ARIVACA, Ariz. — An Arizona rancher has seen large numbers of migrants crossing his ranch, which he attributes not only to the ongoing border crisis but also to the Biden administration’s refusal to finish construction of the Trump-era wall.
Jim Chilton, along with his wife Sue, own a large cattle ranch that includes land along the U.S. side of the U.S.-Mexico border. When former President Donald Trump was in office, he built more than 450 miles of border wall, including both new construction and the replacement of previous fencing and other barriers.
Some of that construction took place at the Chilton Ranch, and more construction was planned. However, when President Biden took office in 2021, construction abruptly stopped. Contracts were canceled, and a stretch of land at the Chilton Ranch was left open or with Normandy barriers that are easy to traverse. There has been some construction during the Biden administration, but it has been largely limited to repairs and some small gaps.
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The end of border wall construction at Chilton Ranch. (Adam Shaw/Fox News Digital)
Chilton is furious.
“I’m personally outraged that President Biden has stopped construction of the wall. The wall works,” Jim Chilton, who spoke at the Republican National Convention in July, told Fox News Digital at his ranch.
“It’s 32 feet tall and five feet of solid metal on top, extremely difficult to top. Each of these [bollards] “It has cement inside it and it’s extremely difficult to cut it,” he said.
The border wall extended across much of the Chilton Ranch, but not the entire length. (Adam Shaw/Fox News Digital)
“Biden stopped Trump’s wall. I hope Trump gets elected so he can finish the wall and secure the border,” he said.
After the administration took office, a crisis erupted on the southern border, with a record number of border apprehensions. Those levels have dropped this year, but Chilton says he has tracked more than 3,560 suspected illegal immigrants with cameras installed at his ranch. He has caught a large number of them.
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He says what worries him is not the migrants who turn themselves in to Border Patrol or a humanitarian group that sets up shop near the wall, but those who arrive in camouflage and try to avoid detection. Backpacks are left on the Mexican side of the wall apparently in preparation for the next group planning to cross.
This image shows migrants captured on camera at a ranch in Arivaca. (Jim and Sue Chilton.)
“People are heading north in camouflage and leather shoes. They’re serious men,” Chilton said. “They want to be in the United States undetected. Border Patrol rarely catches them. And many of them are carrying drugs or other contraband. Some are MS-13 gangsters trying to get into the country. They don’t want to be caught.”
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The dangers for migrants are severe. In Arizona’s intense heat, migrants can easily become dehydrated, disoriented or fall and hurt themselves, and the vastness of the environment means it’s unlikely anyone will find them. Chilton, who opposes illegal immigration but doesn’t want people to die on his ranch, has installed several spigots at water sources for his cattle so migrants can get clean water if they reach them and avoid dehydration.
Trump has vowed to launch a massive deportation operation and finish construction of the wall if re-elected. The Biden administration has said walls are ineffective and has promoted a strategy of expanding legal avenues while enforcing “consequences” for illegal entry.
Jim Chilton has called for the border wall to be completed. (Adam Shaw/Fox News Digital)
While numbers hit record levels in 2023, they have fallen sharply this year, down more than 50% since June, when President Biden signed an executive order limiting entries into the U.S.
Chilton isn’t overly concerned about his own safety, as he knows most migrants who venture onto the ranch seek to avoid detection, but he carries a gun and drew it as he approached certain areas when patrolling parts of the ranch with Fox News Digital.
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Chilton, who has owned the ranch since the early 1990s, accused Biden and Vice President Harris of having “welcomed people to America and done everything they could to make it very desirable.”
He pointed to reports of free travel, bank cards, health care and housing that migrants can obtain in some parts of the country.
“Why don’t we create jobs for local people, like veterans, and bring in more people who will need jobs? Why do we provide housing for undocumented people when our own people don’t get free hotels? I wonder why.”“
