not call anybody to cross. reporter: the confusion and frustration is evident. people are waiting months in a foreign land with no idea of how long it will take. what number are you, do you know? 13 13,2391. reporter: 13,291. 91. reporter: how long will you wait do you think? 3 month, 15 day days. reporter: you ve been here 3 months, 15 days. do you know how much longer you have to wait? i don t know. reporter: the city of juarez, alone, is approaching 900 murders so far this year. people are here from all over the globe. from central america to africa. marembe fled violence. she asked us to keep her identity a secret. a gay woman from uganda, she
frustration is evident. people are waiting months in a foreign land of no idea of how long it will take. what number are you? 13,291. yeah. how long will you wait? three months. you ve been three months and 15 days. yeah. do you know how much holonge you have to wait? i don t know. reporter: the city of juarez is approaching 900 murders so far this year. people are here from all over the globe from central america to africa. she asked us to keep her identity a secret. a gay woman from uganda, she thought america would welcome her. it s one country that allowing human rights before but i don t know why they are changing everything like aum ll
only ones who cross the border daily from juarez. meet ray rosales, the dude on the red harley. he immigrated to the u.s. when he was 7, he s got two grown kids and works the punch press at a metal stamping factory in el paso. obviously it s a lot cheaper. dollars over there versus pace owes, i m living like a king. you re living like a king down there? ten years ago, juarez had the highest murder rate in the world, but a crackdown by law enforcement and a truce between the cartels drove crime down, though there is still quite a bit of drug-related violence. a lot of people think of juarez it s a scary place, i d never want to go there in my life. you do it every day and you re not scared. a lot of people look at it as it s dangerous. you re going do get killed. you can t go to a restaurant. you can t go here. it s not true. not true? not true. not true. i mean, there are sections, like anywhere else. like in chicago and new york,
worried that inflamtory rhetoric about the border could drive business away. minnesotae mexicans crossing into el paso from juarez spent nearly $2 billion last year. we should be a model for how you citizens on both sides of the border. do you think there is a direct connection between what s going on there and jobs throughout the country? what may not be as apparent is that 700,000 jobs in states like pennsylvania and indiana and michigan and wisconsin, 700,000 jobs rely on trade with mexico. for most el paso residents, all this talk about the wall has been code for a separation that will turn their unique way of life here upside down. a wall is such a ridiculous idea, it is more damaging to the mind set of the people on the
the dividing line was no barrier, where residents preferred bridges to walls and where attorney general jeff sessions came in april 2017 to say this it is here on this sliver of land where we established a beachhead against the cartels, against the transnational street gangs like ms-13 and the human traffickers. this is ground zero. this is the front lines. this is where we are making our stand. but at el paso s main border crossing, we didn t see anything like what sessions described. this is the mexican city of juarez right here and this is the city of el paso in the united states of america. every single day, 12,000 people make their daily commute to school, to work just like this. if you just did a double-take when you heard the words commute to school, join the club. check this out. this is a line that is reserved for students exclusively that