Photos: Arizona and the Mexican border
- Updated
Beyond the Wall: Arizona's border with Mexico in photos.
2016 Border Project: Arizona
- Mike Christy / Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
Rancher Tony Sedgwick, left, chats with a man he saw sitting on the ground just on the Mexican side of the international border west of Nogales, Ariz.
2016 Border Project: Arizona
- Mike Christy / Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
Francisco Obeso, 13, leaps to try and save a shot along Avenida Captain Carlos G. Calles just south of the international border fence in San Luis Rio Colorado, Sonora, Mexico.
2016 Border Project: Arizona
- Mamta Popat / Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
Vehicle barrier, or "Normandy" fencing, lines the U.S.-Mexico border in the San Pedro River National Conservation Area inside Arizona's Coronado National Memorial park.
2016 Border Project: Arizona
- Mamta Popat / Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
Rene Nunez, 56, can see the U.S.-Mexico border fence from the front porch of his home in Douglas, Arizona.
2016 Border Project: Arizona
- Mamta Popat / Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
A Border Patrol agent parks on a hill looking into Mexico near the international border fence in Nogales, Arizona.
2016 Border Project: Arizona
- Mike Christy / Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
A Border Patrol agent drags a device comprised of old tires and a metal rake-like assembly to smooth a Duquesne Road, northwest of Lochiel, Arizona.
2016 Border Project: Arizona
- Mamta Popat / Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
Jim Chilton, 77, grazes his cattle on 50,000 acres in Arivaca, Arizona. He often finds trash left behind by border crossers — clothing, plastic bags, cans of food and water bottles. Drug smugglers cut across his land to make drops of marijuana.
2016 Border Project: Arizona
- Mamta Popat / Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
Arivaca rancher Jim Chilton opens a cowboy gate that is the U.S.-Mexico border on the Tres Bellotas Ranch. Ranchers install these gates so that when border crossers and drug smugglers come through, they open and close the gate rather than cutting the fence, which can lead to cattle wandering across the border.
2016 Border Project: Arizona
- Mamta Popat / Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
Rancher Jim Chilton picks up a shoe left by a border crosser on his ranch in Arivaca, Arizona. On this part of his 50,000 acre ranch, migrants hide under the branches of this oak tree to escape detection from U.S. Border Patrol helicopters above.
2016 Border Project: Arizona
- Mamta Popat / Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
Jim and Sue Chilton keep a collection of carpet shoes they find on their ranch in Arivaca, Arizona. Drug and people smugglers wear these shoes to keep their footprints from showing up in the desert.
2016 Border Project: Arizona
- Mamta Popat / Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
Plastic bottles, cans and other items are left under an oak tree on the property of Arivaca rancher Jim Chilton. By the time border crossers arrive here, they will have been walking for about six hours, just on the U.S. side.
2016 Border Project: Arizona
- Mike Christy / Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
The international border, with Mexico on the right, as seen west of Lochiel, Arizona.
2016 Border Project: Arizona
- Mike Christy / Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
The ghost town of Lochiel, Arizona, still boasts a few inhabitants.
2016 Border Project: Arizona
- Mike Christy / Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
The international border fence transitions from pedestrian barrier to vehicle barrier west of Nogales, Arizona.
2016 Border Project: Arizona
- Mamta Popat / Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
Jessie Frisby, right, teaches her students the song they will perform for their mother's as part of a Mother's Day concert at Cri-Cri Kindergarten school in Agua Prieta, Sonora, Mexico.
2016 Border Project: Arizona
- Mamta Popat / Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
Students at Cri-Cri Kindergarten do the motions to a song during their school day in Agua Prieta, Sonora, Mexico. The school is one block from the U.S.-Mexico border.
2016 Border Project: Arizona
- Mamta Popat / Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
Maria Sara Moreno, owner and director of Cri-Cri Kindergarten in Agua Prieta, Sonora, gets a group hug from her kindergartners. The school is one block from the U.S.-Mexico border. Moreno started the school in 1974 with one room. She teaches the kids English so they can attend schools in the United States if their families wish.
2016 Border Project: Arizona
- Mike Christy / Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
Horses graze in a field in Lochiel, Arizona.
2016 Border Project: Arizona
- Mamta Popat / Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
A sign in Arivaca warns travelers of encounters with border-crossers. Smugglers carry marijuana to drop-off points and walk back into Mexico.
2016 Border Project: Arizona
- Mike Christy / Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
Border Patrol agents bring a suspected drug smuggler into custody after a group was spotted on a mountain range near the border at Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument and Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge southwest of Ajo, Arizona.
2016 Border Project: Arizona
- Mamta Popat / Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
A deer passes through from Mexico into the United States through the vehicle barrier, or "Normandy" fencing, in the San Pedro River National Conservation Area inside the Coronado National Memorial park in Arizona. The vehicle barriers are used so wildlife can cross freely.
2016 Border Project: Arizona
- Mike Christy / Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
Rancher Tony Sedgwick leans over the vehicle barriers marking the international border as he reads a boundary monument near Lochiel, Arizona.
2016 Border Project: Arizona
- Mamta Popat / Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
The U.S.-Mexico border fence at the San Miguel gate can be seen from above near Sells, Arizona. Mexico is at the top of the image.
2016 Border Project: Arizona
- Mike Christy / Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
The moon rises in the distance as seen from Ajo, Arizona.
2016 Border Project: Arizona
- Mamta Popat / Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
Ophelia Rivas, 59, pulls back a fence at her home near the U.S.-Mexico border fence on the O'odham Community of Ali Jegk in Arizona. Rivas and other residents post signs to try and keep the U.S. Border Patrol of coming onto their property.
2016 Border Project: Arizona
- Mike Christy / Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
Light fixures burn all night over the triple-fence zone along Avenida Captain Carlos G. Calles, just south of the international border fence in San Luis Rio Colorado, Sonora, Mexico.
2016 Border Project: Arizona
- Mamta Popat / Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
Tribal members can cross back and forth through the San Miguel gate on the Tohono O'odham Nation without having to go through a port of entry. A U.S. Border Patrol agent is on site 24 hours a day to check tribal identifications and cars passing through.
U.S. Border Patrol horse unit
- Photos by A.E. Araiza / Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
Shawn Rodgers, a supervisory Border Patrol agent, looks for the best way out of a ravine so he can get better radio reception.
2016 Border Project: Arizona
- Mamta Popat / Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
The desert and mountainous terrain can be difficult for illegal border crossers to walk through near Arivaca, Arizona. In some of these areas, there is no border fence.
2016 Border Project: Arizona
- Mamta Popat / Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
A portion of the U.S.-Mexico border fence ends in Nogales, Arizona., seen from the U.S. side.
2016 Border Project: Arizona
- Mamta Popat / Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
Concrete barriers form the border fence west of Naco, Arizona.
2016 Border Project: Arizona
- Mike Christy / Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
Border Patrol agents shield their faces as a Customs and Border Protection helicopter takes off to ferry suspected drug traffickers to be taken into custody along Bates Well Road, southwest of Ajo, Arizona.
2016 Border Project: Arizona
- Mamta Popat / Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
Michael Montgomery, operations supervisor at the Tucson air branch with the Air and Marine Operations, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, flies towards the U.S.-Mexico border in Arizona.
2016 Border Project: Arizona
- Mike Christy / Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
Carmen Diaz, 47, a neighbor of Catalina Ortega, 66, left, and Antonio Ferrez Salazar, 11, right, holds a flower petal to get her dog's attention while the trio visit one afternoon along Avenida Captain Carlos G. Calles, just south of the international border fence in San Luis Rio Colorado, Sonora, Mexico.
2016 Border Project: Arizona
- Mamta Popat / Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
The U.S.-Mexico border fence can be seen from above near Sells, Arizona. The United States is on the left and Mexico is on the right.
2016 Border Project: Arizona
- Mamta Popat / Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
Francine Pearl Jose makes fry bread in her outdoor kitchen at her home on the Tohono O'odham Nation.
2016 Border Project: Arizona
- Mike Christy / Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
A man is framed in the fence of a home along Avenida Captain Carlos G. Calles, just south of the U.S.-Mexico border fence in San Luis Rio Colorado, Sonora, Mexico.
2016 Border Project: Arizona
- Mamta Popat / Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
Glenn Spencer receives small flags from people across the United States to be placed on his own wall that is built near the U.S.-Mexico border fence.
2016 Border Project: Arizona
- Mike Christy / Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
A vehicle passes by on the Mexican side of the U.S.-Mexico border fence at Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument just east of Lukeville, Arizona.
2016 Border Project: Arizona
- Mamta Popat / Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
Hermelinda Acosta, 74, lives a block from the U.S.-Mexico border in Douglas, Arizona.
2016 Border Project: Arizona
- Mamta Popat / Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
The U.S.-Mexico border fence ends in a mountain range in the O'odham Community of Ali Jegk in Arizona.
2016 Border Project: Arizona
- Mike Christy / Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
A Border Patrol truck perches on a hilltop just north of the Buenos Aires neighborhood across the border in Nogales, Sonora.
2016 Border Project: Arizona
- Mamta Popat / Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
Border monument #161 stands on the Mexico side of the fence in the Tohono O'odham community of Ali Jegk.
2016 Border Project: Arizona
- Mike Christy / Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
The U.S.-Mexico border fence halts at an irrigation canal along Avenida Captain Carlos G. Calles, just south of the international border fence in San Luis Rio Colorado, Sonora, Mexico.
2016 Border Project: Arizona
- Mamta Popat / Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
The U.S.-Mexico border stretches across the mountains outside Nogales, Arizona.
2016 Border Project: Arizona
- Mamta Popat / Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
Francisco Valenzuela Sr. presents his tribal identification to U.S. Border Patrol agent Carlos Ortiz, before crossing back into Mexico through the San Miguel gate on the Tohono O'odham Nation on Thursday June 02, 2016. Valenzuela says he crosses into the United States twice a week to bring water, food and other supplies back to his home. GPS: 31 33' 16.4" N -111 46' 13.2" W
2016 Border Project: Arizona
- Mamta Popat / Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
Vehicle barriers line the U.S.-Mexico border in San Bernardino Wildlife Refuge in Douglas, Arizona. The barriers were installed in 2008 by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
2016 Border Project: Arizona
- Mike Christy / Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
Sid Slone, left, manager of the Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge, talks with Roger McManus as they look over a map of the refuge west of Ajo, Arizona.
2016 Border Project: Arizona
- Mike Christy / Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
A rancher on the Sonoran side of the international border uses the boundary fence for pens and corrals near Lochiel, Arizona.
2016 Border Project: Arizona
- Mike Christy / Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
Roger McManus, president of the Friends of the Sonoran Desert, examines a tire drag used by Border Patrol to clear dirt roads so signs like footprints appear more clearly in Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, just east of Lukeville, Arizona.
2016 Border Project: Arizona
- Mike Christy / Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
Cattle graze near a stretch of the international border fence comprised of vehicle barriers and barbed-wire fence west of Lochiel, Arizona.
2016 Border Project: Arizona
- Mamta Popat / Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
A border monument marks the U.S.-Mexico border in Agua Prieta, Sonora, Mexico. The cross honors migrants who have died while trying to cross into the United States.
2016 Border Project: Arizona
- Mike Christy / Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
An old chapel rests on a hill behind mesquite trees in Lochiel, Arizona.
2016 Border Project: Arizona
- Mamta Popat / Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
A sign marks the U.S.-Mexico border fence on the Tohono O'odham Nation.
2016 Border Project: Arizona
- Mamta Popat / Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
A U.S. Border Patrol agent sits on top of a hill along the U.S.-Mexico border fence in Nogales, Arizona.
2016 Border Project: Arizona
- Mike Christy / Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
The waters of Quitobaquito Springs in Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument southwest of Ajo, Arizona.
2016 Border Project: Arizona
- Mamta Popat / Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
The U.S.-Mexico border fence seen from above Nogales, Arizona. The United States in sn the left and Mexico is on the right.
2016 Border Project: Arizona
- Mike Christy / Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
The U.S.-Mexico border fence is comprised of a post-and-rail vehicle barrier on the right, and grate pedestrian fence as it ascends a hill near Puerto Blanco Drive in the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument west of Lukeville, Ariz. Latitude: 31.893883 | Longitude: -112.861304
2016 Border Project: Arizona
- Mamta Popat / Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
Rene Nunez's front porch in Douglas, Arizona, looks directly at the U.S.-Mexico border fence.
2016 Border Project: Arizona
- Mamta Popat / Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
William Radke, refuge manager with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, sits on a rail that is the U.S.-Mexico border in San Bernardino Wildlife Refuge in Douglas, Ariz. Mexico is behind him.
2016 Border Project: Arizona
- Mamta Popat / Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
United States Border Patrol agents pull over two men driving along the U.S.-Mexico border fence in Nogales, Arizona.
2016 Border Project: Arizona
- Mamta Popat / Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
This 18-foot-high bollard border fence was built in 2008 inside the Coronado National Memorial park in Arizona. A gate was put in for access to the south side of the park in case of a wildfire or another emergency.
2016 Border Project: Arizona
- Mike Christy / Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
Joshua Guerrero, 11, uses a homemade periscope to peer through the U.S.-Mexico pedestrian fence along Avenida Captain Carlos G. Calles, just south of the international border fence in San Luis Rio Colorado, Sonora, Mexico.
2016 Border Project: Arizona
- Mamta Popat / Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
Glenn Spencer, a longtime advocate of tougher immigration laws, receives small flags from across the United States to be placed on his own wall near the U.S.-Mexico border fence.
2016 Border Project: Arizona
- Mike Christy / Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
With balloons and fruit snacks in hand, a family walks past a line of vehicles queued to enter the United States just east of the port of entry in San Luis Rio Colorado, Sonora, Mexico.
2016 Border Project: Arizona
- Mamta Popat / Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
Children play on a trampoline in the front yard of a house just one block away from the U.S.-Mexico border in Douglas, Arizona.
2016 Border Project: Arizona
- Mamta Popat / Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
Glenn Spencer built this wall about five years ago after someone pulled an American flag off of a pole he had put up near his property. Over the years people have sent him small flags to post on his walls — they spell out, "Secure the Border First" and, "America."
2016 Border Project: Arizona
- Mamta Popat / Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
A U.S. Border Patrol agent drives along the U.S.-Mexico border fence. Mexico is on the right.
2016 Border Project: Arizona
- Mamta Popat / Arizona Daily Star
Jim Chilton, 77, grazes his cattle on 50,000 acres in Arivaca, Arizona. He often finds trash left behind by border crossers — clothing, plastic bags, cans of food and water bottles. Drug smugglers cut across his land to make drops of marijuana.
2016 Border Project: Arizona
- Mamta Popat / Arizona Daily Star
Arivaca rancher Jim Chilton opens a cowboy gate that is the U.S.-Mexico border on the Tres Bellotas Ranch. Ranchers install these gates so that when border crossers and drug smugglers come through, they open and close the gate rather than cutting the fence, which can lead to cattle wandering across the border.
2016 Border Project: Arizona
- Mamta Popat / Arizona Daily Star
Rancher Jim Chilton picks up a shoe left by a border crosser on his ranch in Arivaca, Arizona. On this part of his 50,000 acre ranch, migrants hide under the branches of this oak tree to escape detection from U.S. Border Patrol helicopters above.
2016 Border Project: Arizona
- Mamta Popat / Arizona Daily Star
Jim and Sue Chilton keep a collection of carpet shoes they find on their ranch in Arivaca, Arizona. Drug and people smugglers wear these shoes to keep their footprints from showing up in the desert.
2016 Border Project: Arizona
- Mamta Popat / Arizona Daily Star
Plastic bottles, cans and other items are left under an oak tree on the property of Arivaca rancher Jim Chilton. By the time border crossers arrive here, they will have been walking for about six hours, just on the U.S. side.
2016 Border Project: Arizona
- Mamta Popat / Arizona Daily Star
Maria Sara Moreno, owner and director of Cri-Cri Kindergarten in Agua Prieta, Sonora, gets a group hug from her kindergartners. The school is one block from the U.S.-Mexico border. Moreno started the school in 1974 with one room. She teaches the kids English so they can attend schools in the United States if their families wish.
2016 Border Project: Arizona
- Mike Christy / Arizona Daily Star
Border Patrol agents bring a suspected drug smuggler into custody after a group was spotted on a mountain range near the border at Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument and Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge southwest of Ajo, Arizona.
2016 Border Project: Arizona
- Mamta Popat / Arizona Daily Star
A deer passes through from Mexico into the United States through the vehicle barrier, or "Normandy" fencing, in the San Pedro River National Conservation Area inside the Coronado National Memorial park in Arizona. The vehicle barriers are used so wildlife can cross freely.
2016 Border Project: Arizona
- Mamta Popat / Arizona Daily Star
Ophelia Rivas, 59, pulls back a fence at her home near the U.S.-Mexico border fence on the O'odham Community of Ali Jegk in Arizona. Rivas and other residents post signs to try and keep the U.S. Border Patrol of coming onto their property.
2016 Border Project: Arizona
- Mamta Popat / Arizona Daily Star
Tribal members can cross back and forth through the San Miguel gate on the Tohono O'odham Nation without having to go through a port of entry. A U.S. Border Patrol agent is on site 24 hours a day to check tribal identifications and cars passing through.
2016 Border Project: Arizona
- Mike Christy / Arizona Daily Star
Border Patrol agents shield their faces as a Customs and Border Protection helicopter takes off to ferry suspected drug traffickers to be taken into custody along Bates Well Road, southwest of Ajo, Arizona.
2016 Border Project: Arizona
- Mike Christy / Arizona Daily Star
Carmen Diaz, 47, a neighbor of Catalina Ortega, 66, left, and Antonio Ferrez Salazar, 11, right, holds a flower petal to get her dog's attention while the trio visit one afternoon along Avenida Captain Carlos G. Calles, just south of the international border fence in San Luis Rio Colorado, Sonora, Mexico.
2016 Border Project: Arizona
- Mamta Popat / Arizona Daily Star
Francisco Valenzuela Sr. presents his tribal identification to U.S. Border Patrol agent Carlos Ortiz, before crossing back into Mexico through the San Miguel gate on the Tohono O'odham Nation on Thursday June 02, 2016. Valenzuela says he crosses into the United States twice a week to bring water, food and other supplies back to his home. GPS: 31 33' 16.4" N -111 46' 13.2" W
2016 Border Project: Arizona
- Mike Christy / Arizona Daily Star
Roger McManus, president of the Friends of the Sonoran Desert, examines a tire drag used by Border Patrol to clear dirt roads so signs like footprints appear more clearly in Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, just east of Lukeville, Arizona.
2016 Border Project: Arizona
- Mike Christy / Arizona Daily Star
The U.S.-Mexico border fence is comprised of a post-and-rail vehicle barrier on the right, and grate pedestrian fence as it ascends a hill near Puerto Blanco Drive in the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument west of Lukeville, Ariz. Latitude: 31.893883 | Longitude: -112.861304
2016 Border Project: Arizona
- Mamta Popat / Arizona Daily Star
William Radke, refuge manager with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, sits on a rail that is the U.S.-Mexico border in San Bernardino Wildlife Refuge in Douglas, Ariz. Mexico is behind him.
2016 Border Project: Arizona
- Mamta Popat / Arizona Daily Star
This 18-foot-high bollard border fence was built in 2008 inside the Coronado National Memorial park in Arizona. A gate was put in for access to the south side of the park in case of a wildfire or another emergency.
2016 Border Project: Arizona
- Mike Christy / Arizona Daily Star
Joshua Guerrero, 11, uses a homemade periscope to peer through the U.S.-Mexico pedestrian fence along Avenida Captain Carlos G. Calles, just south of the international border fence in San Luis Rio Colorado, Sonora, Mexico.
2016 Border Project: Arizona
- Mamta Popat / Arizona Daily Star
Glenn Spencer built this wall about five years ago after someone pulled an American flag off of a pole he had put up near his property. Over the years people have sent him small flags to post on his walls — they spell out, "Secure the Border First" and, "America."
As featured on
Ranchers want agents closer to border along with more electronic surveillance.
Ranchers want agents closer to border along with more electronic surveillance.
Customs officers catch a small fraction of the guns smuggled into Mexico.
More information
- Judge orders Border Patrol to improve detention conditions
- Trump signs orders to build border wall, penalize 'sanctuary' cities
- Tohono O'odham leaders confident Trump's wall won't rise on their border
- Fraudulent ID busts down at border ports of entry
- Pima County supervisors, Tucson City Council formally oppose border wall
- Border Patrol: 360 migrants, mostly families, surrender to agents near Lukeville
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