Sonoran desert

« Sonoran Desert in the south of the United States.

A harsh, hot and unforgiving landscape straddling the border with Mexico.

A natural barrier, not so much a protective wall, but a regional belt dividing the bodies of two nations.

Thousands of illegal migrants cross into this area of Arizona every year.

To them, it represents a gateway to a better life. In reality, it's often a gauntlet of death from which they may never return. Crossing the desert to avoid these.

Steel and concrete walls which mark the border in urban areas.

When we're on a main road like this, we look for people. Anybody out here, they could be standing on the side of the road if they have made it this far and need help. Volunteer Catherine Ferguson and physician Norma Price are Samaritans, rescuing those who are in desperate need of help, illegals who've been physically and mentally defeated by the deadly conditions.

People walk not only in trails, but they walk in circles because they're lost.

So you could have a child walking out here, you could have a man, a grandmother. group of people and all I'm doing is looking for anything that looks like a human being.

But Catherine and Norma aren't the only ones on the lookout.

Two groups, both 10 plus.

10 plus, two groups, 10 plus.

The United States government has as many Border Patrol and Border Patrol backup as there are stars in the sky. In an attempt to secure its borders, the current administration is spending billions of dollars on enforcement.

Money many argue is doing little to stop the human traffic, merely rerouting it.

Since they've closed the ports, it forces people out into this arid desert and people are dying. It is supposed to send a message back to the villages in Mexico that if you come here you'll die out in the desert.

It's a policy of death.

They really don't know what they're facing.

I mean, they don't know how hot and dry it is.

Most of them, if they haven't been here before, they don't know about the desert. And we see women in high heel shoes or wedge shoes.

And they'll have one bottle of water.

And in this environment that is so hot and dry and desolate, if they have any degree of heat exhaustion or heat illness, they need to be taken to the hospital immediately.

And the heat literally just cooks the organs, the brain, the heart, the kidneys.

We see a lot of pregnant women.

And that also increases the risk that they'll get into trouble. The worst, saddest of all, of course, is the children.

And we see situations where children die.

But for those making the passage, it's a terrible choice.

A gamble, really.

Face death and avoid capture or seek help, even if that means deportation.

Hola, senor. Ahead in the distance, emerging from the scrub, stands a solitary figure.

His decision has been made.

Paying with his life is too high a price for passage to the promised land.

This is an hour and two meters. Good morning, sir.

How are you? My name is Catalina.

We are Samaritans.

We are from the Church. Frightened, disorientated, and exhausted, his story is like so many others, left behind when he couldn't keep up with the group.

How many people were in the group? 25.

25? They stayed three, like two days, until they were here.

And why do you come here to the United States? Because I owe a lot of money to my country.

And I want to pay for that.

How many days are you here? Five days, as of today.

It was difficult, but I had to try it.

Because if you don't try it, you never know what the reality is.

If they don't tell you, it's easy.

Or you can't do it.

So I had to come and try it to see. The first day was nice because we went out at night, we only walked at night, there wasn't much thorn.

The second day there was a lot of thorn, it was very cold, it started to rain.

It was very wet, the pants got wet like six or eight times, it was raining all night, and it gets wet and dries up.

It was difficult.

This shirt was new, it was all broken. God knows the truth.

Did he think about your family? A lot.

About what? That they already knew I had been left. The Samaritans present him with his options, but his face betrays the answer. U.S.

law means the Samaritans can do nothing but call the Border Patrol.

Placing an illegal in their own.... »