Today, we sit down with a woman who made the journey from Mexico to the United States, not once, but twice, crossing the Rio Grande in the dead of night with her one-year-old son in her arms. She talks about what drove her to leave, the dangers she faced on the road, the people who helped her, and what it felt like the day her green card arrived. This episode was originally recorded in Spanish and has been translated and condensed into English so that her story can reach a wider audience.

Sources mentioned:

1. Survey finds Mexican migrants pay average of US $7,000 to ‘coyotes’ https://mexiconewsdaily.com/news/survey-finds-mexican-migrants-pay-average-of-us-7000-to-coyotes/

2. Drownings and Deterrence in the Rio Grande https://www.lighthousereports.com/investigation/drownings-and-deterrence-in-the-rio-grande/

3. Migrant deaths at the US-Mexico border hit a record high, in part due to drownings https://www.npr.org/2022/09/29/1125638107/migrant-deaths-us-mexico-border-record-drownings

4. Coyotes Raking in $7,000 Per Mexican Smuggled Across the Border https://www.fairus.org/legislation/executive/coyotes-raking-7000-mexican-smuggled-across-border

5. A Reagan Legacy: Amnesty For Illegal Immigrants https://www.npr.org/2010/07/04/128303672/a-reagan-legacy-amnesty-for-illegal-immigrants

6. 1986: Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 https://guides.loc.gov/latinx-civil-rights/irca

7. Most US voters say immigrants–no matter their legal status–mostly take jobs citizens don’t want https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2024/10/21/most-us-voters-say-immigrants-no-matter-their-legal-status-mostly-take-jobs-citizens-dont-want/

8. The Importance of Immigrant Labor to the US Economy https://cmsny.org/importance-of-immigrant-labor-to-us-economy/