Welcome to beautiful Mexico. The sun is shining. The Pacific is roaring. I'm in the north-westerly tip of this extraordinary country, right at the point where it meets the United States of America. If only there was some way of working out where the border actually lay. The US-Mexico border is one of the most controversial in the world. What I'm going to do here is my first border fart, I think. Our newsfeeds brim with stories of migrants, drug cartels, murders...and the infamous wall. We're going to build the wall, and Mexico is going to pay for the wall. Believe me. But I want to find out what real life is like on both sides of the border. I love you. I love you, too, but we did say we'd settle out of court, right? So, I'm travelling 2,000 miles from the Pacific Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico. If something happens to me, by chance, you hit this button. That opens that up? That opens that up. And I just spray at will? Just go to town. OK, will do. It's a journey through vibrant cities steeped in culture and tradition. This is the closest I've ever got to a feeling of nobility. And some of the most spectacular landscapes in the world. It's so brilliant to feel this insignificant, isn't it? This is a land of human triumph and tragedy... It feels weird being so close to where my husband is, and not being able to just cross that. ..where heartbreak and hard lives share space with joy, celebration and endless surprises. This is my happy place. It reminds me of a Saturday night in the early '90s. This is the story of the borderland. I'm doing a Mexican wave in Mexico. Whoo! Got to dance. MAN LAUGHS Always there, aren't you? You're just always there. My journey starts where the border itself begins in the west, in Tijuana, just across from San Diego in California. CAR HORNS BLARE The Tijuana-San Diego land border crossing is the busiest in the world. 75 million people cross here every year. In fact, I think most of them have decided to do it this morning. It's extraordinarily well-fortified. All the guards are heavily armed, and this is about as close as we can get to actually film it. This place, Tijuana, is one of the most dangerous in the entire world. But in general, all the news that we get about Tijuana is from the American perspective. So, I'm going to go and find out for myself what life is like. Hola. Matthew? Oh, hi! This is Matthew, who grew up here. He'll be my guide for my first night in the city. Welcome to Tijuana! Thank you! Wow! Oh, this is just the beginning of crazy, I think. Yes, definitely. It's a Friday night in Tijuana, you're up for a treat. The volume of mariachi bands is extraordinary. Tremendous, yeah. All over the place. Here, here and here. This is a brass band over here just playing to the locals, you know. You've got mariachi going up right now. This is the hub of Tijuana party nightlife. This is where Mexico starts. So, I guess this is a pretty sociable city? Oh, yeah. Most definitely. I guarantee you, once you get to know Tijuana, how it is, you'll never want to leave. TJ has always provided people with party because of the Prohibition, you know, in the '30s, where the United States, you know, alcohol was banned, so everybody just came down here to party. And they started opening a lot of gambling places, you know, and bars. And, this street, Revolution Street, is iconic for that. So, we're going to witness that and see that. I'm going to show you. I want to drink tequila out of a space hopper and dance all night. Oh, right, OK. Yeah, sure. We can do that! Let's do that! Whether you're in Teesside or Tijuana, a good night starts out the same way, at the offie. Oh, my God. This is truly paradise. Although this offie is essentially a tequila showroom. I want my tequila in a cross. The tequila market is enormous, worth over $5 billion a year. It's a shame to think that much of that ends up decorating the toilets in student unions back home. Arriba. Arriba. HE SPEAKS SPANISH Father, son and holy ghost. Down your throat. Oh! Oh... Oh, wow. That's complex. It's sugary, then you get burnt bin liner, and then you get... ..then you get the alcohol. There are 1,300 different brands. And this chap, apparently, won't stop until we've tried them all. I think that's... I think that has...very much its own story to tell there, thank you. Tijuana is only 130 years old, but has grown quickly, thanks to its position on the border, drawing people from all over the world, turning the city into an exciting melting pot. I'm keen to put the tequila-swigging-tourist look behind me and find out what local life is like here. So, last night's drinking buddy Matthew has invited me for breakfast. Hola! Hey! Nice to see you. You, too, good morning. Hola! His family are a perfect example of this cultural fusion. His mum, Rosa, is Mexican born and bred. His dad, Stanley, is originally from Haiti. Erm, I'm... Has Matthew got a hangover today? Or is he OK? Well, you know, I didn't give him enough money to get drunk, so he's fine. Good, good! Now, I'm told that you cook the best breakfast in the whole of Mexico. She does. Is this true? Yes, she does. Yes. Will you show me? This is the tortilla. So, the tortilla is the staple of everything? Yeah. The start. Yeah. Rosa is making chilaquiles - fried tortillas, slowly cooked in a chocolate and chilli sauce known as mole. My girl is making my favourite food. That's what she used to make when we first started dating, yeah. Oh, look at you. The pair of you, get a room! The love eyes! Whoo! Keeping up this food tradition certainly works for Stanley and Rosa. They started seeing each other 25 years ago, when he first came to Tijuana. How did you and Stanley meet? Oh, we met in the...in the park. You rogue. Yeah! And, was it love at first sight? Yes. He asked me for marry but I say that you're crazy! That day...? He's laughing. I can hear him laughing. Yeah. "Are you kidding me?" Poor Matthew having to listen to this story. It's all lies. Again! All lies. All lies, always! We've got... You're such a romantic, you. Look at you. It's a different vibe to an English household, where you have to sort of bully the kids to help out. Everyone's...in it. Everyone's excited about eating. The whole air is full of deliciousness. Adopt me, you beautiful nation. This is my first proper Mexican mole. OK, this is a big deal for me. Wow! There you go. That's it. Yeah, yeah. That's... Yeah, I'm in. That's when you decide you're staying in Tijuana. That's it. It's sweet, and it's spicy and it's crunchy, and it's soft and everything! A Mexican mind-set can clearly bring happiness to families like Matthew's. Oh, I loved it. No, I don't want to go! You know I've got the baby in a rucksack, right here, right? Bye-bye. Bye! But recent events in neighbouring countries, and a change in US immigration policy, mean this spirit of openness has been tested to the limit. * Tens of thousands of migrants fleeing poverty and violence in Central and South America have flooded into Mexico in a bid to reach the US. But President Trump has shut the border to refugees. They must now remain in Mexico while they seek asylum, ending up in border towns like Tijuana. These men are helping build a shelter for fellow Hondurans who've fled violence in their country, and now face an impenetrable wall, and as much danger on the streets of Tijuana as where they've escaped from. OK. You got it? HE SPEAKS SPANISH Even I know that that gap isn't good. Oh, no! OK. You beautiful psychopath. I'm not touching that. Yes, that's better. Oh, dear. I mean, it's very... There's not... SAW WHIRS Great. The shelter will house up to 40 single mothers and kids when it's finished. And one family is already trying out a room. THEY WHISPER: Hola. Hola. Hola. So beautiful. Totally knocked out, look at that. I think that is the definition of relaxed. Tell me about your story. Tell me about your journey here. SHE SIGHS Are you OK? Are you OK to carry on? TRANSLATOR TRANSLATES Si. So, you are in a strange, albeit welcoming, country on your own with three very small children. This feels like a very, very important place for you to be at the moment. Where, ultimately, do you want to be with your children? Well, I'm not lucky enough to be a parent. But, I can tell you that two of your children are sound asleep, and the other one is playing very happily. So, from where I am standing, you are an excellent mum. Gracias. Gracias. I came here determined to keep an open mind. But after meeting this vulnerable young family in desperate need, it's hard not to take a view. It seems to me that, erm, public consensus is that this wall is to keep Mexicans out. But it's not just Mexicans, is it? It's Hondurans, it's El Salvadorians or Chileans. It's Guatemalans or Venezuelans. Or anybody else. Anybody and everybody else that is starving, and in need, and wants a better life. And there is no wall that can possibly contain that. Well, no-one can say they've undersold their iconography in this town. That is one big Jesus. I'm taking a day trip to just south of Tijuana... ..the site of an unexpected invasion we don't hear much about. So, when you think of a migrant, your head is filled with that image of a lone, young man moving from Mexico desperately to find work and a better life in the States. But, there's a different type of migrant here... ..one that's headed from north to south, not in search of money or success, but in search of... ..cheaper statins, maybe, or walking aids. A grey army that's headed south. And why not? If you're going to sit in a semicircle watching Pointless, why not do it with a wonderful view of the Pacific and a better class of guacamole? OK, let's work harder! The time start right now. Let's work hard. Come on, let's go. These geriatric keep-fit fiends are part of a growing number of Americans who've decided to see out their days south of the border. Good work. We can do it. You can do it. Everything is in your mind. The sky is a funny colour, by the way, because of a wildfire in the region. But nature's fury hasn't stopped them or their daily workout. Let's run from here to this way. Run? OK. Run. Run? Si, go. Oh, don't be ridi... Come on. Go, go, go! Run! How come this is my workout now? Throw the ball away. Run and bring back. There's a lot of running with you. Yes. I wouldn't have thrown it that far if I'd known I had to run for it. Come to mama. Come on, come to mama. Now, turn around and go back. No! Oh, yeah. Sadist! Back the other way. Now, you release everything. I have released everything. I'm sorry about that, everyone. And on a first meeting, too. OK. Let's do one more. Ready? One more? What you like to do? So, a normal day for you is, like, you get up... Do housework and sometimes I...day-drink. Not always! Day-drinking is a good... One word, "daydrink"! It's a big activity here, day-drinking. Daydrink? It's a big thing. Daysmoke? No, I try not to. Otherwise, I don't do anything else. Not in the day? Evening. Evening times? Relaxation. OK, so evening times is kick back... Yes. ..blunt, the ocean. Yes. Up and down this coastline are hundreds of developments luring ageing Americans. Word has got out that a bespectacled perimenopausal gringo is in town, and so the invites are flooding in. Hi, nice to see you! Hi! Around 200,000 expats now call this part of Mexico home. For most of us, we're from California. And so, a lot of this landscape is very familiar because it looks just like California. So, we come down here and we don't feel much different, except for it's less congested. And we can afford this, you know. Yes. Yeah, really. Yeah, I can't afford this in the States. So, you could say, you're all economic migrants. In that... So you are! Yes. The reverse. We need to stop other people from coming in. Like, we're full. We're done. So, basically what you're saying is, now you've left America, you don't care - welcome young, you know, vital Mexicans to the States, but, my God, you don't want any Americans coming to your Mexico! "Hell, no!" Right! No! Yes! That's it, yeah. Build the wall! CHANTING: Build that wall! Build that wall! Even ironically doing that, makes me feel really uncomfortable. I know, right? The thing that I take from here is how flexible life is for the Americans in Mexico. For them, it's an entirely porous, easy space. They can cross from one to the other and cherry pick what's best about each country. And yet, my feeling is, if I speak to a Mexican here, then all they'll see is a wall. * The wall, in every sense, begins in Tijuana. It emerges from the Pacific Ocean, and was also the very first section to be built, long before Trump's election promise. Back in 1994, President Bill Clinton kicked off Operation Gatekeeper, to stem the tide of undocumented migration with 14 miles of border fencing. Behind me, you can see the names there. These are names of Mexicans who fought in the US military and, for whatever reason, after their service, ended up being deported back home. People immortalise them, and if you telescope around, you then see the US flag upside down, which simply means distress. This side of the wall, you can feel the emotion. It's etched in to the steel and the concrete. It's love and pain and suffering, and making art out of something awful. And on the other side, it's arid, it's barren. There's security fences. And in so many ways, that tells the story of how these two nations view this extraordinary wall. I'm joining a family split apart by the wall, as they get ready to meet up at a place called Friendship Park, the only designated point along the entire border that allows people separated by deportation or lack of papers, to unite. Hola. Hola! Como esta? Nice to see you. Mucho gusto. THEY SPEAK SPANISH Hi. Sue. Nice to see you. Hi! Hola! Look at these beautiful dogs! Adela's husband, Jose, head of the Mendoza family, will be on the American side of Friendship Park today. So, when you see him, how much of him do you actually see in the park? So, there's... You can just put your finger through the hole, and you can do this? Just that? You can't... And, in real life, to be able to hold. How long has it been since you have been able to hold him? That's awful. Si. Are you OK? Jose first entered the US illegally, 30 years ago, to earn money to send home. Now, like tens of thousands of others, he's trapped in the system. If he visits his family in Mexico, he risks not being able to go back, and they're dependent on him staying in America. So, to all intents and purposes, this is a family outing to the beach. Except in the middle of the beach, there's a huge wall, and on the other side of that wall is a man that she's not seen for years. And the only contact she has with him is just fingertip to fingertip. It's another world. Friendship Park opened in 1971 as a sort of US-Mexico love-in. But when Clinton built his wall, it cut a line right through the middle of it. In recent years, security has got even tighter on the American side. There, it's only open at weekends, and visits are restricted to just 30 minutes at busy times. I don't know what I was expecting, because I was told you could only put your fingers through. But when you see the mesh, I just have this overwhelming sense of just total sadness. It's incredibly upsetting. Hola, senor. Hola, mucho gusto. ..Jose. Jose, I'm Sue. Tell me what it feels like to see your family in this situation. Well, your wife is incredible, and your kids are incredible. Muchas gracias. Gracias, senor. Gracias, de nada. Go on. You get in there. OK! Go on. OK! You go have your time. Have your time, have your time. You can't even really make out his face. It's just shadow. It's unimaginable for us. It is unimaginable. We don't have to imagine it, because we're born where we're born. We have the luck of the dice throw. But what's most painful is the sense of normality... ..the sense of, this is the way it is. And this wall is full of stories like that. I'm leaving Tijuana behind, to start my journey east over the treacherously high mountain pass of La Rumorosa. I had to get out. You see this... ..I mean, that is the sort of landscape that Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble would die for. If you Google "Dangerous roads, Mexico," there's La Rumorosa on the list. This part of the journey is three hours long, and we all know what hungry work sitting in a car is. Right. We need proper snacks now. I mean, I really like Mexico. But there would be one criticism I have of the desert? There's not enough snacks. There's not enough places where you can get crisps, a chocolate bar, have a wee and cry, and then just set off again. Feedback. It won't necessarily be in that order. I might want to cry first. After 130 miles of rocks and desert, we reach the border town of Los Algodones. After Tijuana, I expect the border to be fortified and tense... People, welcome, welcome! ..but here, it's surprisingly friendly. Thank you for coming to Los Algodones, everybody! In fact, it's all smiles. There are more dentists per capita here than anywhere else in the world, catering for hordes of medical tourists coming from America in search of dental work at a third of the price that they'd pay in the States. Thank you for coming early in the morning. We were waiting for you all summer. Welcome to Mexico! Good morning! No wonder they call this place Molar City. We got 800 already. 815 people already. Are you counting? Yeah! Oh, you're Mr Ticker. Look at you. Welcome, welcome to Los Algodones. Thank you, thank you for coming to me. You made it. Yeah, the hard work is done... Now, you're going to be famous and wealthy. Now, just relax and let someone drill your face off. One of the first practices you see as you enter the town is also the oldest - Dr Magana's Dental Office. Hola! Hello! How are ya? It's all gone a little bit Silence Of The Lambs there, hasn't it? If you need any assistance... Oh, yeah, sure. Please. So, if you can please hand me that torch down there. The blowtorch? The blowtorch, yeah. Wow, they do things differently in Mexico. OK, so just press it and just keep it upward. Oh, my God. Millions of Americans don't have dental insurance, and the pleasure of a root canal or full-mouth implants can be prohibitively expensive north of the border. It's finished. What percentage, do you think, of patients are Mexican, that you see? Mexican? Yeah, Mexican. You mean, like, come from Mexico? Yeah. That's easy, 0%. No! The practice was started by Dr Magana's father when he came to Los Algodones 50 years ago. Look at the women flocking round him. Look at the beams. Back then, the town was full of bars and brothels. But after Dr Magana Snr became mayor, he closed them all down and dentists moved in to the empty sex dens. I imagine anyone turning up for a lap dance got a bit of a shock. How are you doing? Nice to meet you, lady. You're the Don. You're the Don of dentures. I am the capo di tutti capi. Il Signore. The head of all the heads. Grazie. Il Signore... Si... ..Corleone. Si. You... I am not! He's the gobfather. That's basically what he is! After my family, the best people I know is these people, my customers. They let me drive a Porsche, Mercedes-Benz, Nissan 350Z... ..and a big house. SUE LAUGHS AND CLAPS Just at the moment where I thought it was getting emotional... ..the rotten teeth of America have given this man a range of high-performance cars. I love the life. Oh, you've got the shades! Look at you. You live the dream, you live the dream. My dream. Your dream. The Mexican dream. Absolutely. When I born, I was poor kid with no shoes. Only going to the college saved my life. And, my family, too. Education is the name of the game. Boom. That's how you go from having no shoes to sitting in a Mercedes-Benz. Gracias, senor. You're welcome. What a small slice of humanity our news media affords us. All we see is the one-way traffic going from Mexico to the United States. And yet, this morning, my friend over there with his clicker recorded 2,000 Americans coming to Mexico for cheap dental treatment. And my immediate reaction is, "Stop!" You know, "Stop taking, "stop coming over here and using these people just "because the services they provide are discounted." But then, you speak to the doctors, and then you come out thinking, "Great. Come on, America. Come on all of you. Because the more you come here, "the more guys like that will get to own three cars of their own." Long live the Mexican dream. * LORRY HORNS BLARE Until now, my journey has been exclusively in Mexico. But I've crossed over into the US, and for the next 350 miles, I'll be travelling through the state of Arizona. Much of what we hear about the wall comes from America's perspective - it's needed, "to keep out the bad guys". So, I've come to Pinal County to meet Mark Lamb, the county sheriff. To be honest, if he's not wearing a ten-gallon hat and cowboy boots... IMITATES US ACCENT: ..chewing tobacco, and talking like this, then I'm leaving. Hello, hello. Oh, you're Mark. I'm Sue. Nice to see... Very nice to meet you. Nice to meet you, sir. How are you doing? Come on in. Oh, look at you. Thanks for coming down to visit us. You're a feast for the eyes. Oh. Why, thank you. Good morning, Violet. Morning. Morning, Violet. Morning. I don't know how long Violet's been here, but Mark was elected as county sheriff in 2017. So, this is my office. Oh. I'm American to the core. Like, I love everything about America, freedom. I got the eagle, everything. I got my guns. Oh, my God. My wife gave me this one... What a gift. Wow. ..as a gift when I won the election. It's an old cowboy gun. And, I suppose nothing says, "I love you," like a 12 bore shotgun. Right. Yeah. So, it's pretty heavy, if you feel it. Is it loaded? It's not loaded. Really? So, I can do... Yes. Cock it and... I still wouldn't point it at anybody, but... No, I'm not going to. I'm not going to do that. Can you imagine? Well, at least I'm in the right place for it. You could just immediately arrest me, and it's only a short walk to the cells. Somebody gave me this one, as well, which is also just an old cowboy gun. Oh, God. I've only been in the office two seconds and I'm already fetishizing weaponry. This is how it starts, everybody. So, here in Arizona, we are what you call a constitutional carry state. So, you can carry a firearm without a permit. You can carry a firearm concealed, open carry, however you want. As long as you're an American and you don't have any felony charges against you. As a matter of fact, when I pull people over, I'll say, "Do you have any weapons in the car?" And, they'll say, if they say no, I say, "Well, you should. "It's dangerous out here." Mark and his team are responsible for policing a county around about the size of Northern Ireland. And, although it doesn't border Mexico, it's near enough to make all the difference. Can I say? I'm loving that underneath the monitor. That's what I need. "No weak shit". That's right. We're about 70 miles off the border, and one of the major issues we have is human and drug trafficking. OK. And, one of the main things that they have trafficked for a lot of years is marijuana. If you look here, he's throwing bundles of marijuana out the truck. Yeah. Every one of those. Boom. You can see that bundle of marijuana break open. You can see the weed explode, yeah, as it hits. Addiction is a huge problem in America, with its citizens spending $60 billion a year on illegal drugs. This demand is met by Mexican cartels, powerful and dangerous criminal organisations who smuggle drugs and people across the border. We definitely do not have enough space for all the evidence that we have. And, by evidence, you mean weed. Yes. OK. Let's see it. Whoa. Whoa! Oh, it's like... So, you can smell it. You're going to get hungry just off this. It's like walking back in time through my teenage years. And 20s, and 30s...and 40s... And, I'm not going to go any further. And 20 minutes ago. No, I'm pleading The Fifth. Most of the drugs arriving in Mark's county are smuggled through the desert on foot. People that want to come here and make a better life for themselves, the cartel is charging them money to come across. And then they might give them a discount if they carry across a bundle of marijuana. So, this is all about a multibillion-dollar business. They have actually started putting hard drugs in the middle of these bundles. OK. And, that way, you think that they're only carrying marijuana. Well, there might be heroin in the middle of it. Try to pick one of these up, right here. That's a 50lb pack. HE LAUGHS Now, imagine packing 60, 70 miles with that. MARK LAUGHS Just... Already just really painful. And, the idea of going through a desert in the heat, and then the deep chill, is brutal. This is brutal. The cartels are abusing human beings like you wouldn't believe. And then, they're bringing this product. Above and beyond that, they're bringing this and many other drugs into this country. We have to hit the head of the snake. Mark's taking me to the front line of his war against the cartel. If something happens to me, by chance, you hit this button. That opens that up? That opens that up. And, I just spray at will? Just go to town. OK, will do. Flip the switch to fire and do what you got to do. You're better than nothing. Well, that's what my parents always told me. Mark reckons they stop only around 15% of the cartel's drugs smuggled in to the county. And we're checking out one of the countless spots where US-based cartel members relieve the migrants of their drug packs. So, I'm going to get out and clear this area first. So, just hang tight here. I'm going to make sure that we don't have any... Hostiles. Yes. OK. Oh, the bomb threat... I don't think I'm supposed to be looking at this, but... ..I can't get out of it now. He's going to see it. I can't get back to the main menu. All good? All clear. I was going to say, I was just thinking about getting the knife and just coming in after you, you know. I appreciate that. Yeah, you're welcome. It's places like this that the migrants' 70-mile trek comes to an end. How many days does it take to walk from the Mexican side? I would say about six, seven days they're out in the desert. We know they're still trafficking through here, and I'll show you how we can tell. You remember that big bundle you put on? Yeah. They took the bundles out, that's basically the backpack you had on. OK. They just stripped it. Everything is camouflaged, reduced reflection. They don't want to be caught. Carpet shoes. Then they put this on over their boots. And then, what this does is, you don't see the footprints, so we have a tough time tracking them. And it makes it very quiet. What's fascinating is, this is standard-issue. This is almost a military operation. Yes. They've got regulation shoes, regulation water bottles, regulation outfit. A group is usually 10-15 strong, and each migrant will not only have carried the drugs, but will have also paid the cartel about $6,000 for the privilege. This is it. This is it. This is the wide... This is when they realise they're in America. And, they feel hope at this point. They feel like they're this close. But, how strange to feel hope at the same moment a cartel member is loading 50lbs of marijuana off your back. It's not the land of the free, is it? For those people, it's... For those people, it's not. But that shows you how bad they want a piece of freedom. To go through all of this. The reason I have been so resolutely anti-wall is because I don't believe that borders should keep people from living their best life, and feeding their family, and experiencing all the freedoms that I enjoy. But, here the wall isn't about migrants. The wall is also about drugs. And that's where you have to take a slightly different position. I wouldn't want my family to become addicted to Fentanyl because there was an easy rite of passage for people bringing it across. And so, suddenly, the wall takes on a different perspective. It's perhaps not just about keeping people out, stopping them moving. It's about keeping people safe within. * As I travel east through the smuggling routes of the borderland, I'm keen to learn more about those who have made their home on the American side of this sparse landscape. A third of Arizona is farmland. But in these parts, where not a lot grows, it's mostly cattle ranches. Ah, shit. John Ladd owns the 16,500 acre San Jose Cattle Ranch, which has been in his family for 120 years. I want to get a sense of day-to-day life for him and his wife JoBeth. I am right in the middle of the desert and the wind is punishing and cold. And yet, the sun is searing. Ten minutes out in this and your face would look like beef jerky. Now, I have tried the dressing, but I have never visited the property. This is my first ranch. Hey. Hello. Nice to see you. How are you? I'm Sue, good to see you. Come on in. I'm JoBeth. Nice to meet you, JoBeth. Wow. There's a lot of focus in this room, isn't there? There's a lot. You're never alone in this lounge. DOG BARKS It's interesting, cos a lot of interior designers say you should try and bring the outside in. You have certainly done that here. That's a world slam. That's all the turkeys in North America. What, you've killed all the turkeys in... Well, well done. They're now extinct, now? Well, one of each. Oh. OK. You've got the full... There's six species. John is the fourth generation to run the ranch. But his ancestors could never have imagined some of the recent changes. There was no real border when your family set up here. Uh-huh. Just in your lifetime, just probably in the last five years, you've just seen huge changes with the way that that's developed. Well, we have been putting up with the border for 30 years. So, how far are you now from the border? Well, you can see it. The wall. We have a wall. That dark line up there. Oh, now I have to go and see it. Do you mind? Oh. There it is. So, touching distance, really. 1.25 miles from here. We've got $54 million worth of infrastructure from Homeland Security on this ranch. Streetlights, cameras, then that's an 18ft Ballard fence. And they have a ladder on the south side and a rope coming down. They get across it in a minute. And, you know, they've caught a 500,000 people on our ranch in 30 years. That's, I mean... Sorry, just on your property? Just on our ranch. There has been 500,000 people? Yeah. Apprehended. We have had them in the house. They have stolen every vehicle we own. Our fences are cut. Water is... Breaking pipes to get a drink, and so you lose 10,000 gallons of water at night. And, you know, it has cost us a lot of money. You know, you'd sit at the kitchen table eating breakfast or whatever, and you would look out and you could see ten, fifteen people. You know, "Oh, there's another group." And I can't tell you that I haven't been scared before. But we don't live in fear. It's just, you got to pay attention. I guess, as you say, that is the way that things are now set on the border. Yeah. Sure. Our boys have never known any difference. John and JoBeth have had ten years of increasingly secure state-funded fencing. Despite this, they reckon they lose $100,000 a year from the theft and damage caused by migrants crossing their land. Even though I think it's a good tool, and it's appropriate in some places, it causes some environmental and wildlife issues. Yes. And the fact that, you know, it's ugly. So, do you think tonight there'll be somebody crossing here? Oh, yeah. We had three last night. But, I will tell you that if Border Patrol would patrol it, it would work. Look at the size of this thing. Now I'm at it, with all this razor wire, it just seems utterly impossible that you could scale it with just a rope and a ladder. When you have a ladder on that side, before you get up to the top, you cut each one of those strands and make a slot. You get all the way to the top, and then you put the ladder up, and then you drop the rope, then just... Rappel down. It's a simplistic statement, really, that is - we are by this expensive, divisive structure that doesn't work. It's not working for you, hugely. I mean, it's made it a bit better. Well, it has. Yeah, it has. It has made it a bit better. A bit. And I will take every little bit I can get. But ultimately, something on a much higher level than us chatting is failing you guys. Yeah, and that's true. And something over there is failing these guys. Look at this wall. All of it. It's steel and it's razor wire. And what it represents is nothing but failure. It doesn't fulfil its practical, basic purpose because all of this high-techery can't keep out migrants who want to come, whether they're sent by their cartel, or by their own agency. They just need a ladder and a piece of rope. How many times do we have to put these things up, before we realise this is not the way. So, what is the way? There's certainly no easy answer. Or at least one my brain can fathom. It's time to hit the open road of Arizona - again. Oh, we've gone mad. It's been a long day, but I want to push on and get south of the border before sundown. Oh, I've got Canada on my face. It's the first of November, and there's something happening over the border that I've always wanted to be a part of. I'm hitting the city of Nogales, as people all over Mexico start to celebrate the country's biggest festival. Tonight, I happen to have arrived on the evening they are doing the Day of the Dead procession. It's a massive holiday in Mexico that takes place tomorrow. But Nogales have decided to do their big party tonight to welcome in the spirits. Lifelong Nogales resident, Gabriela, has invited me to join her for the celebration. Oh, look. That's just brilliant. Yes. This is our parade, and we celebrate the dead. It's celebrating them coming to visit us, to see us. This is the moment we all wait for, to kick back with them, you know. But, it's great because it's sort of spooky. But also, just very welcoming. It's a very odd combination. In a way, it's kind of spooky to you guys. You might think that we take it as a mock. But, we Mexicans like to celebrate everything. Listen, that's all credit to your culture, let me tell you. Despite what we may think, Day Of The Dead is not a Mexican version of Halloween. Shake it, shake it, shake. Shake our bones. Instead of a dark night of terror and mischief, it's an explosion of life-affirming joy. You've got it going on. She's very in-character. She's locked-in. I mustn't disturb her. SHE BLOWS A STEADY NOTE Yes. That's us calling them. Wake up, we're here. My first conch. I've never had a conch. Look at me, piggy never gets the conch. Call them out. Call them to us. SHE BLOWS A HIGH-PITCHED NOTE All right. THEY SING EXUBERANTLY The Mexicans treat death very differently. The carnival atmosphere and costumes represent death as part of a natural cycle of life, not as something to be feared. And, although its called Day of the Dead, it's actually spread over two days. More like a weekend of the dead. As the families of Nogales recover from last night's revelry, they make preparations for a more personal honouring of their loved ones. The iconic Mexican marigold has been used since Aztec times to commemorate the dead. At Gabriela and her in-laws' house, preparations are well under way. So, we immediately start pulling the flowers apart? Yes. This is the way we make their path towards us. So, when we put this on the floor, it's like we're making this little bridge to cross over to us. So, when you do this, who do you think of? Who are you commemorating? Can I ask when he passed away? He was coming from his brother's work, where they would reunite. And, on his way back, he got shot down by the Border Patrol. But what grounds were there for shooting him? He said they were throwing rocks at him. Araceli's son, Jose Antonio, was just 16 when he was killed, causing outrage across Mexico. The US Border Patrol officer who shot him faced two trials, for murder and manslaughter, and was acquitted on both counts. I can't imagine what it would be like to lose a child, let alone a child to a violent death. And then, to know who killed them. That must put you in a state of constant pain, and there's never any, any...any end point for you, where you can almost begin grieving. In the face of such personal tragedy, the Mexican approach to remembering their dead is even more striking. THEY SING TRADITIONAL MEXICAN TUNE Normally, we come and we stay here all day. So you just... We stay all day. Sing, and... We snack, we eat, you know, have a little drink, and... But, it's like the family member is still alive. It's still involving them in the day-to-day. Yeah, like, everybody gets together. It might seem strange to us to have a shindig in a graveyard, but Mexicans believe the spirits of their loved ones would be insulted if they returned to find their relatives sad and in mourning. I've been racking my brains for an overarching, philosophical idea about the borderlands. And then, I just looked around and realised I don't need to. It's all here in front of you. It's brutality. It's sudden death. It's violence. It's sadness. It's joy. It's colour. It's an oom-pah band. I never thought I'd learn so much about life from a graveyard. But I have. It's short. It's brief. Clutch at it with all your might. BAND PLAYS EXUBERANT MUSIC Next time, I continue my journey east and follow the Rio Grande river towards the Atlantic Ocean. This is about as close to perfection as you're going to find. But life in the borderlands is ever-changing. Some kind of a vigilante wall group came to build a wall. What? They're building their own wall? They're building their own wall here. And the people who call this place home are changing, too. These...these keep breaking me. "Never. Stop. Dreaming."