ABSTRACT
The 262 miles that stretch across the rugged and parched terrain of southern Arizona from the New Mexico state line to Yuma County is known as the Tucson Sector—key terrain designated by the US Customs and Border Protection. While the US Border Patrol debates the very definition of border security with terms like operational control versus monitoring, the ranchers of southern Arizona have no ambiguity when it comes to understanding their own safety. The Arizona ranchers of the Tucson Sector have encountered drug and human smugglers for decades and thus serve as extraordinary witnesses to the nature of drug and human smuggling affecting not only the border but also the entire US, which continues to witness the growth of drug, criminal, and gang activities all related to organizational expansion of Mexican drug trafficking organizations. The violent, threatening, invasive, and brutal cartel activities imprinted on ranch lands have created the inhuman terrain layering the landscapes of the southern border.
