At border, Arizona voters not wild about building Donald Trump's wall

• Rancher knows about need for border security, but thinks money better spent than on wall
• Voter: 'No matter how high, how thick ... Mexicans will find a way to come across'
• Some believe wall would foment resentment on Mexican side of the border

NOGALES — Border security is more than just a political issue for Dan Bell.

It’s a reality he faces every day as a third-generation southern Arizona cattle rancher.

The 35,000 acres of land he ranches share 10 miles of border with Mexico just west of Nogales.

When he’s out working on his ranch on horseback, the 47-year-old rancher never knows when he might run into a group of undocumented migrants, or worse, drug smugglers.

Twice in the past 13 years or so he’s come face to face with drug smugglers – once when he rounded a corner in a remote canyon and encountered 10 men hauling packs of marijuana on their backs. Two of the men were armed with rifles, one of which appeared to be an AK-47 assault rifle.  Bell and the ranch hand he was riding with immediately turned their horses and headed in another direction.

“It’s a big issue of safety and concern for us,” Bell said Tuesday, recalling the incident as he drove his pickup through some of the same remote canyons.

Even so, when Bell got up early to vote Tuesday, driving over to the polling station at 6:15 a.m., the longtime Republican did not vote for Donald Trump, the GOP front-runner, who has made building a giant wall and getting Mexico to pay for it a cornerstone of his campaign.

“I ended up voting for (John) Kasich,” Bell said. But the Ohio governor lost to Trump on Tuesday night, according to the Associated Press projection, and was also trailing Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas in the Arizona primary.

Bell said he believes that as a governor, Kasich has the better experience to run the country.

And while he says many southern Arizona ranchers like Trump’s idea of building a wall, Bell believes building a wall along the entire border would be both impractical and expensive.

What’s needed, he said, is a combination of fencing, surveillance technology and, above all, building roads that give Border Patrol agents better access to remote areas so they can reach illegal border crosses who invariably will climb over any wall.

“If you have all the pieces of the puzzle, you might have areas where a wall might be effective and other areas where other things might be more effective,” Bell said.

His comments were echoed by many other voters interviewed Tuesday in Nogales.

Residents of this city, which sits across the border from Nogales, Sonora, have been on the front-lines of the nation’s challenge with illegal immigration for many years.

Even so, it was hard to find any who voted for Trump or thought building a giant wall along the border with Mexico was a good idea.

Registered Democrats in Santa Cruz County, which includes Nogales, outnumber Republicans 3-1, according to election officials. A majority of residents here are Mexican-Americans who trace their roots to Mexico. About 95 percent of Nogales' population is Hispanic, according to census records.

“Let me say this,” said Rafael Rodriguez, a 68-year-old retired truck driver, after casting his vote for former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at the V.F.W. Hall on Grand Avenue. Clinton was the projected winner of the Arizona primary Tuesday night, according to the AP.

“No matter how high, how thick or how good you build a wall, the Mexicans will find a way to come across. I will bet anyone they do," Rodriguez said.

"Besides that," he added, "the Mexican government is not going to pay for it. It doesn’t concern them. Trump just talks senseless.”

What’s more, Rodriguez said, a border wall would foment resentment on the Mexican side of the border, and businesses on the U.S. side depend heavily on shoppers from Mexico.

Zulema Mercado, a 40-year-old insurance claim analyst, said residents who live near the border tend to understand that many of the people coming across are looking for a better life and come to work. Her own grandparents came to the U.S. illegally from Mexico years ago.

“We live here with the problem of illegal immigration, but we don’t want a border wall. That’s not going to solve anything,” she said, pointing out that in Nogales, migrants often enter the country illegally by going under the wall through tunnels.

She said her 24-year-old daughter, a University of Arizona student, inspired her to vote for Bernie Sanders, the U.S. senator from Vermont running against Clinton for the Democratic nomination.

Can Donald Trump build a border wall with Mexico? He'd have to tackle this

Sanders and Clinton both support immigration reforms that include providing a pathway to citizenship for the nation’s estimated 11.3 million undocumented immigrants.

Arnulfo Rodriguez, an 80-year-old retired railroad worker, also voted for Sanders.

A wall, he said, “would be a waste of money. How many billions is it going to cost? That’s money that can go to something else.”

Gerardo Bostick, 68, who retired last year as an agricultural inspection supervisor for U.S. Customs and Border Protection, said he likes Sanders but voted for Clinton because he said he would like to see a woman become president.

He said there is no question building a wall along the entire length of the border would prevent people from crossing illegally.

He pointed toward the fencing that already stretches along the border, dividing Nogales, Ariz., from Nogales, Sonora.

But he still doesn’t think it’s a good idea.

“They don’t need to do that,” he said. "If they want to decrease illegal immigration, put more agents on the border, or the military.”

A wall, he said, “is not practical. It costs too much money.”

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