The U.S.-Mexican Border: A Changing Frontier The border emphasizes how much the U.S. and Mexico rely on each other, and, like siblings, it also illustrates the tension between them. As the U.S. builds new fences and heightens patrols, a drug war on the Mexican side has killed thousands of people this year alone. Meanwhile, trade across the border continues to grow.

Special Series

The U.S.-Mexican Border: A Changing Frontier

Subscribe to NPR's Up First Email

Series Overview: Examining A Relationship In Flux

December 1, 2008 • The U.S.-Mexican border is in flux as economic, political and social changes reshape the relationship between the two countries. The U.S. side is fortified with new fences, while the Mexican side is full of dreamers and migrants lit with the adrenaline rush that comes just before attempting to cross to a new life.

Drug Deaths, Violence Plague Border In Tijuana

December 1, 2008 • Controlling immigration at the border between Mexico and the U.S. is proving challenging as drug cartels, money, gang violence and politics clash with a potentially idyllic and green city just south of San Diego. Tijuana is suffering as a result of the violence, officials say.

Drug Deaths, Violence Plague Border In Tijuana

Listen

Download
Embed <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/97457815/97629306" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
Transcript

Deported Immigrants Struggle To Re-Enter U.S.

December 2, 2008 • Hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants are deported to Mexico every year, but a majority of them are dropped just across the border in Tijuana or Nogales. Some who have lived their whole lives in America want to return to their families, lives and jobs in the United States.

Deported Immigrants Struggle To Re-Enter U.S.

Listen

Download
Embed <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/97531877/97682001" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
Transcript

Agents Use High- And Low-Tech Tracking At Border

December 3, 2008 • Night vision scopes, motion detectors and cameras, combined with an increase in Border Patrol agents on foot, aim to stop people from illegally crossing into the United States. Despite the increases in monitoring, border crossers who have been caught say they will continue to try to re-enter the states.

Agents Use High- And Low-Tech Tracking At Border

Listen

Download
Embed <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/97674896/97735158" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
Transcript

Economy, Drug Wars Hurt Cross-Border Business

December 4, 2008 • El Paso, Texas, and Ciudad Juarez in Mexico are economically tightly intertwined. The economic downturn in the U.S. is hurting the hundreds of assembly plants just across the border as a raging drug war that's killed some 1,400 people in Juarez this year is squashing tourism.

Economy, Drug Wars Hurt Cross-Border Business

Listen

Download
Embed <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/97752572/97785588" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
Transcript

Fence Affects Border Town Culture, Relationships

December 5, 2008 • The border fence between Eagle Pass, Texas, and Piedras Negras, Mexico, is forging a physical barrier between towns where culture and economy are closely related. The fence, which has met strong opposition from the mayor of Eagle Pass, has strained relations between the towns.

Fence Affects Border Town Culture, Relationships

Listen

Download
Embed <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/97802317/97843604" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
Transcript

Browse archive or search npr.org