Border Issues

Border Issues

Ranchers  in the Pima Natural Resources Conservation District are encountering a significant increase in the number of people crossing the border onto ranch property. These are not families with children, but rather young people dressed in camouflage clothes, carrying backpacks. The border patrol suspects they are likely drug smugglers. For ranchers, however, they are a different kind of menace, for they are destroying endangered species’ native habitat, disturbing the ecosystem and interfering with ranch work and maintenance projects. This section focuses on the environmental and human safety impacts of illegal immigration within the district.