The Wall: Reporting on the Border

For almost 2,000 miles, one line defines a country and divides the world. What is life like at the U.S.-Mexico border now, and how would a wall change that? In this podcast, journalists take you with them to the border to find out. Meet a human smuggler. Ride with armed vigilantes. Get bitten – lightly! – by a jaguar. Fly over the entire border line. Hear what journalists go through to get these stories – and the surprising things they learn along the way. This podcast is hosted by Nicole Carroll, executive editor of The Arizona Republic and azcentral.com, part of the USA TODAY NETWORK.

Episodes

Losing the jaguar

September 18, 2017 • 17 mins

Environmental reporter Brandon Loomis visits the jaguar’s native habitat in Sonora, Mexico, learning that this apex predator will become extinct in the American Southwest if a continuous border wall is built. To read, watch and learn more on this topic, visit thewall.usatoday.com, or text the word “JAGUAR” to our chatbot at 408-872-9255. This episode was recorded, edited and produced by Hannah Gaber, with field interviews and sou...

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Joined in faith, divided by a border

September 18, 2017 • 11 mins

Border reporter Aileen B. Flores hikes up Mount Cristo Rey, a mountain on the border between El Paso, Texas and Juarez, Mexico, with the Mexicans and Americans who view the site as a sacred homage to Jesus Christ and a symbol of the cities’ inextricable bond. To read, watch and learn more on this topic, visit thewall.usatoday.com, or text the word “MOUNTAIN” to our chatbot at 408-872-9255. This episode was recorded, edited and pr...

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Following drugs under, around and through the border

September 18, 2017 • 13 mins

Reporter Gustavo Solis meets law-enforcement experts in San Diego, where dense border fencing hasn’t stopped the constant flow of drugs through dozens of huge underground tunnels, an ever-changing array of boats and the San Ysidro Port of Entry, the busiest land crossing in the world. To read, watch and learn more on this topic, visit thewall.usatoday.com, or text the word “DRUGS” to our chatbot at 408-872-9255. This episode was ...

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On patrol with border vigilantes

September 18, 2017 • 17 mins

Border reporter Rafael Carranza joins a group of civilian men patrolling the U.S.-Mexico border. They dress in combat gear, carry AR-15s and spend their vacation as part of one of the best-known, and most media-savvy, armed civilian groups in the country. Join them as they track drug smugglers on the Arizona border. To read, watch and learn more on this topic, visit thewall.usatoday.com, or text the word “RECON” to our chatbot at...

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Danger in the Bootheel

September 18, 2017 • 18 mins

A Border Patrol agent shows reporter Diana Alba Soular what it takes to track signs of movement – and to stay alive – in the vast "Bootheel" of New Mexico, where agents spend hours a day driving and hiking mostly uninhabited borderlands alone, and crossers find increasingly clever ways to hide their tracks. To read, watch and learn more on this topic, visit thewall.usatoday.com, or text the word "PATROL" to our chatbot at 408-872...

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Severing a tribe’s ancestral lands

September 17, 2017 • 17 mins

Reporter Dianna M. Náñez joins members of the Tohono O’odham Nation at the border in southern Arizona’s Sonoran Desert, where ancestral lands cross into Mexico. Tribal members are allowed to cross freely back and forth into the Mexican state of Sonora, but that could change with a border wall. To read, watch and learn more on this topic, visit thewall.usatoday.com, or text the word “TRIBE” to our chatbot at 408-872-9255. This epi...

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Building the wall, at the expense of private property

September 17, 2017 • 14 mins

Business reporter Chris Ramirez investigates how much Texas private property would need to be bought or taken in order to build a border wall. The answer will surprise you. Also, what happens when U.S. property ends up on the south side of the wall? To read, watch and learn more on this topic, visit thewall.usatoday.com, or text the word “LAND” to our chatbot at 408-872-9255. This episode was recorded, edited and produced by Hann...

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Searching for Carlos

September 17, 2017 • 15 mins

Photojournalist David Wallace walks with a woman looking for the remains of her older brother in Arizona’s Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, one of the harshest and most remote places along the nearly 2,000-mile U.S.-Mexico border. To read, watch and learn more on this topic, visit thewall.usatoday.com, or text the word “MIGRANTS” to our chatbot at 408-872-9255. This episode was recorded, edited and produced by Hannah Gaber, ...

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One flew the entire border. The other drove it.

September 15, 2017 • 39 mins

Reporters Dennis Wagner and Laura Gómez traversed all 2,000 miles of the U.S.-Mexico border – Dennis by air, Laura by land. Listen to their stories, their insights, and their tussle over who had it easier. To read, watch and learn more on this topic, visit thewall.usatoday.com, or text the word “JOURNEY” to our chatbot at 408-872-9255. This episode was recorded, edited and produced by Hannah Gaber, with field interviews and sound...

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