The River and the Wall

I'm a little nervous...

thinkin' about my parents' story.

It'll be the first time I would... I'd been on that section of Rio Grande

where my parents crossed...

in my life.

First time ever.

And I think it's gonna connect

everything really, really well for me.

I've been uh, river-guiding here on the Rio Grande

for the past six-îsh years.

I want people to know what's out here.

I want the love to be shared.

This is wilderness as wild as it gets.

But people don't like hearing that.

People like hearing about a wall.

Rather than talking about putting up a fence,

why don't we work out some recognition

of our mutual problems...

Make it possible for them to come here legally

with a work permit, and open the border both ways.

We are nation of immigrants, but we are also a nation of law.

That's why our administration has moved aggressively

to secure our borders more.

Ours' is a nation of immigrants, we're also a nation of law.

We have a responsibility to secure our borders.

President Bush, he signed a bill today

authorizing the construction of a fence

along the border with Mexico.

This fence would be 700 miles long.

I think the American people, they appreciate

and believe in immigration. But they can't have a situation where you just have

half a million people pouring over the border

without any kind of mechanism to control it.

Complete the danged fence.

It'll work this time.

Look, I voted uh, numerous times when I was a senator

to spend money to build a barrier

to try to prevent um, illegal immigrants

from coming in.

On day one, we will begin working

on an impenetrable, physical, tall,

powerful, beautiful

southern-border wall.

Build that wall!

Build that wall!

Build that wall!

Build that wall!

Build that wall!

Build that wall!

Build that wall!

Build that wall!

This whole idea got started a few months ago.

I was workin' for some wildlife biologists

out in West Texas.

And they were describing to me how a physical wall

would have some really serious impact

to a lot of wildlife species along the Rio Grande.

And it was something that... That I never really thought about,

the actual physical entity of a wall.

And I guess I just wanted to... to learn more about it.

On a journey like this, you're only as good

as the team that you have.

And this group is amazing.

Like that and mess this up.

So you... with horses, you don't have to replace pedals.

Austin Alvarado is a river guide.

He knows the river in West Texas

like the back of his hand.

Heather is an ornithologist.

She studies birds and butterflies along the Rio,

and her knowledge of just the biodiversity at large

is gonna be really important for the trip.

Uh, one second. Yeah.

Filipe DeAndrade, an incredible film maker.

I expected like... Yeah, like the mariachi band and great entourage.

Wooh, what a start! And it is just like, "Alright, pull up next"

- "- to the drum trucks, we're doing this thing." - Is he alright?

Jay Kleberg, he works for Texas Parks and Wildlife Foundation.

Conservation is his thing.

The wall is gonna be built through a lot of places

that are very near and dear to his heart.

She may be walking by the time you get back.

- Oh, that's not a cool thing. - - Yeah.

You sure I can't just strap her?

I can put her in the Camel back.

- No! - No, I put a little helmet on her with a...

A little basket in the front of your bike.

- Yeah, with goggles. - Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Like this thing originated in Colorado

and by the time it hits here, it's tiny, minuscule,

and then the United States takes pretty much all of it.

So we can't even float down the uh, the river right now,

that's why we're taking bikes which I'm not that big a fan of,

but you know, looking forward to the horror stretch.

- Alright, get in there, nice and tight. - - Delighted.

- Alright, I think that probably got it. - Alright.

- Nailed it. - Yeah.

What's the last time you rode a bike, Filipe?

- Me? - Yeah.

- This morning. - This morning.

I just hopped off. Now I'm hoppin' back on again.

Alright, let's go make some bad decisions.

- Hell, yeah! - Let's go with it.

Arrr!

We are embarking on a 1,200-mile journey

from El Paso to the Gulf of Mexico.

Riding bicycles where there isn't enough water.

Takin' my mustangs through the Big Bend.

And canoeing down the Rio Grande.

Tryin' to understand where exactly a wall would go

and what effects it would have.

Wait, wait, wait, time out. Serious question.

There is goin' to be doors in this potential wall.

Are there gonna be doors like this to access the Rio Grande?

Like you'll have to get a key or something to acc... No.

No, and where there are access points like this, we'll have agents.

And they'll have access to the gates.

So you might not be able to get access to the.

Rio Grande area without Border Patrol.

Okay.

So after this, you're still technically in the United States.

Okay, okay.

Wow!

Wait, so we are about to enter Mexico right now?

No, we're just gonna ride on the Mexico side of the wall,

but on the US.

No-man zone.

It's wild being along the wall

to have this massive 25-foot barrier.

It just feels so separate.

While I was working in El Paso, they constructed the wall,

and they did it in like 12 months.

From my perspective, it wasn't a real

like uh, cry against the construction

of that fence at the time.

But then since then I... There have been people elected

like congressman O'Rourke

who was against the construction of a... a fence.

I... I don't think a lot of people

in the interior of the US understand

that the wall will not literally be built

at the border, at the international boundary line.

It'll be built well within here, it's 100 yards.

Other places it's... it's a mile, 2 miles uh, into the interior

and everywhere it's gonna look as ugly as this or uglier.

El Paso for the last 20 years has been either the safest,

the second-safest or the third-safest city in America,

which is really remarkable, because it is at complete odds with the rhetoric

about the border.

Of the 2,000 miles of the US-Mexico border,

I believe a little over 600 miles

have fences, walls, physical barriers.

And that began after the 2006 Secure Fencing Act,

which Republicans and Democrats,

inducing senators Obama and Clinton at the time,

voted for, which essentially allowed the Bush administration,

and then succeeding administrations,

to put up these physical barriers

and to effectively waive all environmental

and local stakeholders' safeguards.

I think people who aren't from the border,

this might make a lot of sense to them like...

So we hear there are problems with Mexico or immigration

or drugs, yeah, a... A big giant fence

with steel and concrete that... That makes a lot of sense.

When you live here, you, you obviously...

You see it differently and you feel it...

You feel it differently.

I think being a politician

and working um,

across the aisle, in most cases for candidates,

is not rewarded at all.

They are rewarded for extreme stances.

I'm Will Hurd. I'm the representative

from the 23rd Congressional District of Texas,

which goes from the fringes of El Paso

all the way to San Antonio.

I have 820 miles of the border.

And I spent nine and a half years

as an undercover officer in the CIA.

I sit on the Homeland Security Committee.

I've chased bad guys all over the world,

I've chased terrorists, I've chased nuclear weapons, proliferators.

I've tr... I've chased the narcotraficantes.

And you learn that your adversary has resources.

They have um, the commitment to do something

and they're... they're... They're... they're smart.

That's why any conversation um, on uh...

On immigration or security has to begin with operational control of our border.

I went to John Marshall High School, but in.

- Okay, um... - I'm talking about when... when we were in...

When were in hi... yeah. I took my ring off,

- because obviously I was just supposed to. - No, dude you got to...

- What are you doing? - No, but like I didn't know...

Nobody else is wearing jewelry.

We can get operational control of our border.

We can enforce our laws to give deterrence

and a consequence to that negative behavior.

We just got to the end of the wall for the first time.

We need our... our men and women in the Border Patrol