The promise of building a wall brought Donald Trump to the White House. According to him, the construction is crucial in stopping adventurers, drug traffickers and rapists from entering the country. But since ten years there are already more than 580 miles of barrier in place along the border. A border that cuts through cities, tears families apart and forces people to take greater risks. Numbers show that the influx of migrants have decreased. But the fact is that the number of dead simultaneously increases.
70 miles south of the US border, David is sitting in a deserted house. Three weeks earlier, he was deported from the American side, after twelve years as undocumented. Left in the Unites States is his family. It will take him twelve days of walking to get to Phoenix, where his seven years old daughter is waiting. He knows he can carry enough water to survive six of them. Still he is determined to once again make the dangerous journey.
At the forensic center in Phoenix, Dr Hess is working with identification. Each year, he receives the remains of nearly 200 bodies, found somewhere between Mexico and Arizona. But far from all who lose their lives in the desert are found. The depletion goes fast in the dry, warm climate and many die in unpopulated areas.- The job can be similar to solving a puzzle, where you only have one piece and it is blank on both sides. The migrants are anonymous. They die alone, he says.According to the US authorities, more than 7000 migrants have died on the US-Mexico border since 1998, but many believe the numbers are much higher.
Children are finishing up their baseball practice in Shelby Park, Eagle Pass, Texas. At the border crossing behind, the line into the United States is long.
Down here we laugh at Trump's wall. He can build whatever he wants. We will dig under, cut through or climb over. A wall will not stop us, says coyote Victor Martinez. He works for the Juárez Cartel by bringing migrants across the border from Mexico into the United States. Despite affiliations with the notorious gang, as well as the risks of being caught by border patrol, his 10 years old son Brian will follow in his father’s footstep
The small village of Altar in Mexico is the final stop for many migrants before crossing into the US. Here, connection with smugglers, the so called coyotes, are made and in the stores around the square camouflage clothes and felt shoes can be found. At the local church’s shelter people eat a last supper before the uncertain journey begins.
In recent years, Harry Hughes has voluntarily patrolled along the US border against Mexico, sometimes with others, sometimes alone, in search of drug traffickers and, what he calls, illegal aliens. Heavily armed militia groups are on the rise in the United States and keep growing stronger alongside Trump's victory in the presidential election.
Friendship Park opens up a few hours each week to give people the opportunity to meet relatives and friends on the other side of the border. Between them a grid of steel, to prevent smuggling. On the US side, Alex and Michelle stand with their daughter Zamora. On the other side is Alex’s mother Theresa. 16 years ago she was deported to Mexico. It's the first time she meets her granddaughter. And the second time she sees her son since they were separated.
Sue and Jim Chilton prays before dinner. The couple owns one of Arizonas largest ranches, a massive property of more than 50 000 acres along the border to Mexico. As long as they can remember, people have crossed their land, while heading into the United States. “Our ranch has become a smuggling route. We might as well give our land to the Mexico. the cartels have taken over the border towns and are using migrants as pawns in their game. It's not about stopping immigration, but to prevent a humanitarian disaster” says Mr. Chilton. After voting on the democrats all their lives, they put their hopes to Donald Trumps in the last election.
The border between the United States and Mexico is almost 2000 miles long, from Texas in the east to California in the west. Along the way, it follows rivers, climbs mountains and cuts through dense mesquite forests, crossing sand dunes and deserts. A line on the map that divides neighborhoods and tears families apart. Where tens of thousands of people are crossing on their way to and from work, drug traffickers haul backpacks of marijuana and migrants risk their lives in hopes of a better future.