How bad is it?

Watch for the drones, Matthew Casey, a reporter for KJZZ public radio in Phoenix, Arizona, said. That’s the new way the U.S. Border Control officers look for drug smugglers and human traffickers along the border with Mexico in southern Arizona.

He was speaking in an area known as a crossroads for all of the main characters in this part of the country. They include refugees from Mexico and Central America, the Border Patrol, the smugglers — of both people and drugs, explained Casey, who has covered immigration and the border for more than a dozen years.

He was speaking to two other journalists and me. Going to the U.S.-Mexico border was a heck of a way to spend Jan. 15, the day when Republicans and Democrats in Iowa were caucusing in a deep freeze. But a lot of talk, including about the border, goes on when dealing with politics at events like the caucuses. Having the good fortune of being in Arizona instead of precinct caucus, three Arizona journalists and a lone Iowan decided to satisfy a curiosity: How bad is it?

This area south of Tucson touches a border we are told is awash with invading bad characters. Iowa’s political leaders have made points about this happening in Texas, who governor is claiming state’s rights in the face of a Supreme Court ruling, with support from 26 governors who including Iowa’s.

But, Arizona? We don’t hear a lot up north. There, on the border, sits Sasabe, population nine people, although more live in nearby ranches. The local store owner is asked about claims of border chaos. “Do you see any chaos?” she asks. Not really. A guy came in to buy two tamales for $3.75 each. A few more cars stopped for lunch and gas.

The store owner said she didn’t want to give her name because a news media outlet published a photo of her store when someone was murdered 50 miles south in Mexico.

Well, that’s one story from the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge desert where Sasabe is situated. There are others that the store owner skipped over, including gang warfare just the other side of the border wall in Sasabe, Sonora, Mexico, in November and December and people fleeing from there to Sasabe, Arizona. Or, the white vigilante who kept going across the border and into Mexico east of Sasabe while chasing an unarmed man back into that country in April 2023.

There were plenty of Border Patrol on this day. A group of agents with four cars and an all-terrain vehicle taking off flak jackets hinted to having a good night. We stopped and asked how good but they wouldn’t talk about it.

A drive east from Sasabe along a rough, dirt trail to the village of Arivaca was quiet. People were friendly enough in the Arivaca cantina while they watched an NFL playoff game on television. Farther east, in Nogales, Arizona, and Nogales, Sonora, the cultures, people and businesses appeared to integrate peacefully. North of Nogales, a town that flies the U.S. and Mexican flags side-by-side on light poles, miles of refrigerated warehouses line Interstate 19, holding fruits and vegetables harvested in Mexico and tabbed for distribution across the United States.

Yet, there are signs that not all is well in this part of the world. Sasabe, Sonora, is virtually vacant, reports from there state. People have been murdered there in a fight between rival drug cartels. On the north side of the wall, Sasabe, Arizona, is mostly a handful burned out buildings, except for the general store, post office and a bar that’s open Saturdays only. Armed men were arrested at Sasabe’s border in December.

Along that desert path between Sasabe and Arivaca, a four-foot-tall hand-made cross sticks up from the rocks underneath a tree, its purpose untold. An Arivaca rancher heard a gunfight from the Mexican side of the border in December. The desert looks foreboding for any kind of surreptitious trip to freedom in the United States.

Swooping in for a day – and that clearly was what this trip was – tells you little about the complexity of dealing with the U.S.-Mexico border. Arizona’s border is different than California’s, New Mexico’s or Texas – three states I did not visit. The biggest thing I learned on a one-day attempt to view some facts is that you only get the tiniest glimpse of how this all plays out.

Understanding the border requires a grasp of U.S. immigration policies, Mexico’s inability to curb drug cartel crime, gang violence in Central American countries from where many undocumented immigrants come, but also the reason so many people have wanted to be in the United States for more than two centuries – to make a better life for themselves.

You might want to consider that when you see politicians going on border trips or talking about experiences there. “Iowa stands with Texas,” Gov. Kim Reynolds stated Jan. 25 on the X social media platform. She and U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson, R-Iowa, are among the many Republican leaders supporting Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s declaration that Texas has a state constitutional right to disobey a U.S. Supreme Court ruling on removing razor wire from the border. The Iowa Legislature is considering bills that require Iowans to show proof that they are in the United States legally in order to receive in-state tuition at a state university or to get help from public assistance programs.

Iowa’s political leaders should visit Arizona’s border if they want a full picture of what is happening. California and New Mexico, too. And, focus on real immigration issues that put the border in play as a political opportunity. We think we know what’s happening along that border but we really don’t, especially from a day trip that turned out to be as superficial as presuming we know in an Iowa precinct caucus or the Statehouse.

Lyle Muller is a retired Iowa journalist and former Gazette editor serving as professional adviser at Grinnell College’s Scarlet & Black student-run newspaper.