El Sásabe

El Sásabe sits right on the border, facing tiny Sasabe, Arizona, about 1,074 meters up in the high desert of Sáric municipality. With 977 residents in 2020 it was the municipality's largest settlement, bigger than the seat itself, and it is known for its burnt-adobe brickyards. On the US side, Arizona State Route 286 ends at the port; Tucson is about 74 miles (119 km) north. There has been a crossing here since 1916, and the old 1930s brick US border station was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2014. It is Arizona's least-used crossing: in all of 2011, 15,071 cars, 278 trucks and 1,016 pedestrians went through.

The village is also one of the gateways of migration into the United States. A dirt road of under 100 km runs north from Altar, close to impassable in the summer rains, and vans carry migrants up it to El Sásabe; from here many set off on foot into the Arizona desert, with no water or shade. Of the nearly 4,000 bodies found in the region between late 1999 and mid-2021, most turned up in the desert between Sásabe and Lukeville. In March 2020, as Title 42 took effect, the Border Patrol was sending people caught nearby back into Mexico through this port.

From October 2023 two criminal groups fought over the village: there were hours-long gunfights and burned houses, the doctor left on the first day and the migrant aid house closed. By late November about 15 families remained, many having crossed into Arizona. Families began returning in January 2025 to a damaged village with no work. With help from the Green Valley Samaritans, the Esperanza community library opened in May 2026, with English classes, and a community kitchen is being built.