(upbeat music) - [Lorraine] A by national effort to vaccinate thousands along the Arizona border.

- I'm not gonna lie, I was a little scared at first but everything turned out okay.

- [Lorraine] What port restrictions have meant for the city of Nogales?

- Let's not balance our city budgets with handouts.

- [Lorraine] The iconic A-10 Warthog, and its future.

- Getting the flight steer in that direction, and you feel like you are king of the world.

(upbeat music) - Hello and welcome to Arizona 360, I'm Lorraine Revira.

Thanks so much for joining us.

In the coming days, the federal government will decide whether or not to continue travel restrictions at land ports of entry or dissolve the order that began in March of 2020.

It limits Mexican nationals from entering the US.

Earlier this year, government leaders and public health officials on both sides of the border began talking about ways to increase vaccination rates in Mexico, hoping it would ease concerned about virus transmission, and perhaps lessen worries when travel resumes.

It's an effort happening across the Southern border.

In the Arizona five ports of entry have offered vaccines.

Here's a look at the numbers.

In Douglas 1300 were vaccinated.

In Nogales 1400, in Lukeville another 650 and further west in San Luis more than 2000 received the vaccine.

In the coming days, NACO is slated to receive about 800 doses.

Tony Paniagua recently saw efforts underway.

- [Tony] Hundreds of residents from the state of Sonata, Mexico are waiting to get into Lukeville, Arizona.

It's their first visit since the pandemic began, but this cross border journey will be very brief, just long enough to receive the one dose Johnson and Johnson vaccine.

- I'm not gonna lie, I was a little scared at first, but everything turned out okay.

- [Tony] Similar to procedures in the US, patients are observed for any reactions.

Alan Andretta Ramirez was among the crowd.

Our recruit met with them prior to the most recent concerns about possible rare side effects from this vaccine.

Knowing there are risks with any vaccine, the people we spoke to were more than willing to be jabbed.

Ramirez's younger brother and their mother all contracted COVID earlier this year.

(speaking in foreign language) - Since we all suffered from the disease already, I was very worried about our health moving forward.

I was able to get vaccinated in Puerto Penasko due to my age, but Alan did not qualify, because he was not an adult yet.

Today is different and I'm glad he'll have more protection.

- It's my birthday.

- [Interviewer] (chuckles) Today you turned 18.

- Yep.

- [Interviewer] And did you have to be 18 in order to get the vaccination?

- Yeah, you had to be 18 or older to get the vaccine.

- [Interviewer] So everything just happened.

The timing worked out perfectly for you?

- Yep, everything turned out okay.

- [Tony] This event is part of a binational cooperative effort.

The Pima county health department supplied the vaccines.

US federal officials provided the location and Mexican leaders put the ward out and coordinated in the town of Sonoita, just south of the border.

US customs and border protection did not allow media to the event in Lukeville, but we were welcomed in Sonoita by the Mexican council in Tucson.

- This is particularly important because the solidarity among border communities, is like the authorities in Arizona had a vaccine that is available.

And we have people in the Mexican border communities who didn't have the opportunity to get their vaccination.

- [Tony] Arizona and Sonora share a border of about 350 miles.

The vaccination effort was aimed at residents from Sonoita, the town just south of Louisville and Puerto Penasco or Rocky Point to the Southwest, the popular seaside destination for Arizonans.

However, people also drove as much as two and a half hours from the communities of Caborca and Santa Ana.

- We have, we've been, waiting a lot from, for the vaccine.

- [Tony] This group of firefighters from Santa Ana learned about the vaccinations from their peers in Sonoita.

So they all hit the road as soon as possible.

- The paramedics over there, they don't take us that seriously, like they do when we're here in the United States with firefighters, okay?

So they told us, "Send us a list from the firefighters."

And a month later, "Send us, acknowledges."

And we have been waiting a lot about like a half a year.

- [Tony] Well, vaccination efforts have ramped up in Mexico.

Younger people were not the priority.

Most of these firefighters, many who are volunteers are 18 to 21 years old, many are also EMTs.

They have witnessed the devastating effects of Corona virus firsthand.

- I had some friends from police department, for firefighters, from sports, baseball, football, some guys they're always in sports and they died from this inner soul.

It was hard.

- [Tony] That's one of the reasons why Clara Yuniva Gastelum is volunteering at this vaccination clinic.

Her father is a health coordinator for the town of Puerto Penasco, about 60 miles away from Sonoita.

They have assisted in various vaccination programs throughout the state.

(speaking in foreign language) - We rely on tourism and fishing in Puerto Penasco.

And it's imperative that we were all vaccinated.

Not only is the protection necessary for us, but it's also important for our many visitors.

I love helping out, and many people are grateful for our efforts.

We are vaccinating a growing number of residents, and hopefully soon we can all return to some type of normality.

(speaking in foreign language) - [Tony] Council Rafael Barcelo says he's grateful to Mexican and US officials.

Approximately 5,000 Sonorans have been vaccinated, thanks to these cooperative programs.

- I think first is a solidarity among border communities.

Second one, economic development related to the opening of the land borders.

We'll still have the land borders are closed for non-essential trips.

So, if we can improve the vaccination rate of these communities, the opening for non-essential trips is going to be a reality sooner which is great for the economy of both sides of the border.

- [Tony] Firefighter Adrian Fontes says he and his crew are breathing a sigh of relief.

- We feel better right now, okay?

And we appreciate from the United States of America, I grew up about 20 years over there, I spend most of my life over there.

It's only one child.

So we try, we happy know, you don't have to get them back because I'm afraid of a little bit of the needles (laughs).

- For communities along the border, the nearly 16 months of limited travel at ports of entry has translated into millions in lost revenue.

It's estimated that Mexican shoppers spend more than $1 billion in Arizona every year.

In the city of Nogales, one report shows vehicle crossings are down more than 40%, and pedestrian traffic has dropped more than 50%.

Earlier this week, we spoke to no mayor, Arturo Garino.

- Well, economically it hurt.

And luckily we did receive some federal money, relieved money.

Put it this way, if we wouldn't have received it last year, we wouldn't have balanced our budget last year.

The council from last year, we were even contemplating layoffs, until we received the money because we weren't getting the sales tax that we usually get from residents from the Nogales Sonora.

We get usually about, I wanna say about 65 to 70% of our revenue, sales tax comes from residents from Nogales Sonora.

- [Lorraine] Despite those challenges, the city of Nogales approved an $82 million budget for the new fiscal year.

It avoided layoffs and even managed slight pay raises for its 300 employees.

Garino says that was possible because the federal government pumped more than $7 million into this town of about 22,000.

Online sales tax also helped likely due to residents shopping from home.

But it's temporary and Garino says, he'd rather rely on shopping habits this Bordertown has known for decades.

And he's worried about new trends emerging as port restrictions continue.

- Our residents from here, they're going into Nogales Sonora and the lines right now on Friday and Saturday is about a mile and a half long to go into Nogales Sonora because they're going from here to there.

So, Nogales Sonora is doing very well economically because we are shopping over there more than they are shopping here.

People are really getting used to and accustomed shopping in Nogales Sonora instead of coming over here, so when it does open, I'm wondering, will we get that influx of people coming back into Nogales and the Tucson area because they do come and shop in both cities.

Lets see what happens at the time, but it's a little concerning.

- As I understand it, you lost something like 180 residents to COVID.

- Yes.

- Another 8,000 contracted the virus.

- Yes, yes.

And right now we have about 87% vaccinated, which is very good, but we still have people that are, haven't vaccinated.

Matter of fact, we have employees in the city that don't want to get vaccinated.

So, it's concerning, especially with a new virus.

- What can you do at the local level as the mayor to say, "This is not sustainable anymore?"

- Well, the only thing we can do is just make sure that we do buy locally and with the money that we do receive, especially in the downtown area, we had a council meeting last week and I presented to the members of the console that we need to start using some of the funding we received to assist some of the businesses.

Let's open it up to have businesses that will attract our local residents to go on that to the historic area, to shop.

So a lot of the stores downtown, they were closed almost all of them, maybe one or two remained open.

They closed them all up and now you go downtown, two months ago, the stores had merchandise inside.

Now you go, there's no merchandise.

That tells me that they're gone.

They're gone, they're not coming back.

So, now we're gonna have to reinvent ourselves and say, "Okay, what can we do to make sure that those stores are opened, with maybe different ideas of what they can sell in those buildings that will attract people from Nogales Arizona not only from people from Nogales Sonora to go downtown.

- [Lorraine] Garino has written to the White House and extended invitations for a visit.

And in the last month he's met with Governor Ducey and Senator Kelly, but the promise of help hasn't come fast enough.

Immediately south of this town, there are nearly half a million people, a neighbor Nogales wants to lean on as it regained its identity.

- Priority is not there, that's what I think with the federal government.

They're not prioritizing the economics of a border region.

- Were you disappointed?

I mean, first it was the Trump administration, now it's Biden and there's really no change.

- Yeah, no change, not changed at all.

From the Biden administration, from the Trump administration, we received the first funds that kept us afloat and we balanced the budget last year.

Now with this one, we're balancing the budget.

Let's not balance our city budgets with handouts from the government.

Let's balance our city budgets with sales, with cross border trade, with opportunities.

That's the way we live along the border.

Other people don't understand that, other communities don't understand.

We need to have that cross street.

No more handouts, let's open up the border and let's get the people shopping.

And then we ourselves here in ourselves here in Nogales, we'll create that economy.

- From empty storefronts in the historic district of Morley avenue to further north along the same avenue is David's Western Wear, a shop that's been in business since 1980.

David Moore makes custom boots very much a niche market.

The pandemic has enforced this longtime family business to shut its doors, but times are tough and the future unknown.

How much do you rely on the Mexican shopper?

- The walking trade is probably 85% of our business.

- You're still open, you lost 85% of your business during this pandemic.

- We've had to lay off people, all our sales girls are gone.

My kids are ding the sales.

Our custom made boots is basically, what's held us here.

It keeps us here, it keeps us going.

- [Lorraine] The custom made boots, but I mean, well if somebody hears 85%, you've had to lay off people.

How have you managed to just kind of make ends meet?

- [David] Just because of the custom boots it's just handled, it's kept us alive.

So, it wasn't for that, we probably wouldn't be here now.

- Did you apply for any of the federal loans that came through?

- We did for the first one and got it.

And we haven't been able to get the other one or apply for it where it's kind of confusing, the second one.

- [Lorraine] You've been in business 40 years now?

- 41 yup.

- [Lorraine] You ask yourself, how have I been able to do this and how much longer can I?

- I love what I do, I love it, I'll be here.

- [Lorraine] You're Nogales born and bred.

You had a chance to talk to a Senator and tell him what you think would work.

- Right.

- What'd you tell him?

- I told him that we needed an easier entrance and exit to Mexico.

Mexico brings a lot of money into Nogales, to Tucson, to Phoenix.

It does even LA catches our buildings.

And just from Nogales Sonora, Almosio and all down to Cinderella.

there are a lot of people that come up from Mexico, go in deeper, and they're coming across now with, in airplanes, okay?

Private airplanes and stuff, and they fly into the airports.

That's starting to where they can get across.

- And they can come in easily, but people can't walk in?

- Right.

The people with a lot of money that can handle the airplanes can come in.

- [Lorraine] So when you sit down with a Senator, I mean, you guys talked, do you get the sense that he cares and he's going to do something for you in Washington?

- He'd already cared, but he knew, he understands the problem here.

Simple things like the train coming across the border or going south, it takes forever.

They check it, check it, and there's the, down here on the track, there's an x-ray machine that it has to go through.

I don't know, but it could be a lot faster.

- [Lorraine] It stops traffic at a standstill?

- [David] Kind of sit it here sometimes for 20 minutes without moving and take up 1, 2, 3 crosses.

- [Lorraine] People, cars can't cross?

- [David] Nothing.

- [Lorraine] They can't spend money.

- [David] No bridges.

- So, what's the solution.

- Just get everything, it needs organization, it can be done.

I don't, it just needs to be organized a little bit better where things move quicker.

I don't know, but I know I need, something needs to be done.

- David how much longer can you keep doing this at this pace?

- If the border opens up next month, forever (laughs).

But every month they tells the same thing, it's gonna be next month, it's gonna be next month, it's gonna be next month, and it never opens.

- So you strike me as a very tough man, you make cowboy boots for a living.

- (laughs) I gotta tell you no, we wore out our nails, fingernails hanging on, now we're right down to our toenails today.

- [Lorraine] What gives you hope that better days are ahead?

- The two communities Nogales Sonora, Nogales Arizona work very closely together.

Why?

Because there's a lot of inter marriages in the families.

There's a lot of people from Nogales Sonora that live over here that put their families, their parents and whatnot are there and vice versa.

There's a lot of Americans that are living in Mexico, even though they work here just because they cost of living.

But all these people just, and they start moving out and spend more.

- [Lorraine] Let's look into the future one year is David's Western wear still here.

- [David] If you open the border, yes.

- [Lorraine] And if they don't very quickly.

- [David] Well it's sad, it might be gone, but I'll still keep my boot maybe, just for something to do.

(clapping sounds) (soft upbeat music) (plane engine roaring) - For years, the department of defense has tried to retire the A-10, but Congress has always denied the request.

This proposed defense budget for next year is no different.

Earlier this year, the DOD announced it would retire an entire combat squadron.

Christopher Khan over takes a look at the history and future of the aircraft.

(plane engine roaring) - [Christopher] This is the image that most people in Tucson have of the A-10, but for troops in trouble who need the support of the A-10, it's more like this.

(plane engine roaring) (bullet sounds) That was 50 to 70 rounds, the size of an old coke bottle being fired.

The first sound you heard was actually the bullets breaking the speed of sound as they passed us.

The second sound was the gun firing.

(gun firing) The A-10 was first built in 1972, the last one made rolled off the line in the mid 1980s.

It was designed to be a tank killer if the cold war turned hot, but its mission changed to close air support.

As in supporting troops on the ground in places like Iraq and Afghanistan.

- And the best close air support airplane that any country has ever built.

- [Christopher] And Mark Kelly would know.

- It's unlike a lot of missions we fly in the military.

As an attack pilot myself, we go through the asic contouring combat, you could come back the next day to drop the bomb on the bridge or the building or the ship.

And you're doing close air support, you've gotta be 100% successful every single time.

And this airplane is much more capable at that mission than the F-16 or the F-35 or any other airplane in the inventory.

- [Christopher] That opinion is important because the Pentagon has repeatedly tried to retire the plane.

Davis Monthan is key to the future of the A-10, because it is where pilots come to learn how to fly the plane.

Lieutenant Brendan Crouse is one of those new A-10 pilots.

He just graduated a few weeks ago.

He says the best part of flying the A-10, is that it does what other planes can't.

- It would be either flying super low to the ground and doing rich crossings and being able to see stuff that most other fighters don't get to do, and then shooting the gun.

- [Christopher] When A-10 students arrive at Davis Monthan, they're qualified pilots, which is important because there is no two seat training version of the plane.

The new pilots are on their own in the cockpit when they take off.

- Ah, that was honestly a little bit scary, coming from the T-38, that's a really difficult plane to land, but transitioned to this, like that was my biggest concern is, how am I gonna land the jet?

Like I've never done it before by myself, but you figure it out.

And it's a fairly simple aircraft to fly and figure out.

- [Christopher] The training pilots get that Davis Monthan pays off when they deploy overseas and help troops on the ground or protect downed pilots.

- The feeling that I feel most about flying combat, is I have this image of my mind being up at kind of our higher holdout shoots and getting a tasking, hearing that there's a troops in contact or someone that needs my support.

And, my mind is the image of getting the flight steer in that direction, and you feel like you are king of the world.

(plane engine roaring) - [Christopher] Davis mountains role in the A-10 community is changing.

The Air Force recently announced its closing the basis, combat squadron, a loss of 35 planes, but other A-10 training and test squadrons will move in.

In all the air force wants to retire 42 A-10s in the coming year, the majority at Davis Monthan.

(banging sounds) The basis role in the future of the A-10 is not limited to training though.

In the last two years, the Air Force has invested close to $1 billion to upgrade the A-10, including refurbishing its wings.

Part of that re-winging takes place at Davis Monthan, specifically the 309th, A-mark known around Tucson as the Boneyard.

- It's more of a structural inspection and repair.

We're looking at major structural components, fittings.

And if we have the repair capability we will, otherwise we'll go back to the engineering assistant program office at hill to ask for engineering disposition and repair instructions.

- [Christopher] Those repairs include hand carving the ballistic foam that fills the wings of the A-10s.

Replacing hydraulic lines and other structural fixes.

- We have 35, very highly trained, 35 or so very highly trained artisans here doing a great job and providing that capability back to the A-10 fleet to war fighter and the sustainment of the fleet at large.

(plane engine roaring) - [Man] You have this incredible war machine with all these weapons, all this training and you're winging with you and you are flying to the sound of gunfire and you feel prepared and ready to do that and eager for that opportunity.

- Behind the thousands of airmen and civilians at Davis Monthan Air Force base is the DM-50, a nonprofit organization created to ensure the base had community support to weather any storm, including a base realignment or retiring an aircraft.

Joining me now is Linda Moralez.

She's the current president of DM-50.

Linda thanks for your time today.

- Thanks for having me.

- Linda, let's talk some numbers.

What's the economic impact of Davis Monthan Air Force base in this region.

- Overall it's about a $2.6 billion impact to the Tucson community.

And that does include retirees and all the other activities that go along with having a major Air Force space in the community.

- That's significant.

Give us some ideas on how DM-50 has really stood behind the base and all of its work that it does in this community.

- The goal of DM-50 is to support the airmen and to support the mission here at Davis Monthan.

So we do that in two major ways.

One is that we advocate for policies and missions to come here at both the state local and federal levels.

That means, going on trips to Washington DC, to advocate at the delegation there.

And it means to work with the state to make sure that we have policies in place that are favorable for those missions and for airmen here in the state of Arizona and working with the local level to make sure that the air force knows that Tucson, Pima county and the surrounding communities all very much support the presence and they're having the base within our jurisdiction.

And then the other thing that we do is the kind of the fun part, and that is really showing airmen, that community support in a more personal way.

So, we do a couple of major events every year.

One is coming up on September 11th this year, we're going to do a giant tailgate party at the U of A, for the San Diego state game.

And there we have about 2000 airmen and their families come out where we treat them to a meal and, a party out on the mall and attend.

And then we take them all as a group to the game where the university recognizes it as DM day.

And there's some ceremonies that go along with that.

That is a that's our next upcoming event.

And then the other thing we do typically in the spring, of course the COVID we had to change our schedule a little last year, but we will next spring be doing a giant based wide picnic.

And, that's again, the personal way that we can say thank you to airman and say, "Tucson welcomes you and likes to have you as part of our community."

- With this particular squadron leaving Davis Monthan, it almost transitions exclusively to a training facility.

Does that concern the DM-50?

- No, we are not concerned at all with the fact that this is becoming more of a training facility, but it's not truly just a training facility because there will be units here, those rescue units, although they are training, they are also being deployed.

That they are going out and doing the same thing.

And it really that the A-10 has been doing, which is providing support to create troops on the ground and making sure that they are, have those resources there when they need.

So it isn't solely training.

I think we've seen it even in our local community with the existing rescue squadrons that we have, they are out in our own community.

And if there's a call to action, if someone's missing in the mountains, if there's some major accident that's happened, they're there and they're there to support our community.

- What would the DM-50 like to see from members of the community to show that there is continued support for the base and its airmen and their families?

- So we do fundraisers periodically.

We will be having a fundraiser coming up, look for details of that, which will be out in the media.

And if you can buy tickets and if you would like to support the activities of DM-50 to purchase tickets and sponsor that upcoming fundraiser, and that will help us to continue to have the funds that we need to advocate for the base and support our airmen.

- This is a base that has earned at least two very notable awards in the last 10 years on a national scale, when it comes to the department defense, from the outside looking in, what would you like the average Arizonan to know about this space?

- Davis Monthan has twice, as you said, in the past the two times in a row that they could want it have won the sync award, the commander's award for excellence in the Air Force.

And that is basically, they are the best installation in the Air Force.

And so that happened in 2012 and 2018, and the community support was a big reason for that.

So, we have a gym here in Tucson and it is a very bright future that we have ahead for us.

- Okay, Linda Moralez the president, the DM-50, thank you for your insight.

- Thank you, Lorraine.

(whooshing sound) - That's all for now.

Thanks so much for joining us.

To get in touch, visit us on social media or send an email to Arizona 360@acpm.org and let us know what you think.

We'll see you next week.

(upbeat music)