Riding the Wall | Imperial Valley

We're in Hakamba, heading east on our wall ride towards the Imperial Valley and El Centro. I was just riding around and I saw a section of the wall and it just abruptly ends as it goes up a mountain. You could walk right around the end of it. It sure seems strange to have a gate in the middle of the wall. That is a huge hunk of steel. When the rains come and the rainy season, that allows the brush and everything to go through these gates. The wall is more complicated than a simple solution. When you look at the environmental aspects of it alone, how it affects rivers and migrations of animals, it's not as simple as we might be led to believe the actual construction of it. Some people think when we talk environmental it's because of the aesthetics of it all. There are some kind of negative aesthetics, don't get me wrong. On the other hand, that's not really what the environmental challenge is. You just outlined those environmental challenges and they're real. So here we are, right smack on the border. This is a border fence just a little bit west of Calexico. Over here is an entirely different style of fence. This one is about 15 feet tall, made of tubular steel. And then there's a bunch of razor wire on the bottom. If somebody did climb over the fence, they would have to go through that. So much more of an impediment. But the thing that I think about out here is just how hard it would be to monitor this and keep your eyes on the length of this border. No matter how many border patrol agents we have out here, anybody could just walk back and forth through this barrier, and I'm sure that they do. Today we'll be with Tiberio Esparza, and he has businesses on both sides of the wall. And he actually built some of this wall, and so he can give us some additional perspective today. Prior to the fence being there, we actually would cross the border back and forth on our motorcycles because of the nice terrain out there. I've traveled the border fence area alone. I feel quite safe riding along there. But now that the border fence is there, obviously we stay on the north side. But there's a lot of fun areas to ride, and it's American history. The border, it's part of the local history. It's part of the culture, really. The fence is part of who we are. Certainly it evokes emotion, depending on what side of the fence you're on, literally. Well, Calexico, it's a real mixture of the border region. Calexico has a heavy, heavy influence from the Mexican culture and the migrant worker. There will be migrant workers that cross the border to their work sites at the different fields, different locations around Imperial County. Me being in the agricultural business all my life, I've been around Mexican visa holders, farm laborer, and they are fantastic. They work hard. They develop relationships. These visa holders can go back and forth. But it's really important for us to have those visa holders, and it's really important for them to be legal. What we don't want is an illegal situation in the United States. That is important. It's just, I don't know how to get there yet. More and more people from Mexico are traveling to the northern area of Mexico, and so that increases the pressure for those to cross over to the United States. But certainly before the fence, it really feels like there should be some comprehensive immigration reform that helps the country from a business perspective, which allows then immigrants to come in and provides the opportunities that this country was founded on. Do you feel like you're learning new things by being here in person, riding next to the border? Oh yeah. You know, here's the thing. Can we really make really good decisions about this border wall from Washington D.C. or California? I'm not trying to make a political statement. I'm trying to say these are true human conditions here.