Cuban migrants block the Paso del Norte-Santa Fe international bridge between Mexico and the United States, to demand that the Trump administration allow them to wait for their asylum process on U.S. soil, in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, on Dec. 29, 2020. Herika Martinez /AFP via Getty Images hide caption

Adán Medrano, chef and food writer, savors a beef cheek taco at Vera's Backyard Bar-B-Que in Texas' Rio Grande Valley. John Burnett/NPR hide caption

Dynamite raises clouds of dust above Guadalupe Canyon, near the New Mexico-Arizona border. The Diamond A Ranch, which is located next to the construction site, has sued the government, claiming the blasting has sent "car-sized boulders tumbling down onto ranch property." John Kurc hide caption

Accordion players Marc Savoy and Corey Ledet are musicians in South Louisiana who play traditional Cajun and Zydeco music. Some bands are struggling to survive and missing the culture that they help to sustain. Lily Brooks for NPR hide caption

In the Guadalupe Canyon in southeastern Arizona, work crews are dynamiting mountainsides and bulldozing access roads in this stunning landscape to make way for the border wall. Mexico is on the left. John Kurc hide caption