Arizona residents say Border Patrol has turned their towns into militarized zones threatening the quality of their lives, Los Angeles Times reports.

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

Several residents protested along six Arizona border checkpoints for numerous reasons. Native American residents of the Tohono O'odham Nation say Border Patrol has been intruding on tribal land. Residents in Tucson are protesting because Border Patrol agents killed a 16-year-old Mexican boy in 2012.

Officials say Border Patrol agents are along southern Arizona lines to help stop drug smugglers, human traffickers and people violating immigration laws, according to the Associated Press.

But residents in the area say they do not like how agents frequently stop them to ask citizenship questions.

"Every time I have to pull out an I.D. out of my purse, I don't like that," Carlota Wray, an Arivaca activist, said, agreeing with other protesters who say Border Patrol invites racial profiling.

Yet, authorities at the Arivaca checkpoint say they are making the area safer.

"We're here to listen to the true issues," Border Patrol Tucson Sector Chief Patrol Agent Manuel Padilla Jr. said. "We stop everything here: drugs, smuggling."

Padilla said that people are protesting because of a misunderstanding of the Border Patrol's role in keeping the town safe.

Some residents feel threatened by Border Patrol at checkpoints when they walk past agents carrying guns.

But people further in town have different opinions. One sign read, "Citizens of Arivaca, Moyza & Amado Support Our BP Checkpoint."

The head of a café near the Arivaca checkpoint, Virginia Engle, said the town was more dangerous before Border Patrol took over.

"It's better since they came," Engle said, recalling the times when Mexican drug cartels would leave "lots of bodies on the desert."