‘We Need the Wall,’ Arizonans Say as Border Crisis Cripples Communities

Arizonans express concerns about drugs and crime amid influx of illegal immigrants in their state.

Illegal immigrants wait in line to be processed by the U.S. Border Patrol after crossing through a gap in the U.S.-Mexico border barrier in Yuma, Ariz., on May 21, 2022. Mario Tama/Getty Images

Arizonans who have personally witnessed the toll of illegal immigration say completing the border wall should be the first step to ending the crisis crippling their state.

“We need the wall installed and completed where it makes sense,” retired Chief Border Patrol Agent Chris Clem said on May 10.

“We need that technology installed as intended, and we need to increase the number of Border Patrol agents and border security personnel as requested by senior field leaders.”

Mr. Clem was one of four witnesses to testify on the border crisis at a House Judiciary Committee field hearing in Sahuarita, Arizona. While each person had their own story to tell, they all agreed that finishing the wall was paramount to protecting not just Arizona but the United States as a whole.

Community in Crisis

Mr. Clem’s story was of the knowledge he had accumulated throughout his 28-year career along the Southwest border, where he worked his way up the ranks to command four patrol stations across New Mexico, Texas, and Arizona. Having served under five presidential administrations, he said each one had made efforts to secure the border—except the Biden administration.

“I will state that the system in place in 2020 was one of the best we could have asked for as a country, even with party politics and funding making things difficult,” he said. “This ended and came to a screeching halt under President Biden at the end of fiscal year 2020.”

Perhaps the defining promise of former President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign, the border wall has often been touted by Republicans as one of his greatest accomplishments. But when President Joe Biden took over in 2021, one of his first moves was to halt construction on the project.

Jim Chilton, a rancher from Arivaca, said that decision had left a half-mile gap in the wall along his property, over which thousands of illegal immigrants have traipsed on their way to a nearby migrant camp.

“I have images now of over 3,050 people coming through the ranch marching north,” Mr. Chilton said. “Are any of these 3,050 terrorists? This is a national security issue.”

Jacob Kartchner, a retired Cochise County sheriff’s deputy, said roughly 90 percent of the illegal immigrants he’d encountered throughout his career were “military-aged males” between the ages of 18 and 40. He added that the flow of such individuals into the county had increased “over tenfold” since 2021.

Meanwhile, cross-border human smuggling has led to several fatal car accidents from high-speed chases in the area.

“These incidents have become so commonplace that even when the light turns green, residents of Cochise County wait to see if a high-speed load driver is going to run the red light before proceeding into the intersection,” Mr. Kartchner said.

Fentanyl Threat

And then, of course, there are the drugs.

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency identifies fentanyl as the “deadliest drug threat” the nation has ever faced, killing more than 38,000 Americans in the first half of 2023 alone.

For some, that number may just be a statistic. For Jill Fagan Alexander, it’s the reason she now has two fewer children.

Recounting her sons’ tragic deaths before the committee, Mrs. Alexander choked back tears.

She noted that her 20-year-old son, Sam, had struggled with drug addiction but wanted to straighten out his life. His efforts fell apart, however, when he relapsed and realized how easy it was to obtain a cheap and potent high from fentanyl. He was arrested last year while high and battling COVID-19. And somewhere between the combined symptoms of his sickness and withdrawal, he chose to end his life.

As if that loss weren’t painful enough, Mrs. Alexander was forced to relive that agony again when her 13-year-old son, Gabe, was found unresponsive. He had complained earlier that day of feeling unwell, and she later learned that he’d taken a pill he found at his older brother’s apartment when they went to clean it out.

“I think after he showered and said he was going to take a nap he thought he was out of the woods,” she said. “I think he thought he was going to wake up that day, but he never woke up again.”

Mrs. Alexander acknowledged that her sons’ decisions had played a role in their own fates. “But this virtual flood of pills both into and through Arizona, which has dramatically worsened under the current administration, allowed my boys to make choices they may not have without the current open-border crisis,” she said.

Mrs. Alexander now focuses on educating others about the signs and dangers of fentanyl poisoning and what parents can do to protect their children. Most of the nation’s illicit fentanyl, she noted, is entering the country through Arizona.

Scottsdale Police Chief Jeff Walther in front of a display of illicit fentanyl-laced pills and other narcotics; Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich, and Cheri Oz, special agent in charge of the DEA’s Phoenix field division at a press conference in Scottsdale, Ariz., on Dec. 16, 2021. Scottsdale PD

Asked what she thought would help with those efforts, she said the first step should be closing the border to stop the flow of drugs and other illicit items into the country.

She added that she thought the penalties for producing, transporting, and selling lethal drugs needed to be tougher.

“We charge them with possession, we charge them with production or manufacture, we charge them with intent to sell; we don’t charge them with murder. But that’s what this is,” she said.

Betrayal Accusations

As the panel of witnesses shared their experiences, some committee members expressed their sympathies and condolences, while others expressed outrage over the Biden administration’s handling of the border.

“I’m not going to mince words. I think it’s treasonous,” Rep. Eli Crane (R-Ariz.) said, accusing President Biden and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas of betraying the American people.

A border agent detains camouflaged Mexican nationals who illegally entered the United States near Naco, Ariz,. on Nov. 4, 2022. John Moore/Getty Images

Republicans have repeatedly accused President Biden and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas of purposefully creating a crisis at the border for political gain. Both have denied those allegations, with the latter referring to them as “nothing short of preposterous.”

The witnesses before the committee, however, did not seem to find them so far-fetched.

A couple of them said they believed the president was allowing the situation to create more Democrat voters. Mrs. Alexander, however, said she thought there was more to his decision-making.

“I think it is also genuinely a dislike for who we are as America,” she said.

“I don’t think that he likes who we are. I don’t think he wants us to continue having freedoms that we do. I think by allowing whoever and whatever to come over the border, it changes, it shifts, and I don’t think he’s opposed to that. And that’s very sad, because I love America.”