ARIVACA, AZ — ABC15 first visited Jim Chilton's ranch as part of our 48 hours on the border series in February of this year.
Chilton has lived on his ranch since 1991.
“This is my private property and these are my corrals,” Chilton said. “This is our home. And we're not leaving.”
The physical landscape hasn't changed much in 30 years, but he says his 5.5 miles along the international border between Mexico and the United States has gotten busier.
“In April alone they had 5,640 people come onto my ranch,” Chilton said of the border patrol’s report to him.
Chilton says construction on the border wall on his property ended under the Biden administration. Where that wall ends is where dozens of migrants cross every day, some ABC15 met when we were back on the ranch in late November.
“I do it for the life of my daughter, for her life,” one woman told ABC15 through a translator she and her teenage daughter had fled from Mexico, hoping to escape the cartel. “I don't want to go back there. Because if I go back, we'll probably die.”
“You know I've met literally thousands of people, literally thousands of people right here,” said Andy Winter, a volunteer at a nearby camp helping the migrants. “Last week there was a woman, someone from the cartel had kicked her teeth out… Everyone who comes here, they're making this journey to here and going through what they have to to get here, it's for a reason.”
An 18-year-old from Ecuador told ABC15 he made a 12-day trip to the US.
“It's constant fear,” he said through a translator. “They have to hide us in places where, like you're very uncomfortable in your body, tight places.”
He said he is hoping to get to family in New Jersey but expects it will get harder and be more difficult for future border crossers under President-Elect Trump.
Another migrant we encountered was injured in a fall. It took about an hour and a half for the nearest ambulance to traverse the terrain to reach him. That man was treated and expected to be ok but not everyone is so lucky.
Chilton says more than 30 people crossing his ranch have died over the years.
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“It is terrible when people die on your ranch, it really is,” he told ABC15.
It's why he installed 29 water fountains across the ranch.
“It can make a difference between life and death,” Chilton said.
He believes completing the wall should be a priority, but also hopes the country can offer more options to those looking to immigrate legally.
“Why can't we accept more than a million a year?” Chilton asks.
Clinton supported Trump, even speaking at the 2024 Republican National Convention. He is optimistic the wall will be completed and says he has even met incoming border czar Tom Homan.
Chilton told us he sympathizes with asylum seekers looking for the American Dream. But he's also captured more than 3,000 images in the past four years of people moving in camouflage hoping to avoid detection across his ranch. He said border patrol believes many are carrying drugs, and he has even found discarded drug loads on his property. Chilton wants more border patrol along his land without a wall, though understands the rugged terrain can make it difficult for agents to get to the ranch. It is a drive that can take hours from where many agents are based in Tucson.
The good Samaritans helping those who cross the wall say they hope more help is provided.
“These people have made me a better person. They've just reminded me of the freedoms I do have in this country that I take for granted every day,” Winter said.
Winter has even set up wifi in the makeshift camp to allow for those who make it across to call back home.
ABC15 plans to visit the ranch again in 2025 to see how things have changed under a new federal administration.
