"PALOMINAS, Ariz. — Driving on the road between his cattle ranch and the U.S.-Mexico border, John Ladd slowed his red pickup truck when he saw a Border Patrol agent pacing next to a barbed wire fence.

"He's looking for tracks to tell his partner what kinds of shoes they are wearing," he said. "They must have come through my place after crossing at the river."

Ladd's ranch runs parallel to the border for 10 miles and is just 2 miles away from the San Pedro River. He supports President Trump and wants to see more Border Patrol agents down here. Over the past 30 years, he says, more than half a million immigrants have been apprehended on his property after illegally crossing the border. Fourteen have died of the heat.

But Ladd is skeptical about the Department of Homeland Security's plans to build "the wall" through the San Pedro River itself."

Ariel Wittenberg reports for Greenwire July 9, 2019. [2]