The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said in April that about 60,000 fewer illegal immigrants were captured at the U.S.-Mexico border in the previous six months -- about a third fewer than the number captured in the same time period last year. File Photo by Art Foxall/UPI | License Photo

ARIVACA, Ariz., May 28 (UPI) -- Protesters gathered at six interior Arizona border checkpoints on Wednesday, where residents argue Border Patrol officials have turned their hometowns into militarized zones.

At the Aravica checkpoint, about 35 miles south of Tucson, up to 20 Border Patrol agents were stationed to await the estimated 75 protesters, who demand the removal of checkpoints. Some checkpoints are up to 100 miles away from the border.


"It seems like a war zone all the time," Patty Miller, an area resident for 31 years, said through a megaphone.

"I used to wander all over the place with my dog," Miller, 73, told The Republic. "A lot of us were here before the checkpoint. That's what we live here for, the peace and quiet. Now it seems like a war zone."

The organized protest by independent border town community groups focused on issues ranging from the environmental effects of border fences, to a checkpoint's intrusion on Native American tribal land.

The Arivaca checkpoint was established eight years ago and is the smallest of the 11 checkpoints in the Tuscon Sector.

"This checkpoint serves as a deterrent to living in Arivaca," Maggie Milinovitech told the Los Angeles Times.

Manuel Padilla, chief patrol agent of Border Patrol in the Tucson sector, was at the Aravica checkpoint and said checkpoints like these help secure the Arizona and monitor illegal immigration.

"It's legal to run the checkpoints," Padilla said. "If someone has a disagreement with the law, there are channels to express that."