Thursday, July 07, 2011

The Unfiltered Border

Illegal immigration. Drug-smuggling. SB 1070. The murder of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry. Immigration-law reform. All of these news topics have originated in Tucson's backyard. But a lot of the people involved in border-issues debates have never actually seen the borderlands—and many of those who do go only see the carefully orchestrated press junkets run by the Department of Homeland Security. Several border-area residents, including me, run tours into the borderlands for media folks, documentary filmmakers and elected officials. We take people in to meet everyone from border-area business owners to aid workers, from ranchers to law-enforcement officers—and even an occasional migrant. The goal is to show the entire spectrum, from how safe Nogales, Ariz., really is, to how dangerous the backcountry is, to the humanitarian crisis that haunts the borderlands. Here are stories from three tours...more

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