Arizona's high desert: where border politics become a harsh, almost sinister experience

Gary Thrasher has found migrants on his roof, in his truck, in the shower in his barn. They leave a trail of backpacks and water bottles by the mesquite tree on his land, three miles from the Mexican border. He and other ranchers often stumble across migrants, dead or alive. He once took a call from neighbours in Hereford, Arizona, who asked him to check out a man who was sleeping under a bush and making their dog bark. “I went out there and his eyeballs were picked out and he was deader than a brick,” he said. There was no investigation. Border authorities just came and scooped up the body, like roadkill. The high desert of Arizona is where border politics become a harsh, sometimes sinister experience – one that threatens to unseat two of the most vulnerable House Democrats standing for re-election in November’s midterm elections. Republicans have identified two neighbouring districts in southern Arizona as their best prospect for picking up seats in the House of Representatives. Both have been on the frontline of the decades-simmering debate over the border and immigration, one that was reignited in early summer following the surge of tens of thousands of unaccompanied Central American children arriving in the US through Texas. The most closely fought seat, Arizona’s second congressional district, runs along an 80-mile stretch of the US-Mexico border, and include Cochise County, where Trasher lives. Thrasher, 70, is a cattle veterinarian, serving ranches along a 600-mile stretch from Sasabe, Arizona, to Presidio, Texas. He works with some 400 ranchers, keeping him tuned into the political headwinds among rural Arizonans who share their land with drug cartels and human smugglers. In the past, Thrasher has been a vocal supporter of the Democratic congressman Ron Barber, and his predecessor, Gabrielle Giffords. Recently, however, he led a clutch of ranchers who publicly jumped ship, appearing on a stinging TV ad for the Republican challenger, Martha McSally. “Ron Barber just isn’t getting the job done,” Thrasher said in the ad...more