MUSIC: This is America by Childish Gambino
America isn't just a place.
It's an idea.
And the enduring power of the American dream
is that it's universal.
The craving for a better life.
I'm the last Mohican.
Donald Trump said the dream was dying and he'd make
America great again.
I know that we will win!
They want to rob you of your hope.
But how great is America now as Trump seeks reelection?
The guy in the White House right now is crazier than a loon.
Welcome to Arizona, America's backyard with Mexico and a state
threatening to swing to the Democrats in the presidential
election after backing Donald Trump in 2016.
Here, the issues of immigration...
The worst of the worst is coming to this area...
On race...
The heart of people have held on to relics of the past.
And Covid-19.
People dying here in the camp?
Yeah.
Yeah, every day.
GUNSHOT
# This is America #.
They all highlight America's deep divide as voters choose between two
very different visions for the country's future.
I've been reporting from America for almost a quarter of a century.
And I've never known it so divided.
Left and right, Republican and Democrat, consensus is fleeting.
And when it comes to the fiery issue of illegal immigration
and what to do about it, the gap between liberals
and conservatives is as wide as the Rio Grande.
But how best to protect what it means to be an American?
Is an impregnable barrier a good option?
Build the wall!
The biggest beneficiary maybe happens to be Arizona.
That wall, how good is the wall?
It is the iconic idea of Trump's America.
And this...
Cowboys and big skies, part of the iconography of America.
All right, all right, guys, OK.
Bill McDonald's ranch in Arizona is just a few miles
from the border with Mexico.
Illegal immigration and drug trafficking are live issues here,
yet for him, a Republican, billions spent on a border wall
is a waste of money.
People think, well, you build a wall, you've solved a problem.
They've already got saws that cut through that wall.
You can do it with technology and do it just as well.
It's political, he made a promise, he was determined to keep it.
He thought, if he kept it, he'd get re-elected.
It's the only reason he does anything.
I'm not crazy about everybody that crosses the border,
but I'm not crazy about everybody that already lives here either.
I mean, there are good people and bad people in all stripes.
You can't characterise people by where they come from.
It takes a few hours to sort the calves for sale,
headed for Oklahoma.
They'll never see their mothers again, but that's business.
Activists say over 500 children remain separated
from their families...
Building a big wall was only part of the plan.
Critics in Congress and human rights groups claimed migrants
were being treated like cattle under Donald Trump's zero-tolerance
child separation policy to deter illegal migration.
Eventually, his administration was forced to change course.
But secure borders are a necessity.
We saw drug cartel spotters across the wall in Mexico,
checking if the coast is clear to send over human mules.
These ones went that way, so yesterday I followed these guys...
Tim Foley often spots them too, videoing the mules camouflaged
with their backpacks of drugs.
From his remote base in southern Arizona,
he leads a group of armed volunteers that patrols the border.
Is the wall making America great again?
It's making it safer.
Tim represents a strain of American patriotism Donald Trump tapped into,
giving up everything he knew in San Francisco to come to Arizona.
Why are you involved?
What is it about this situation that gets you angry?
I didn't trust the government or the media to tell the actual
truth of what was going on.
Some apple sauce...
But what is the truth?
There's another group of volunteers on the border.
They're from a charity that leaves water and food supplies for people
crossing over from Mexico, asylum seekers fleeing persecution
and migrant families with children reaching for a better life.
They also help families find relatives who've gone missing
crossing the border.
So, what are the kinds of things that you come across on the trails?
Many times, we find remains, skeletal remains of border crossers.
You also see clothes and abandoned shoes.
You know, evidence of a person's life.
So, you see wedding rings...
You see love letters, a lot of rosaries, a lot of Bibles.
We also see cosmetic products thrown in the desert,
deodorant, lipsticks, and you wonder why bring
those artefacts along?
And it's...
Many times, migrants want to leave meet their loved ones with,
you know, smelling good and looking presentable after a long journey.
In this one area, the remains of 181 people have been found this year.
You see young...
Young people, old people, you see everybody.
And you see the families.
The families just reach out to us, desperately looking
for their loved one.
It's an unimaginable pain and anguish.
You have the water jugs sitting over here...
Often, Gia and Tim's worlds collide.
And there's one thing they both agree on.
What's the tattoo?
One of the horsemen of the apocalypse.
It's what I see is coming, it's...
It's my view of the border.
There is death all around.
Donald Trump's wall speaks to us all.
Like a mirror, it reflects back to us our own values.
But when it comes to race, America has always failed to really
look itself in the eye, to understand its shortcomings.
And after November 3rd, we're not going to rest.
Because no matter who wins over there or out here,
we have a lot of work to do...
It's hard to steer a middle course in modern America.
The loudest voices...
The United States will never be a socialist nation.
..force the taking of sides.
Black lives matter!
I cannot breathe!
On race and discrimination, the conversation is insanely
partisan and painfully deep.
The unfortunate root, the dark roots of our country,
the dark side of our country is really starting to show itself.
And that's because of this election because there's just
so much divide right now, so much divisiveness,
there's a lot of tension.
I!
I believe...
The election comes amid a reawakening of Black activism not
seen since the 1960s.
I know that we will win!
You know, we the people...
And with a third of all American voters being non-white,
how will these new civil rights foot soldiers cast potentially decisive
ballots as they fight for a more equal and just America?
And it hurt...
We tried to reform the police after Rodney King...
Bruce Franks cuts the stillness of the evening in Phoenix, Arizona.
The light is dimming but not the memory of those beaten or killed
at the hands of police officers.
His words are powerful poetic rage.
..Those demands today because we are not going nowhere...
He was arrested in August for taking part in a peaceful
civil rights march.
Because he's innocent...
And now he needs a protest outside the courthouse after the jailing
of another protester.
When we fight, we're building our legacy.
Fighting a battle in a war where you'll never get to see
the outcome but if I continue to fight, hopefully that
along to my five kids.
And if they continue to fight, it passes along to their kids.
And it get to a point where maybe we can.
Do you think the election will change anything?
I think the election has the power to change a lot of things.
I'm not doing cartwheels for either candidate.
But I understand that it's just not about the candidates.
We are voting on entire administrations.
So, when we talk about change, we have the chance to change
what our affordable housing looks like around the United States
if we get somebody like Cory Booker as the HUD Secretary
rather than Ben Carson.
We have the idea of changing what education looks like if we get
somebody like Elizabeth Warren in there instead of
Betsy DeVos, right?
We got the chance to change what criminal justice looks
like if we put Mickey Mouse in there rather than
Barr or Jeff Sessions.
You know, we got the ability to change a lot of these judges
who are appointed federally by the president throughout
the United States who perpetuate mass incarceration, who perpetuate
all the problems with the systems where we know that disparity there,
we know what the folks in jail look like.
We know where they come from.
So, those are my hopes for the election.
Why are you doing this?!
Until then, this is what must be overcome.
Before George Floyd in 2017, there was Muhammad Muhaymin
here in Arizona.
The unarmed Black man died after being held down
by four police officers, one of whom put his knee on his
neck, for close to eight minutes.
I cannot breathe!
No one was disciplined.
And you're only hearing about this case now because of the controversy
over George Floyd.
And it was in this area where he was pinned down
and was clearly heard to say, "I can't breathe."
He knows that his life is about to be taken
from him and he knows...
Jazlyn is 21 and part of a new younger breed of civil
rights activist spurred by the urgency of the moment.
It makes me feel like my life can be taken at any given time just
because I have brown skin because I'm Black.
Because since I was a little girl, I've seen the way Black people
in America and just all over the world are treated,
it's a really unsettling state of mind to live in.
Please do your research, please don't be discouraged...
And that psychological distress, central to the Black American
experience will tolerated a written no more.
Use your voice or your fingers for your typing to create change.
That's important.
Not far away, a reunion. A proud father embraces a relieved son who
is fresh out of jail. His name is Percy Christian, he is 27.Jail is a
place where they want to rob you of your help...The subject of the
courthouse protest to get him freed. He served seven days arrested during
a demonstration against police violence.I'm willing to do whatever
it takes. I'm willing to put my life on the line to bring awareness to
the issue. And that's that police brutality Israel. That's that our
police system is up and designed to hold a certain group of individuals
back. And that is my people. -- brutality is real.And what are the
dreams of the father, a pastor having seen his son fight the same
battles he fought years ago?Why has it taken so long? Because the hearts
of people have held on to relics of the past that remind them of the
system that they want it to hold onto. Recently in our nation the
Confederate flag became a issue again. And you ask yourself the
question and this is another thing. Why are there people in this nation
determined to hold on to an emblem of something that represents hatred
and slavery? The battle hasn't changed. But the playing field has
changed, the platform has changed, the process has changed. What has
happened is that there is a denial of the reality that people of colour
experience in this nation. And so, we are proud of our son. I would not
be OK if he decided to shrink back. He can't shrink back now.Gentle
tales of African-American manhood rarely reported. But they are the
norm and while both the candidates for president say they want to
banish racial injustice Bruce Franks says he will not wait for others to
act. His own son pounds my future is on the line.I want a lot of the
things that's happened with police when you talk about police and Black
men, Black women, I don't want that affecting him although we know it is
inevitable, right? I just got to make sure he's equipped for it and
he ready for it. I'm not fearful because I teach him how to love and
what love is and how to have love for his people.While many
African-Americans feel marginalised, perhaps no community is more on the
fringes of society than the Native Americans. And their battle, their
trials with Covid-19, the pre-eminent election issue is
revealing of an America that many believe has lost its way.
In our culture, as a Navajo, as a Native American, it's something
we're not supposed to even do to deal with death.But dealing with
death is Michael's calling in the worst corner of the worst country
for Covid-19.With Covid patients we normally don't embalm, we usually
just keep them in the body bag.An undertaker, he prepares bodies for
burial on the Navajo lands of Northern Arizona.Numbers are going
up again so we are preparing for another influx of bodies.Living in
the largest of the Native American territories, the Navajo have
suffered more coronavirus deaths per head of population than any of the
50 states of the Union, many hundreds of people.There was that
point when I went into our storage unit and I just saw all those bodies
laying there and I knew two of them. It was a hard time for me. Knowing
that those people are laying there, people that I know and are here
because of Covid, it was heartbreaking. And a good friend of
mine, his son died of Covid. And I have known him since he was a little
boy. And I got the phone call, I was talking to him on the phone and I
just told him, "I can't imagine what you're going through." I have known
him since he was a child. And we both cried on the phone together.
Americans say their land is blessed by God. Now, it's cursed by
Covid-19. And there is seemingly no clear strategy to end its hold on
the land. Navajo nation is one of the poorest parts of America and
mask mandates and curfews were introduced early in the pandemic.
But the virus had already taken hold and with few health care facilities,
many were left at Covid's mercy. But that's the American story. Despite
its untold riches, millions always a struggle. This is tent city in
Phoenix. Thousands homeless, someone losing their jobs due to the
pandemic are now losing their wives. -- their lives. Meet James Wright,
he is 62... Pity would be no more if we didn't make someone poor.
Social distancing is tough in tent city. It's tough here too at this
trump rally but why? We scrupulously kept our distance and wore masks at
this gathering in Tucson. But in this deeply polarised country,
wearing or not wearing a face covering has become a political
statement. This is Chris and his family. So, do you enjoy the
atmosphere at the rally yesterday? We did. But the pandemic is still
out there, that didn't worry you being with all this people
yesterday?No. It didn't bother me one bit.If Donald Trump said
everyone should wear a mask, he is following the signs, you would do
it?Reluctantly I would probably.Do you think it is un-American to be
forced to wear a mask?I do. I think it's un-American to force anybody to
do something that there is no medical reason if you are not sick.
There has been a conflict in all of us during this time and perhaps more
so here in the land of the free, individualism versus collective
responsibility.It is part of our culture, to take care of each other.
It is always the natives that are wearing masks and you see that in a
lot of non-natives are not that diligent but we as a people are. So,
this is really the start of Covid, we open this area here.In Navajo
nation, they had to build a new cemetery to take all the debt. And
this is one of your close friends? Covid is why he is laying here. I
always think it shouldn't have happened.The presidential election
is above all a referendum on Donald Trump said handling of the
coronavirus pandemic and the whose votes can swing the result was that
it is America in miniature with extremes of landscape and
temperature, poverty and wealth. And the people we encountered on our
journey across the state represent all that is American. Kindness,
generosity, determination, and grit. This country's leader has a duty to
represent everyone, not cherry pick and that means understanding the
patchwork of cultures and ideas and ethnicities that make up this great
nation. And the sensibilities of those on the right and the left. The
winner of the presidential election will be the candidate who
understands that focusing on what unites rather than divides is all
that really matters. Guiding this country to a better shore reachable
from here.