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NOGALES, Ariz. (AP) — Donald Trump's ambitious plan to build a giant wall on the border hits close to home for people like Berenice Andrews.
The front door of her family's home is just feet away from a fence separating the U.S. and Mexico. The home is so close to Mexico that the sounds of schoolchildren at play south of the border can be heard. So can buses along a main thoroughfare on the Mexico side.
As the presidential contest shifts to Arizona and its Tuesday primary, Trump's wall stirs up a range of emotions among border-area residents like Andrews. For some, nothing short of a wall will do. For her, the fence that currently divides the U.S. and Mexico is a good enough barrier.
"For him to even propose something like that is complete insanity," Andrews said.
Trump has not provided specifics the wall but says it would cost between $10 billion and $12 billion, and has said he would make Mexico pay for it. Mexico has scoffed at the idea.
There are already about 650 miles of fencing, including the steel fence that divides the sister cities of Nogales in Arizona and Mexico and ranges from 18 feet to 26 feet tall. Much of the border was built in the last 15 years as immigration surged. The cost has been in the billions.
The Associated Press interviewed people who live on the border to get their perspective on Trump's border wall plan:
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GUNS AT THE READY
Everywhere Jim Chilton goes on his sprawling cattle ranch along the Mexican border in Arizona, he has a gun at the ready. Guns at his front door. Guns in his pickup truck. Guns on his horse's saddle.
For Chilton, illegal immigration and drug smuggling isn't just something he hears about on the news. He lives with it every day as smugglers routinely cross the border on his property. He supports just about anything to stop it, including Trump's plan to build a wall from one end of the border to the other.
"We need a wall. We need forward operation bases. We need Border Patrol to be down there all the time," Chilton said. "We just need to secure that international boundary at the border, period."
While Chilton hasn't decided who he'll vote for in the presidential election, he certainly supports the idea of building a wall.
"I'm tired of having thousands of people coming through my ranch. I worry about running into a guy with an AK-47 and a bunch of druggers behind him," Chilton said. "The United States needs to secure its international boundary."
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BOTHERED IN BISBEE
Artist Kate Drew-Wilkinson lives in Bisbee, AZ, where she owns a gallery a few miles north of the border. Drew-Wilkinson opposes Trump and his wall proposal, saying he's a bully who is dangerous to the United States.
"I don't think he has a real understanding of the geography or the sheer difficulty of building a wall of that kind," she said. "And it's ugly. The whole thing is really ugly."
Drew-Wilkinson, an England native who moved to the U.S. in the late 1960s, wouldn't reveal who she would be voting for but said it definitely wouldn't be Trump.
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RANCHER WANTS A WALL, TRUMP
John Ladd is a cattle rancher whose roughly 15,000 acre ranch abuts the border near Naco, Arizona. Immigrants and drug smugglers frequently sneak into the country on his property, cutting his barbed-wire fences and leaving behind garbage.
He is sick of politics as usual and finds Trump's lack of political correctness refreshing. He isn't bothered by Trump's lack of specifics about how he'd build a wall.
He simply likes that Trump has been talking about illegal immigration since the beginning of his campaign.
"That really rang a bell with me and a lot of the ranchers, that finally we had somebody in the political arena that wasn't worried about being politically correct and talked about the problem that is actually happening," he said.
Ladd said he isn't sure the wall will ever actually be built but said he believes Trump will enforce immigration laws.
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CONFLICTED REPUBLICAN
Hector Orozco has a unique perspective on the border debate because of his occupation and past party affiliation.
He manages manufacturing company south of the border with offices on the American side, making campaign debates about foreign trade especially relevant. He is also an immigrant from Mexico who became a U.S. citizen and traditionally voted Republican.
As of late, though, Orozco said he can't get behind the party and its ideology. To him, America's biggest challenge is the deficit and the economy, not illegal immigration.
"It's like they're trying to distract us from the bigger problems," he said. "(Illegal immigration) is a problem but it's not the biggest problem."
And he said a wall wouldn't resolve immigration problems in any way.
"People will find a way to improve their lives," Orozco said. "Regardless of how big the wall is, they're gonna look for a way because they're gonna want to make a better life for their family. Not all who cross are criminals."
WASHINGTON (AP) — There's growing evidence that most of the dramatic gain in the number of Americans with health care coverage is due to President Barack Obama's law, and not the gradual recovery of the nation's economy.
That could pose a political risk for Republicans running against "Obamacare" in the GOP primaries as they shift to the general election later this year. While the health care law remains highly unpopular in the party, the prospect of taking away health care coverage from millions of people could trigger a backlash if the eventual GOP nominee's plan to replace it is seen as coming up short.
"There are different phases of the campaign," said GOP pollster Bill McInturff. Playing to like-minded voters in the primaries, Republican front-runner Donald Trump doesn't have to spell how he'd replace Obama's law. "When you get to the general election, the demand for what you are going to do different starts to escalate."
Under "Obamacare," the share of Americans without health insurance has dropped to a historic low of about 9 percent, with room to go even lower. But even as the economy has expanded, major government surveys point to a lackluster rebound for employer-based coverage.
"It's very clear that the Affordable Care Act has done most of the work in decreasing the number of uninsured," said economist Robert Kaestner of the University of Illinois at Chicago.
The numbers vary across different government surveys, but the overall pattern is strikingly similar:
— The Census Bureau's American Community Survey found about 3 million more people gained employer coverage between 2010, when the health law passed, and 2014. But the number of uninsured people dropped by more than 10 million during that same period. The strongest gains appeared to come from Medicaid, which was expanded under Obama's law. The percentage of Americans covered by employers stayed about the same.
— The National Health Interview Survey from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also found that employer coverage was essentially flat between 2010 and 2014. But the same survey found 12.6 million more people with health insurance during that period.
— The Census Bureau's Current Population Survey found no statistically significant change in the number of people covered by employers from 2013 to 2014, while the number of uninsured people dropped by nearly 9 million as the law's main coverage expansion got under way during that time.
"This kind of shift in insurance I don't think can be explained by the economy," economist Christine Eibner of the RAND Corporation said. "The increase (in coverage) is large enough that it can't be driven by just economic recovery."
Kaestner said "most of the heavy lifting" seems to be coming from Medicaid expansion.
Employer-provided insurance plans remain the mainstay for workers and their families, covering an estimated 150 million to 170 million Americans. But even before the 2007-2009 economic recession, workplace coverage was steadily shrinking because of rising medical costs.
Obama's law provides subsidized private insurance for those who don't have access at work, along with a Medicaid expansion geared to low-income adults in states that agreed to do so. Most individuals are required to have coverage, and larger employers must offer it or face fines.
The health care law has been difficult to navigate for consumers, and its skinny policies can expose patients to high medical bills. But it's becoming a backstop for millions of Americans in a changing economy.
On the campaign trail, Republican presidential candidates denounce "Obamacare" for a litany of woes. But some prominent conservative experts recognize that the law has increased coverage, even as they propose other approaches to meet that goal.
"Repealing the law without a plausible plan for replacing it would be a mistake," said a policy paper from 10 leading GOP health policy experts, published by the business-oriented American Enterprise Institute.
Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton has already previewed how Democrats might use the issue this fall, frequently reminding voters they risk losing some popular benefits if the health care law is eliminated. Meanwhile, a nonpartisan analysis of Trump's initial outline for repealing and replacing the health care law found it would push millions back into the "uninsured" category.
The analysis last week from the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget found that the Trump plan would increase the number of uninsured by about 21 million people while costing the government nearly $500 billion over 10 years.
Replacing Obama's law with a conservative alternative that delivers comparable coverage would require considerable taxpayer dollars, something few Republicans seem ready to accept.
"Any repeal has to have a way to increase coverage and not just by a few million," said economist Gail Wilensky, who ran Medicare under former President George H.W. Bush.
Obama's law "is obviously not the only way to do this_but it is important that it gets done" Wilensky added.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Apple is kicking off a busy week: Today the giant tech company will host reporters and analysts at its Silicon Valley headquarters for a product launch event. On Tuesday, its lawyers will square off with authorities in federal court over the FBI's demand for help unlocking a San Bernardino killer's encrypted iPhone.
The tech giant's dispute with the government has commanded headlines for weeks, but it warranted only a brief mention at the company's product event. CEO Tim Cook noted the company's conflict with the FBI over what he termed the government's power to access the data of iPhone users. "We will not shrink from this responsibility," he told the gathering.
The bulk of the event, however, is expected to show off some new additions to the current family of iPhone and iPad devices.
Apple could use a lift. IPhone sales are levelling off, after surging last year to record levels that made Apple the world's biggest company, by stock market value. And many are wondering if Cook can come up with another big hit.
So far, however, there have been no hints of any dramatic announcements, such as last year's highly anticipated Apple Watch debut, or major initiatives like the company's long-rumored but yet-to-materialize streaming TV service.
And even though Cook has been outspoken about his opposition to a judge's order compelling Apple to write software that overrides iPhone security features, tech analysts say he probably won't risk overshadowing the company's products by discussing the case at Monday's event.
While Apple has been mum about its plans, several analysts expect the company will introduce an upgrade to its older, four-inch iPhone 5S — aimed at consumers who haven't sprung for the bigger-screen iPhone 6 models that Apple introduced over the last two years. The new phone may come with features like Apple Pay and the company's fastest processor, which have previously been offered only on versions of the iPhone 6.
Analysts and tech blogs say Apple also may unveil a new model of the iPad Pro, which the company introduced last year with several features — like a detachable keyboard and stylus — designed for business users.
A four-inch iPhone isn't likely to see the kind of blockbuster demand that Apple enjoyed with its large-screen iPhone 6 and 6S models, according to several financial analysts, but it could help Apple boost overall sales. The smaller phone might also draw some additional users into the market for Apple's online services, including Apple Music, Apple Pay and the highly profitable mobile App Store.
While shoppers bought a record 74.8 million iPhones in the final three months of 2015, Apple has signaled demand in the current three-month period will fall short of the 61 million iPhones sold in the January-March quarter last year.
Even with new features, analysts say the 4-inch iPhone should sell at a lower price than the larger models, which list at $549 or more. That means it may appeal to some shoppers, especially in overseas markets, who want a premium phone at lower cost. It may also draw interest from owners of older iPhone 5 models who find the larger models unwieldy.
Many analysts expect Apple will release a more dramatically revamped new iPhone 7 in the fall.
The proliferation of iPhone and iPad models may seem contrary to Apple's traditional focus — espoused by late Apple cofounder Steve Jobs — on producing fewer products that it believes are superior to competitors' offerings. By contrast, Samsung is known for selling a multitude of phones and tablets at various sizes and prices.
But Apple has gradually expanded its family of devices in recent years to reach consumers in different market categories, which also helps the company sell more online goods and services, said Gartner tech analyst Brian Blau.
"Tim Cook has said he thinks there's a lot of life left in the iPhone product line, despite the media and investor community pressuring Apple over the potential decline in premium iPhone sales," Blau said. "I think it's exactly these types of things that he has in mind."