Migrant Caravan: Residents of US state of Arizona divided over immigration issue

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02:32

Immigration is a key issue in the U.S. midterm elections. Over the past month, President Donald Trump repeatedly mentioned the migrants traveling through Mexico toward the U.S., and his decision to send thousands of soldiers to the border. As Franc Contreras reports, voters in southern Arizona expressed a range of opinions when it comes to immigration.

It's quiet this day in the border town of Naco, Arizona.

We found no undocumented immigrants trying to illegally enter the United States over this border fence.

President Donald Trump has deployed 11-hundred troops to Arizona for Operation Faithful Patriot. He calls undocumented immigrants a threat to the United States. Thousands of other troops were sent to the borders along California and Texas.

Stephen Dey is a retired worker from Oregon. He's been living on a piece of land right next to the border for nearly a decade. Dey says Trump's decision to send soldiers to the U.S. Mexican border is unnecessary.

STEPHEN DEY RETIRED ARIZONA BORDER RESIDENT "Eight years ago, we had 50 to 100 people a day across that field. Since about four or five years ago, after the border build-up and everything, we're lucky to see anybody actually."

One hundred and twenty kilometers to the north, in a middle class neighborhood of Tucson, Arizona, voters are casting their ballots at this church for the midterm elections.

FRANC CONTRERAS TUCSON, ARIZONA "CGTN spoke with voters here to ask them exactly how important is the issue of immigration for them on this election day."

Chris Ruhl is a retired fire department captain from Tucson. He supports the president's decision to send troops to the border.

CHRIS RUHL RETIRED ARIZONA RESIDENT "The situation of these folks coming into our country is an invasion, and I think that the deployment of the troops is required to prevent that."

Regina Munoz Bennett works with teachers and students in Tucson, and is the granddaughter of Mexican immigrants.

REGINA MUNOZ BENNETT TEACHING INSTRUCTIONAL COACH "I'm disappointed because I don't believe in the excessive use of force on groups of people who are trying to safely immigrate to our country. They're people who want a better life and they see opportunity here, which really that's for anyone who was born here I think we want the same things."

For now, this part of the border with Mexico remains quiet. It will be some time before the migrants traveling as a caravan will get here, if at all. Either way, officials say, they need to be ready. FRANC CONTRERAS, CGTN, Naco, Arizona.