is led by Glenn Spencer his arizona ranch sits directly border thanks to glenn anyone can patrol it via the internet. This is one of american Border Patrols remotely operated border cams this camera is wireless and operated by solar power. So really you could run this camera from your home in new york to watch the border so that we can have thousands of americans watching the border was real vigilance twenty four hours a day seven days a week. Glenn says the u. S. Government secure Border Initiative is a disastrous failure and hes compiled hours of video footage to prove it this is the most highly policed area in the country right and we could walk through even in daylight right with a huge atomic bomb on our back. And they would know it they could stop it if they wanted to but they dont want to i will bet you there are at least sixty illegal aliens holed up moving through the river in the washingtons right now you have to understand this goes on four. Hundred miles of the United States border. All along here now people say well i dont see anybody well they dont want to be seen and to make sure they are being seen american Border Patrol is spending millions of donated dollars on surveillance equipment this is our border hawk you avi stands for Unmanned Aerial Vehicle and basically its not a lot different than a Remote Control airplane except this has a computer inside of it if i was by a cell. And underneath it down here this is our little pan and tilt system here this is one we designed it had built for us and this allows us to look around three sixty and i interrogate a target as it would be called where you can look at some and stay on it as the planes moving a former military man mike king knows how to catch the enemy so when the federal aviation authorities stopped him flying on mind aircraft he simply changed tactics plan b. Was to buy real airplanes and so we did we purchased a cessna two to a six and we get a lot of video that way its been a extremely effective tool for us to gather intelligence on whats happening on the border what you train your eye to see in the bush is you start picking out pretty easily as you fly along or specialists outside as theyre staging. There are aspiring illegal aliens at that point there is a lot of it you dont see it because they dont want to be seen but theyre everywhere and we first got a thermal camera put on the house and i turned in i swung into the south just looking into mexico there are people down there and the next day there are people down there and the next day there are people down there and that every night i was catching groups of twenty thirty walking just west of the property here for like three weeks straight for in three weeks i caught like five hundred people i dont pretend like im not involved you know my my conscience will allow me i see it happening you know getting into my country today and i call the Border Patrol so what them deal with that we dont go out and tackle anybody. This all may seem a little excessive obsessive or even slightly odd but considering that more than three billion u. S. Dollars is being spent on Border Security glenn showed aljazeera exactly when that money isnt going project now the. International border between the United States and mexico im now going. Step into mexico. And here we are. Self of the border down mexico way this is the first line of defense for the United States against an invasion from the rest of the world it may stop some but not many come much money were spending our defending the borders of iraq. And our borders are wide open. And the government knows it wide open to drugs terrorists and weve proven there and they know it. But there were being sacrificed on the altar of globalism and longer believe in the nation state they want to merge mexico the United States and canada together and if a few thousand people are sacrificed in the process as just press. For many who have tried to cross and failed they arrest receive medical treatment for cuts and blisters and then get ready to do it all again and here in nogales in mexico people smuggling is big business for. Me. I stay as the theme of this man is a. He wont show his face because he imports goods from the United States but its human exportation and exploitation where the real money is a. Good. Employer im not. Going to. Buy a. Place was a pleasure sandwich board as it would get a god. But there in lies the irony of the situation the legal route into the us is fraught with as many obstacles as a trek through the desert. Regardless of ones political allegiance regardless of whether someones an activist or humanitarian you cant. Turn away from those and i hear often i hear people say well i like the migrants i just dont like the illegal migrant or like immigrants just those who come in legally and i think his people are either extremely naive or. Stubborn or. Youre turning their back on the situation because theres no way these people can come in legally. Though as the saying goes do good fences make Good Neighbors many would argue its merely the symptoms that are being addressed not the cause and that is an issue for both sides of the fence i think a chain fall that a country as rich as mexico. Is forcing poor people to come to another country to work i would suggest that it is shameful that the president of mexico calls people who go to other countries illegally to work heroes. And i think its shameful that of both our countries that we cant get together and work out some sort of sensible policy. Melissa owens lives with the reality of illegal migration this is her backyard it stretches as far as the eye can see well basically mexico is about four and a half miles right over that ridge right there this is due south but shes seen enough of the problems and trespass as. I would say we would have at least one group of fifteen to twenty people at least every night sometimes groups of men but sometimes women with children in their arms. Waking me up you know they have no idea what to do the last they just need help. Theyve been told by their guides their call your days that its six months to where theyre going to get up to the top of that ridge and there this is the view they get to look out across the valley obviously theres nothing. But within the picturesque landscape melissas ranch resembles a fortified compound enclosed by rays a while to keep her safe and intruders out i had some men i dont know how many it was attempt to break in my house while i was here and they were actually kicking in the door. And i was so i was here by myself and it was it was it was not a good experience so i think im pretty tough but i dont particularly want to have that happen again alone in such a remote environment melissa is prepared to defend her property when i work away from the house i wear a small head and i have it on my belt almost all the time i wear it for protection i hope to god i never have to use this gun and i dont like having to wear it doesnt make me feel. Powerful or important but on the other hand if im ever in a really bad situation i want to be able to defend myself. An emotionally charged issue that legal migration has polarized americans its an issue debated by politicians thousands of kilometers away in washington d. C. But one which affects individuals at the border directly if i didnt have the greatest respect for hispanic culture i sure would. Be here is that in mexico border. Im not talking about race im not talking about nationality im talking about people who are on my land and in my country illegally i dont want. People i dont know walking across my land and i dont care whether theyre from finland or togo or water mala. I dont want them here. Its a small war zone. People dont know what it is i wish they would come here at the moment its very quiet with beautiful big clouds but at certain times of day their helicopters out here their horse patrols their a. T. V. s around their guys that look like darth vader theyre completely covered in black and they carry guns and theyre out here looking for people like the man we met today. Its another way to instill fear in america. Since this film first ad the u. S. Continue to increase spending on Border Security at no other time in history has there been as many Border Patrol officers on duty as there are today and now the authorities are bracing for a new challenge children since twenty fourteen the number of families and unaccompanied children apprehended at the border keeps skyrocketing young people are filling Family Detention Centers having fled the chief or extreme violence in central america. Today the border issue is taking center stage in u. S. Politics as u. S. President donald trump gets serious about one of his Biggest Campaign promises we will build the yes we will. Go to. Zero. And under put it on. U. S. And British Companies have announced the biggest discovery of natural gas in west africa but what to do with these untapped Natural Resources is already a source of heated debate nothing much has changed they still spend most of their days looking forward to for the dry river beds like this one five years on the syrians still feel battered for even those who managed to escape their countries have been truly unable to escape the war. In the most unlikely places. To challenge the sections of africa. And bring photography to this community. A story of hope. In the face of adversity. The new african photography to fail. At this time how does it. Al jazeera is Award Winning programs to take you on a journey around the globe and. Expert analysis. Its all about whos in charge who controls the resources and documentaries that will tell the neuron its a Technology Story its a business story its a social story and its a political story all wrapped into one its unpredictable television that truly inspired us only on aljazeera. All dizzy or explores prominent figures of the Twentieth Century and how why will recent influence the course of history beginning with the giants of the struggle for civil rights the amount. Of interest and it was all the work of vailable who oppressed people government look at me and continue to think that negroes to be different that what you mean by that about malcolm x. And Martin Luther king preached to fix at this time on al jazeera. This is al jazeera. And i welcome to the aljazeera news our life or my headquarters in doha for me and as a purana