Many migrants in Mexico journey north to the U.S. border by riding on top of freight trains. It's a dangerous trip: migrants have been kidnapped by cartels or killed by falling onto the tracks. And now, with the Trump administration suspending asylum applications at the border, the chances of crossing into the U.S. are even smaller than they were a few months ago.NPR's Eyder Peralta recently rode along with migrants through a frigid night to try to answer a simple question: why do so many still take the risk?For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org. Email us at [email protected] more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
Chapter 1: Why are migrants risking the journey on La Bestia?
Chapter 2: How do migrants prepare for the dangerous train ride?
The trains moved so fast that jumping on directly would be impossible for most of the migrants.
So they have this term that they say, which translates to we're going to puncture the train. And so the young people, they will put on gloves, like a ski mask to protect their face and their eyes. And then as the train comes, they just sprint like right beside it and they somehow jump on and then they just start turning knobs and pulling levers.
And what they're hoping will happen is that it disrupts the train's air brakes. And so that would usually cause an emergency stop.
The migrants Eder and his photographer were following finally found the train they wanted, and they got it to stop. They climbed up to the top of the train, and Eder and his colleague joined them. They all spent a frigid night riding north at 50 miles an hour. In Mexico, this train is called the Bestia, the Beast. It's a treacherous and often deadly leg of the journey to the U.S. border.
Consider this. Despite the Trump administration's hard line on immigration, many migrants are still traveling north to the border. Today, we bring you a reporter's notebook riding along with Ader on La Bestia to understand why migrants still take this risk. From NPR, I'm Scott Detrow. It's Consider This from NPR. Migrants have been riding La Bestia for decades.
The train can offer a way to travel north without paying smugglers. But the risks are great. Migrants have been kidnapped, assaulted and extorted by cartels. Accidents are common. Migrants have been killed in Maine by falling from the tops of the freight cars.
And now, with the Trump administration suspending asylum claims at the southern border, there are fewer avenues to entering the United States than there were even a few months ago. So the question Ada Peralta had when he set out to join migrants on La Bestia was simple. Why take the risk?
There was this Venezuelan woman who I met, and she had slung her little girl just on her shoulder. And I asked her, like, you know, why do this, and why do this right now? And she sort of, like, looked at me, surprised, I think, at the question, and she said, You know, you guys think that the American dream is dead. But for us, the American dream is still very much alive.
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Chapter 3: What motivates migrants to pursue the American dream?
Chapter 4: What are the challenges faced by migrants on their journey?
The train can offer a way to travel north without paying smugglers. But the risks are great. Migrants have been kidnapped, assaulted and extorted by cartels. Accidents are common. Migrants have been killed in Maine by falling from the tops of the freight cars.
And now, with the Trump administration suspending asylum claims at the southern border, there are fewer avenues to entering the United States than there were even a few months ago. So the question Ada Peralta had when he set out to join migrants on La Bestia was simple. Why take the risk?
There was this Venezuelan woman who I met, and she had slung her little girl just on her shoulder. And I asked her, like, you know, why do this, and why do this right now? And she sort of, like, looked at me, surprised, I think, at the question, and she said, You know, you guys think that the American dream is dead. But for us, the American dream is still very much alive.
And I think what the explanation for that, that I got over talking to dozens of migrants, is that the American dream is not this grand idea. It's a really simple idea. For her... It was that her two kids could get an education. I also met this mother and son from Venezuela as well, Brian and Yalitza, who was his mom. And his mom was in her 50s and he was 23, right?
And Yalitza's husband died and she says she told Brian, you know, this is our chance. I've got nothing to lose. We can do this and you can find a better life now. And so they left. And so she told me why I'm doing this is because I think that Brian, my son, could become an entrepreneur. He can have a better life. And then talking to her son, he told me something much simpler, right?
Which was that he had a little kid in Venezuela.
And he hadn't been able to buy him a birthday present.
What this trip could mean, what this American dream could mean, is that one day his kid could have a birthday present.
Even when the policy of the U.S. government right now is, we don't want you, we don't want to give you any of these resources, we want to arrest you or deport you for the country or both.
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Chapter 5: Why did Eyder Peralta choose to ride La Bestia?
Let me turn the why question to you, because obviously the immigration story is a major part of your beat. But you can and you have told that story a lot of different ways. Why to you was this story worth climbing on top of a two story freight train and riding it as it traveled 50 miles an hour?
You know, this story was born out of a conversation I had with my wife. You know, we live in Mexico City, and Mexico City is a stop along the way for migrants. So you see a lot of migrant families. And my wife had a question, right? She was saying, I don't know that I have the capacity emotionally to put my family through a trip like this.
And what she was saying is, is I have a hard time understanding migrants who do. I was like, you know, that's probably a question that many of our listeners have. I had met this Mexican photographer, Pedro Anza. I had met him in Haiti. when we were doing some coverage in Haiti. And he rides this train a lot. He's working on a long-term project on this train.
And he had told me, you know, you should ride the train. It gives you a very different understanding of the migrant experience.
Was he right? Did, on the other side of that, did you feel like you understood this in a different way?
I did. I have to say, I didn't realize how hard this was. You know, I was coming off of an assignment in Lebanon. I was there as Israel started bombing. It was missiles and you could feel the force of them, right? So, like, I was like, well, you know, what's getting on a train, right? It's all relative.
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Chapter 6: How did riding La Bestia affect Eyder Peralta's understanding?
Yeah.
But I was wrong.
Yeah.
Scott, like we spent a 12-hour part of that train ride was at night. And it was in the high 30s. And that train is moving at 50 miles an hour. So like just the wind, right?
Mm-hmm. And is there any cover whatsoever up there? I assume no. No cover.
And there are these people who help the migrants. And this lady, she saw me and the photographer I was with. And she said, you guys are crazy. You don't know what you're getting into. And she gave us this very thin blanket. And I was like, I'm not going to take this. Give it to one of the migrants, right? I'm just here. As a reporter, I'm not doing this. And she's like, you're going to want this.
And so, like, I took it sort of with a little shame. And in the middle of the night, I was just holding on to that blanket.
It is...
It was difficult and you're just, you know, there's so many people on that train that you can't, you can't really move, but there's also like not really body warmth that you're getting like from other people. Nobody's talking. It's so loud. The wind, right? You're just, like, you look up and all you see is, like, there was, like, a full moon, right?
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