Humanity & Biosecurity at the Mexico Border with Livestock Producers

At the Mexico border, challenges with humanity and biosecurity for livestock producers go hand in hand.

With the inauguration of new political administrations comes changes in policies on the Mexico border that impacts Arizona and New Mexico livestock producers. These challenges revolve around humanity and biosecurity threats. In the state of Arizona alone, there are over 18,000 farms and ranches in the state, according to the Arizona Department of Agriculture. Many of them have some type of livestock on their land, as there are over 770,000 head of cattle raised in the state.

Many of the ranchers’ own operations that have been around for several (upwards of five) generations, including Dean Fish. He grew up on a ranch, spent some time with New Mexico State University Extension, and now works for the Santa Fe Ranch near Nogales, a foundation that is focused on the conservation and preservation of the land and providing educational opportunities for community members. The ranch is located about 10 miles from the U.S./Mexico border.

“There is a barbed wire fence separating us from Mexico,” Fish said. “We have livestock coming from the other side, mainly for our forage.”

In addition to the livestock crossing over, there’s a lot of foot traffic from humans. Eleven days after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, the Homeland Security Department was created. The office oversaw and coordinated a comprehensive national strategy to safeguard the country against terrorism and respond to any future attacks. In March of 2003, the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) became the nation’s first comprehensive border security agency, charged with keeping terrorists and their weapons out of the U.S. while facilitating lawful international trade and travel.

“In the early to mid 2000s, Homeland Security was introduced, and we saw money come from the federal government to secure the border wall,” Fish said. “There’s always been traffic, but it’s slowed down.” That’s thanks to the law enforcement he sees patrolling the border each day as he’s checking cows on a horse. Fish sees border patrol officers at least once a day, if not two or three times a day. He finds them patrolling the border in ATVs and trucks, and they have also installed cameras to catch illegals coming across the border.

In addition to law enforcement changes, there have also been adjustments made on the ranch to ‘accommodate’ the people who are traveling by foot. Instead of being concerned about people drinking out of cattle waterers, Fish has installed faucets on the waterers to prevent problems. For the most part, cattle are left alone.

“We don’t see as many issues at the border as what others see 20 miles from the border,” Fish said. “Legislation has changed the smuggling aspect and how it’s smuggled. People have water and food at the border – a day’s walk is where the problems arise.”

Adjustments to accommodate migrating people start playing with the economics of a ranch at the end of the day. AJ Wright, a rancher in northeast New Mexico, currently works at the Bonds Ranch raising stocker yearling calves on grass. Although he’s not directly impacted by the challenges at the border, he sympathizes and understands what his fellow ranchers are working through.

“There are economic repercussions to this issue,” Wright said. “I’ll talk to guys down there who will have cut fences, they will get water from their solar wells and tamper or break equipment – that stuff all adds up. It sounds minor, but it adds up after a while.”

Some families have been impacted directly by the amount of foot traffic. Sue Krentz is a 4th generation rancher in Cochise County with origins of her ranch dating back to the early 19th century when Arizona was only a U.S. territory. She lost her husband in 2010 to an illegal alien who came across the border and murdered him. His death attracted national attention and became a rallying cry for border security and immigration reform, so much so to the point where several bills were introduced in the Arizona Legislature.

In Krentz’s part of Arizona, she sees upwards of 100 people a day on foot, coming across her ranch.

“They have destroyed our management practices by tramping up our grass, torn and cut up our fences, tear up waterers, bring trash onto our property and it continues to get worse and worse,” Krentz said. According to her, the illegals will stir the cattle up and change their grazing pattern, not utilizing all the available forage in the paddocks. That becomes an economical problem for her.

In 2010, the communication system was poor between law enforcement firms. After her husband was killed, they worked toward putting together better technology for law enforcement officers so that if a rancher was having an issue, they could be called in.

“They [law enforcement] are always helpful, but their hands are tied,” said Krentz. “Our sheriffs can’t arrest anyone unless they are committing a crime such as killing cattle or causing harm to ranchers. Border patrol has to handle everything else.”

In addition to the humanity challenge, biosecurity remains a large concern in the area. Several research projects have been started in New Mexico with a focus on hoof and mouth disease, as there is a rising concern globally towards that dilemma. Krentz indicated that there is an even larger concern towards trichomoniasis (trich), a venereal disease that causes early pregnancy loss and late-term abortions in cattle, being transferred from cattle across the border that aren’t in controlled herds.

“In addition to cattle diseases being passed through various wild animals, we also are concerned about our human health,” Krentz said. “People coming across will carry diseases with them, sometimes getting sick on our property and throwing up blood. How do we know that we won’t get something from them?”

Organizations such as the Arizona Cattle Growers’ Association (ACGA) are working to protect, promote and sustain Arizona cattle ranching through grassroots advocacy, policy formation and education. Ali Schindler, communications director for ACGA, has great concern for ranchers who have livestock on the border, but is working diligently on behalf of ranchers to raise awareness to the state and federal governments.

“These people are seeing the negative human impact directly,” Schindler said. “Many people who come across the border illegally do so accompanied by coyotes, there are heavily armed people coming on to the lands of ranchers, and they don’t carry enough food or water.”

Schindler has deep concern and sympathy for people. She shared a story of how a rancher’s house was broken into multiple times one night.

“We are concerned about the safety of our people,” Schindler said. “We’re not dreaming. This is actually happening.”

The ACGA is working directly with the state and federal governments to advocate for relief for ranchers. Current efforts include hope to finish the wall, add line riders to the border patrol, suggest more support from Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and more border patrol officers.

“We want secure borders,” said Schindler. “We have great support from law enforcement, but we need funding for these projects.”

Kailee Zimmerman, a fifth-generation Arizonan and cattle producer, provided some optimism for the challenge at the border. She argued that the federal government recognizes that Arizona is largely part of trade deals such as the United States – Mexico – Canada Agreement (USMCA) which largely affects Arizona agriculture. Additionally, the Arizona workforce relies heavily on Mexico’s skilled laborers.

“The future of this issue is helping the process of laborers get here legally, whether that’s adopting different work visas or expediting the entrance process,” Zimmerman said. “With that comes the enforcement of border laws in place so we can protect the ranchers on the border. I like to believe that’s something we can get done.”

Ranchers are facing this issue each day. It’s not something that disappears overnight, and it’s an ongoing battle.

“It’s all relative until it’s you,” Krentz said. “We are scared, but we have a right to not live in fear.”

ALWAYS REMEMBER TO EAT BEEF.

Lauren