STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
So much of the presidential campaign centered on discussions of the border. So let's get a look at what's happening now as a new administration prepares to take over. NPR's Chiara Eisner went to a remote section of the Arizona border, and she got an overview - really.
CHIARA EISNER, BYLINE: To look for migrants in the desert, Customs and Border Protection doesn't just send out agents in cars and on foot. Pilots also scan the terrain from the sky in helicopters.
JAMES STRICKLER: All right. So this is an A-Star AS350. Everybody except for me will get out and in on this side, OK?
EISNER: Pilot James Strickler works for Customs and Border Protections Air and Marine Operations. He's on the tarmac near Tucson, going over some safety protocol before heading out toward the border wall.
STRICKLER: This way is better for the winds, so that's how we'll take off.
EISNER: After takeoff, a plane flies nearby and triggers an alert.
AUTOMATED VOICE: Traffic 10 o'clock. High. Two miles.
EISNER: As soon as we leave the city, there's nothing underneath but mountains and miles of dry land. Strickler's job is to collect information about the people he spots below.
STRICKLER: So whether that be for people who are making drug deals or whether it be people that have crossed the border illegally, it helps not being seen, not being heard, right? And then if they run, well then now I see them and, like, they're never going to get away from me.
EISNER: Pilots sometimes bring the people they find back in the helicopters, especially if they're dehydrated or sick. But more often, they send information to agents on the ground who pick the migrants up in vans and take them in for processing.
STRICKLER: Could you hear that radio call?
EISNER: A little bit.
STRICKLER: He just apprehended a group, and he's looking for someone to transport them.
EISNER: There are far fewer migrants crossing the border today. Around this time last year, about 200,000 people were tracked crossing over the southern border in one month. Now that number is down to about 50,000.
Hello.
JESSIE SCRUGGS: Good morning.
EISNER: Good morning.
SCRUGGS: How are you doing?
EISNER: How's it going, sir?
SCRUGGS: Jessie.
EISNER: Jessie Scruggs is Strickler's boss and the director of Air and Marine Operations. He says there hasn't been a huge surge since Trump was elected.
SCRUGGS: We're starting to see some of that traffic pick up, but it's also cooler weather, so moving across the desert's a whole lot easier.
EISNER: I asked him whether the lower number crossing these days was more manageable.
SCRUGGS: It's not so much a manageable number, but what is the correct number by law. And that number is actually zero.
EISNER: Well, people are allowed to cross and ask for asylum.
SCRUGGS: Well, correct.
EISNER: Seeking asylum is allowed under U.S. and international law, but the previous Trump administration and the Biden administration have limited it. Many people who wanted to enter the U.S. legally as refugees haven't been allowed the chance. Randy Mayer knows this issue well. He founded the Sahuarita Green Valley Samaritans, a group that provides aid to people seeking asylum. Near the border, he shows me a new awning the group attached to a Jeep so that they can provide shade for migrants in the desert.
RANDY MAYER: This is really slick. They all snap into place.
EISNER: The trunk is loaded with food and water.
MAYER: We call these migrant packs. These are things that we can give to travelers, and we leave them out in the desert, too. It has some protein, some granola bars, some apple sauce. You know, we have diapers and feminine products. We have...
EISNER: Mayer says there were 23 people claiming asylum at the border that morning. He spent an hour with them before Customs and Border Protection came to pick them up, but he thinks the situation may change soon.
MAYER: You know, it looks like Trump probably won't be allowing any asylum, so people are pretty anxious, and they really have nowhere to go.
EISNER: Another Samaritan - Wayne Iwem - joins us at the Jeep. He says fewer legal options for claiming asylum could mean more people trying to cross the border unnoticed and that the organized criminals that are said to control the Mexican side of the border may have something to do with it.
WAYNE IWEM: The cartel is not going to tell people, look, you're not going to get asylum 'cause they're making big, big dollars off of this.
EISNER: That could make crossing more dangerous for migrants.
IWEM: We may go back to desert searches where people are just trying to cross the desert on their own, and that's when people really die.
EISNER: But the Samaritans and Border Protection say they've seen this before. For now, they just plan to keep doing their jobs.
Chiara Eisner, NPR News, Tucson. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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