The management of the U.S./Mexico border has long been a hot political topic with intensive ramifications for the economic and political relationship between the neighboring countries. Issues like the cross-border trucking dispute, border-area crime, and perhaps most divisively, 'illegal' or undocumented immigration have resulted in a largely-reactionary political and media discourse.
It's this unavailability of factual information that Gray Lines and Bob Feinman, a volunteer with Humane Borders and the Santa Cruz Community Foundation (two non-partisan organizations that are also supporting the program), are seeking to remedy. “We’re hoping these tours give people the opportunity to make up their own mind about what goes on along the border," Feinman said to Glenn Swain of Bus Ride.
In what Gray Line is calling "a personal fact-finding mission", tour participants are taken from Tucson to the border, with two stops in between at Arivaca and Nogales. Arivaca is the site where, with permission of the landowners, Humane Borders has installed a water tank for stranded people. In the desert climate, this can mean the difference between life and death.
At the second stop in the border town of Nogales, passengers disembark for lunch and listen to speakers discuss border issues. From there, the group tours the border and an entry facility on foot, where they are encouraged to ask questions and see the situation for themselves. During the return trip to Tucson, passengers are given the opportunity to speak with border officials and locals.
The tours are staunchly apolitical, as Feinman, who has worked with Gray Line as a guide for years, explained: "Every politician is talking about the border. Our mission is to let the border make a statement for itself. The mission is not to turn passengers into a liberal or a conservative.”
Currently, the "Border Crisis: Fact and Fiction" tour runs bimonthly, and costs $89 per adult, including lunch. Feinman hopes that the tour will prove to be popular enough to expand the concept. "[We'd] like to start designing a tour that would actually take people across the border on foot into Nogales, Sonora, Mexico.”
To read more about the history and politics of the Mexico/U.S. border on PV Pulse, click here.
