with the silver friends we're going back to a poor south african neighborhood when using and tradition come together in an annual competition but the people would go oh yeah we want on al-jazeera this is the u.s. mexican border a harsh landscape that's become the focus of bitter debate between the two countries. yes. ok well bill the long haul is going to pay through. the right got it right for. the film we're about to show you the first ad in two thousand and seven it questions a policy that's become even more contentious today. the sonoran desert in the south of the united states

a harsh hot and unforgiving landscape straddling the border with mexico a natural barrier not so much a protective wall but a regional belt dividing the bodies of two nations. thousands of illegal migrants cross into this area of arizona every year to them it represents a gateway to a better life. in reality it's often a lot of deaths from which they may never return. crossing the desert to avoid these steel and concrete walls which mark the border in urban areas where the main road like this with look for. anybody out here they could be standing on the side of the road if have made it this far need help. volunteer catherine ferguson and physician norma price are samaritans. rescuing

those who are in desperate need of help illegal she'd been physically and mentally defeated by the deadly conditions people walk not only trails but they walk in circles because they're lost so you could have a child walking out here you could have a man a grandmother or you could have a group of people and all i'm doing is looking for anything that looks like a human being. but katherine and all the only ones on the lookout. and then. tell bush to groups to help us the united states government has. as many border patrol and border patrol backup as there are stars in the sky. in an attempt to secure its borders the current administration is spending billions of dollars on enforcement money many argue is doing little to stop the human traffic merely rebooting it since they've closed the ports it forces people out

into the secure. desert and people are dying so. it is supposed to send a message back to the villages and mexico that if you come here you'll die out of the desert it's a policy of death. they really don't know what they're facing i mean they don't know how hot and dry it is most of them if they haven't been here before they don't know about the desert and mostly women in high heel shoes are wedge shoes and they all have one bottle of water and in this environment that is so hot and dry and desolate. if they need if they have any degree of heat exhaustion illness they need to been taken the hospital me and the heat literally just codes for the brain the heart the good news we see a lot of pregnant women and that also. increases the risk that they'll get into trouble. that the worst. saddest of all course is the children and we see

a situation where children. bob for those making the passage it's a terrible choice a gamble really face death and avoid capture or seek help even if that means deportation or. a head in the distance emerging from the scrub stands a solitary figure. his decision has been made paying with his life is too high a price for passage to the promised land. but is this in your. so much somebody. frightened disorientated and exhausted his story is like so many of those

left behind when he couldn't keep up with the group. especially this one in a box. think tank is. one of the things that go with. what could be an iraqi. face. on it. but all. with. the only that. i thought by a white boy. i can hope and they know that i had committed you know we will need the word. has been. they want to thank you for your.

if you would with. the. media. thinking. the samaritans present him with his options but his face betrays the arms of. peers who sent me there on. a plane if they don't think you. can. see us nor means the samaritans can do nothing but call the border patrol placing an illegal in their own car would mean a possible jail sentence anybody that gives them a ride would be arrested if they're caught we can't do that they could spend five

years in prison for transporting. and ten years for conspiring against the united states government. with little time to collect his thoughts and belongings he's arrested by the border patrol. and this is the first time blow up the. stand back and release my car. i apologize for america they're really nice americans here those guys were nice. but if the authorities appear to be taking a hard line there's a reason for their lack of hospitality the truth is many who attempt to cross illegally will do so again and again until they succeed and that means zero tolerance. your. love life.

you know well ok. they have a warrant oh my goodness these are human beings we're dealing with intelligent healing since you know beans and we can't give them socks or water there's something very wrong with that. we have a schizophrenia sign at the border we have this big sign that says keep out and at the same time metaphorically we have the sign that says help wanted we have there's a tremendous number of jobs we have significant sectors in the economy that need large numbers of low skilled workers that were not producing in the native born population and there are no legal channels for those workers to command and therefore the only way those workers can enter in large numbers it's illegally. judas is an academic and an immigration x. but she knows the statistics speak for themselves since two thousand people have

been entering at the rate of about eight hundred fifty thousand a year there are currently on the estimated twelve million people in the country illegally and that's a huge number but the other thing is happening is that immigrants are going to what we call nontraditional states communities all over the country are suddenly waking up to find large foreign born populations in their midst in their schools and it seemed like it happened overnight in felicitous and wait a minute what's going on and there's a feeling that the system is out of control which in fact it so i mean there are serious problems with our immigration system. a series of fences dotted along the three thousand kilometer border between the united states and mexico were designed to stem the flow of illegal movement in the areas based on current estimates the system is a failure. the walls have not been an effective deterrent they've changed their way . the cost and getting at the time of the fence was put up in california the

assumption was that the desert was too difficult environment and the desert itself would be an effective wall and people would come in through the day that has turned out to be false people have come into the desert and as you know a lot of people died trying to cross. despite this the walls will continue to go up with president bush signing off on the secure fence act in two thousand and six approving the construction of a war stretching one thousand kilometers on the other side of the fence the lure of the american dollar appeals to both citizens the mexican government like mexico benefits tremendously by having its workers here. remittances money being sent home by mexican citizens working in the united states to their families in mexico is the second largest source of foreign currency in mexico but lessens the social pressure within the country so mexico in a real way doesn't have

a huge incentive to stop this. over doro all she can see is a separation barrier which has divided her family. but i. was . led by the only book people. without legal status one can move between the two countries so for the past fourteen years he hasn't seen his family in mexico. not imo. well i want to. it's

a sacrifice millions have been willing to make and many more. to follow. their. mexico a country of more than one hundred million people but more than forty percent live below the poverty line for so many that the poverty line here of the border with the united states. on the other side stands opportunity employment and dreams of earning a high old way. but standing in their way approved such as this. this is american border patrol u.s. citizens doing their bit to keep illegals. the

organization is led by glenn spencer his arizona ranch sits directly on the border thanks to glenn anyone can patrol it via the internet. this is one of american border patrols remotely operated border cams this camera is wireless and operated by solar power. so really you could run this camera from your home in new york to watch the border so that we can have thousands of americans watching the border was real vigilance twenty four hours a day seven days a week. glenn says the u.s. government secure border initiative is a disastrous failure and he's compiled hours of video footage to prove it this is the most highly policed area in the country right and we could walk through even in

daylight with a huge atomic bomb on our back. and they would know it they could stop it if they wanted to but they don't i will bet you there are at least sixty illegal aliens holed up moving through the river in the washington right now you have to understand this goes on four. hundred miles of the united states border. all along you're now people say well i don't see anybody well they don't want to be seen and to make sure they are being seen american border patrol is spending millions of donated dollars on surveillance equipment this is our border hawk you avi stands for unmanned aerial vehicle and basically it's not a lot different than a remote control airplane except this has a computer inside of it if i was by itself. and underneath it down here this is our

little pan and tilt system here this is one we designed it had built for us and this allows us to look around three sixty and i interrogate a target as it would be called where you can look at some and stay on it as the planes moving a former military man mike king knows how to catch the enemy so when the federal aviation authorities stopped him flying on mind aircraft he simply changed tactics plan b. was to buy real airplanes and so we did we purchased a cessna two to a six and we get a lot of video that way it's been a extremely effective tool for us to gather intelligence on what's happening on the border what you train your eye to see in the bush is you start picking up pretty easily as you fly along or especially the south side as they're staging. there are aspiring illegal aliens at that point there is a lot of it you don't see it because they don't want to be seen but they're everywhere and we first got

a thermal camera put on the house and i turned and i swung into the south just looking into mexico for people down there and the next day there were people down there and the next day there were people down there and that every night i was catching groups of twenty thirty walking just west of the property here for like three weeks straight for in three weeks i caught like five hundred people i don't pretend like i'm not involved you know my my conscience will allow me i see it happening you know getting into my country today and i call the border patrol so let them deal with that we don't go out and tackle anybody. this all may seem a little excessive obsessive or even slightly odd but considering that more than three billion u.s. dollars is being spent on border security glenn showed al-jazeera exactly when that money isn't going project now that. international border between the united states and mexico i'm now going to step into mexico. and here

we are. self of the border. down mexico way. this is the first line of defense for the united states against an invasion from the rest of the world it may stop some but not many come much money we're spending on defending the borders of iraq. and our borders are wide open and the government knows it and wide open to drunks terrorists and we've proven there. and they know it. but there were being sacrificed on the altar of globalism and longer believe in the nation state they want to merge mexico the united states and canada together and if a few thousand people are sacrificed in the process as just press. for many who have tried to cross and failed they rest receive medical treatment for

cuts and blisters and then get ready to do it all again and here in the gallus in mexico people smuggling is big business for. me. i stay as the theme of this man is a. he won't show his face because he imports goods from the united states but it's human exportation and exploitation where the real money is a. good. employer and not only. on it but by and. by a little mantras and get back a place was a pleasure said it was as close as it will get a god. but there in lies the irony of the situation the legal route into the us is fraught with as many obstacles as

a trek through the desert. regardless of one's political allegiance regardless of whether someone's an activist or humanitarian you can't. turn away from those and i hear often i hear people say well i like the migrants i just don't like the illegal migrant or like immigrants just those who come in legally and i think his people are either extremely naive or. stubborn or. you know turning their back on the situation because there's no way these people can come in legally. though as the saying goes do good fences make good neighbors many would argue it's merely the symptoms that are being addressed not the cause and that is an issue for both sides of the fence i think a chain fall that a country as rich as mexico. is forcing poor people to

come to another country to work i would suggest that it is shameful that the president and mexico calls people who go to other countries illegally to work heroes. and i think it's shameful that of both our countries that we can't get together and work out some sort of sensible policy. melissa owens lives with the reality of illegal migration this is her backyard it stretches as far as the eye can see well basically mexico is about four and a half miles right over that ridge right there this is due south but she's seen enough of the problems and trespass as. i would say we would have at least one group of fifteen to twenty people at least every night sometimes groups of men but

sometimes women with children in their arms. waking me up you know they have no idea what to do that last they just need help. they've been told by their guides their call your days that it's six miles to wherever they're going to get up to the top of that ridge and there this is the view they get to look out across the valley obviously there's nothing. but within the picturesque landscape melissa's ranch resembles a fortified compound enclosed by rays a while to keep her safe and intruders out i had some men i don't know how many it was attempt to break in my house while i was here and they were actually kicking in the door. and i was so i was here by myself and it was it was it was not a good experience so i think i'm pretty tough but i don't particularly want to have that happen again alone in such

a remote environment melissa is prepared to defend herself and her property when i work away from the house i wear a small head and i have it on my belt almost all the time i wear it for protection i i hope to god i never have to use this gun i don't like having to wear it doesn't make me feel. powerful or important but on the other hand if i'm ever in a really bad situation i want to be able to defend myself. an emotionally charged issue that legal migration has polarized americans it's an issue debated by politicians thousands of kilometers away in washington d.c. but one which affects individuals the border directly if i didn't have the greatest respect for hispanic culture i sure would. be here is that in

mexico border. i'm not talking about race i'm not. king about nationality i'm talking about people who are on my land and in my country illegally i don't want. people i don't know walking across my land and i don't care whether they're from finland or togo or water mala. i don't want them here it's a small war zone. people don't know what it is i wish they would come here at the moment it's very quiet with beautiful big clouds but at certain times of day their helicopters out here their horse patrols their a.t.v.'s around their guys that look like darth vader they're completely covered in black and they carry guns and they're out here looking for people like the man we met today. it's another way to

instill fear in america. since this film. the us continue to increase spending. at no other time in history has been as many. as there are today and now the authorities are bracing for a new children since. the number of families and unaccompanied children. young people are falling family. having fled or extreme violence in central america . today the buddha issue is taking center stage in u.s. politics as u.s. president gets serious about one of his biggest campaign promises we will build the wall.

street. building a new life on in the beach living off the sea and. a dream shared by so many but so few make it a reality. a family business led by a woman with a flair for cooking and a zest than if. i didn't catch it on al-jazeera.

nature music as it breaks although thousands of women have reported other thankful atrocities in south sudan the word rats are going to. be much higher with detailed coverage nearly fifty schools took part in the drive each one responsible for collecting at different school supplies clothing from around the world several focal is still very new here but these players are very confident they won't be able fully made people want to buy on the international study. where were you when this idea popped into it when they're on line it's undoubtedly chief. of opinion equality in our society today or if you join the sunset criminal justice system is dysfunctional right now this is a dialogue what does it feel like to go back for the first time everyone has a voice and allow refugees to be the speakers for change join the conversation on

our. securing the p.c. theo peer rolls out a welcome for every train as the old enemy has put aside twenty years of hostilities. hello i'm down and this is al jazeera live from doha also coming up. police in nicaragua open fire more than two hundred seventy people have been killed in months of anti-government protests. the u.s. president arrives in scotland as angry demonstrators protest against his working visit to the u.k. . national pride is running high in from somebody.