The Foreign Service Journal, October 2007

O C T O B E R 2 0 0 7 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 29 s a first-tour officer on a consular assignment, I imagined my view of Mexico would be formed primarily from a visa interview win- dow. What else would there be to do in this small, dusty post? As it turns out, quite a bit. What I didn’t fully real- ize until I got here was the extent to which Nogales is quite literally ground zero for illegal migration. Shortly after my arrival, Principal Officer Cynthia Sharpe asked me to begin educating myself about the terrain and people of the desert corridor, so I could serve as a regional guide for interested private-sector and offi- cial visitors. Our consulate receives many requests from U.S. agencies for briefings on border security. In addi- tion, we have worked closely with our public diplomacy colleagues in Embassy Mexico City to design tours of the region for journalists, editorial writers and academic opinionmakers, in an attempt to sensitize the Mexican public to the perils of illegal immigration via the Sonora- Arizona desert corridor. With scorching temperatures during the day, freezing temperatures at night, scorpions and snakes, and cacti in a variety of shapes and sizes, the natural obstacles found in the Sonoran Desert of northwestern Mexico would frighten off all but the most determined visitors. Illegal immigrants attempting to enter the United States are a very determined group, however. They have used the Arizona-Mexico border to enter the U.S. for decades, often with tragic results. Recently, an alarming rise in deaths of illegal immigrants has everyone wondering how much deadlier the desert may become. As double and triple fencing is erected and the U.S. Border Patrol becomes a bigger presence in the urban F O C U S O N T H E U . S . B O R D E R S C ONSULATE N OGALES ’ D EADLY D ESERT A S SECURITY TIGHTENS IN URBAN CENTERS , THE FLOW OF IMMIGRANTS AND CONTRABAND IS BEING PUSHED TO MORE REMOTE AREAS . B Y J IM B REDECK A Jim Bredeck is a first-tour Foreign Service officer in Nogales. Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum