Detained at the Border

It was about 10:30 in the morning on August 14 when the silver SUV rumbled down Tres Bellotas Road, about seven miles north of the U.S.-Mexico divide in southern Arizona. Everyone in the vehicle was tired. There were four people, including the acclaimed author Reyna Grande, who was also the executive producer of the documentary they had been working on all morning about the Samaritans, a humanitarian aid organization. They intend the documentary to be a feature-length sequel to the short called Shura, codirected by David Damian Figueroa, who was also in the vehicle along with Randy Mayer, the pastor of the Good Shepherd United Church of Christ in southern Arizona, and a production crew member who wishes not to be named.

Their vehicle passed a green-striped Border Patrol truck. Mayer waved at the agent. Though their missions were often at odds, maintaining a cordial relationship with the enforcement agency has long been the norm for the Samaritans, who have been working in the southern Arizona borderlands for two decades helping migrants in distress. As they passed by, Figueroa, who was sitting in the passenger seat, noticed something. The agent did not wave back. That was the first sign that something was up.

They had gotten up at 4:30 a.m. to film the sunrise at the end of the border wall, near the vehicle barriers near where wall construction ended in the final months of the Trump administration. Figueroa—who comes from a family of farmworkers of Mexican descent from Arizona—said that they wanted to get footage of all seasons and all times of the day. This was the second of two days filming here. At the end of the wall, there was a makeshift humanitarian relief center, where aid groups such as Doctors without Borders, Samaritans, and No More Deaths often congregated. The place was busy that morning. Overnight, many people had crossed the border, mainly from Mexico and Central America, but also from Asia and Africa. People were distributing food, water, and medical aid, including Figueroa, Mayer, and Grande. There were priests doing blessings. The asylum seekers then waited to be picked up by Border Patrol.

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