As I was driving on Ruby Road yesterday, about 9 a.m., I came across a man stumbling in the opposite direction along the gravel shoulder.
Ruby Road cuts right through a primary crossing area for many folks—the road extends all the way from Arivaca, south south-east to Interstate 19 in Rio Rico, near the U.S./Mexico border. Save for about 10 of its 50 miles, the road is unpaved.
I came across this man just after he had gotten off of the dirt section.
Though it was sunny, it was still cold, and the night before had seen a thick layer of frost. He had been walking and sleeping in the desert for 7 days and had on only a long sleeve button down, a tshirt, jeans, boots and a tattered camouflage backpack. He wanted to know which way Mexico was.
As he rolled up his pant leg, I could see punctures from cactus spines and scrapes from the desert scarring his skin.
He asked for water, and drank from the gallon like it was the first liquid he had seen in days. I looked at his lips as he drank and they were pale, dotted red, wrinkled and peeling skin.
He kept rubbing his head and asking where Mexico was.
He said he had blisters, but that the pain was not too bad.
I asked him if he wanted to return to Mexico and he said yes and I asked him if he wanted me to call Border Patrol.
He looked down the road, the houses of Arivaca scattered over the hill, and asked if he would find Border Patrol if he kept walking on the road.
I told him I could call, but he just looked down the road and asked again if he would find them if he walked on.

A few hundred feet back up the road from where he came was a Homeland Security surveillance tower. He had walked right by it. This and many other towers like it are non-operational, though they were constructed over a year ago, and each tower is staffed by a security guard twenty-four hours a day, hired from the private security firm EODT.
The road is clearly visible from the raised position of the tower and this man walked right by it.
Nobody walks on these roads, stumbling, a backpack on, and is not in need of help.
Yet the tower guard didn’t move. He sat on the hill looking down from inside his truck, just watching as the man passed and just watching as we stopped.

We stood for a moment longer while this man drank more water. I gave him a clean pair of socks and a food pack, and he asked if he could take the water with him. He said he would walk the road. We shook hands and he continued on alone.
I don't know how long until he was picked up. But, I know that if he was picked up, he will most likely still be in detention even now, and, from the many first hand stories I have heard of short-term Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention, will probably be dropped at the border at some undetermined point in the future, being given very little food or water in the meantime.