Jose Antonio Elena Rodriguez's face stares from a portrait hung on the cliff under the border fence in Nogales, Mexico. In 2012, a US border agent shot Jose Antonio through the fence.
(Season 2, Episode 5) In the burning heat of Arizona's vast, mostly empty Wild West desert, young Mexican American teenagers decide between working for the border guard or for the cartels smuggling drugs and people north. The kids that choose to be border agents face anger within their own families, as migrants desperate to come to the US die nameless deaths.
The story you just read is not locked behind a paywall because listeners and readers like you generously support our nonprofit newsroom. Now more than ever, we need your help to support our global reporting work and power the future of The World. Can we count on you?