Before the 2016 United States election, DW's Richard Walker met with Jim Chilton, a fifth-generation rancher whose cattle ranch in Arizona stretches along the US border with Mexico.

Back then, only a barbed-wire fence separated his land from Mexico. That has since been replaced with a border wall, one of the hallmarks of Donald Trump's presidency. 

However, the wall remained incomplete when DW visited Chilton again earlier this year. That's because construction on the wall was halted when Joe Biden took office in 2021.

Immigration and border security are hot-button issues in Arizona, a swing state that could decide the outcome of this year's election. Trump, now the Republican nominee for president, has made the issues central to his campaign to return to the White House, even promising mass deportations of undocumented migrants.

Discover how the US migration issue has changed over the past eight years and how complex the debate over the proper way forward is — even for a rancher like Chilton.

Camera and video editor: Nils Hünerfürst 

Script editor: Hannah Cleaver