Story

On the Mexican Border: From Calexico to Nogales

February 13, 2013 | Pulitzer Center
By
Louie Palu, for the Pulitzer Center

Standing in Nogales, Sonora, beside the U.S. border fence in the separated twin cities of Nogales. Image by © Louie Palu/ZUMA. Mexico, 2012.

A U.S. Border Patrol agent sits in a truck monitoring the U.S.-Mexico border near a residential neighborhood in Calexico, California. Image by © Louie Palu/ZUMA. United States, 2012.

A section of the U.S. border fence facing Mexico, viewed from a dirt road near Jacumba, California. Image by © Louie Palu/ZUMA. United States, 2012.

A section of the U.S.-Mexico border fence seen from just west of Yuma, Arizona. Image by © Louie Palu/ZUMA. United States, 2012.

A U.S. Drug Enforcement agent (DEA) aims a flashlight down a 55-foot deep drug smuggling tunnel that runs almost 240 yards under the U.S.-Mexico border. It was cut through a floor of a small industrial unit south of Yuma, Arizona, in the town of San Luis. It is estimated that the tunnel built by a Mexican drug cartel cost up to $1 million and took one year to build. Image by © Louie Palu/ZUMA. United States, 2012.

A U.S. Drug Enforcement Agent (DEA) inside a 240-yard long drug smuggling tunnel under the U.S.-Mexico Border. It was cut through a floor of a small industrial unit south of Yuma, Arizona, in the town of San Luis. It is estimated that the tunnel built by a Mexican drug cartel cost up to $1 million and took one year to build. Image by © Louie Palu/ZUMA. United States, 2012.

Looking to Nogales, Arizona over the U.S. border fence from Nogales, Sonora. Image by © Louie Palu/ZUMA. United States, 2012.

Standing in Nogales, Arizona, beside the U.S. border fence and the Mexican border in the separated twin cities of Nogales. Image by © Louie Palu/ZUMA. United States, 2012.

A poor neighborhood very close to the U.S. border in Nogales, Sonora. Image by © Louie Palu/ZUMA. Mexico, 2012.

A migrant's feet after he walked for days through the Arizona desert and was deported by U.S. authorities. One of the primary injuries to migrants is severe foot blistering from walking in the desert in the heat. Image by © Louie Palu/ZUMA. Mexico, 2012.

Marisol Espinoza, a 20-year-old woman from Chiapas, Mexico, in a shelter for deportees and migrants the night after she was deported from the United States. Marisol had crossed into the United States and walked through the Arizona desert for six days before she was arrested by the U.S. Border Patrol. Image by © Louie Palu/ZUMA. Mexico, 2012.

An auto parts manufacturing facility, located in Nogales, Mexico, where electronic parts are made for vehicles worldwide. Known in Mexico as a maquiladora, it is a factory with a special customs designation. Image by © Louie Palu/ZUMA. Mexico, 2012.

This slideshow depicts portions of the U.S.-Mexico border fence at different points between Calexico, California, and the twin cities of Nogales. Also shown are images of two migrants who were deported after trying to cross the border illegally—a woman who walked for six days in the U.S. desert and a man whose feet became severely blistered.

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