The series:

Part 1
Writer Charles Bowden takes Scott Carrier to the Arizona-Mexico border. In the middle of the night, amid thousands of Mexicans making their way north, Bowden explains the forces that lead them to make this journey.
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Charles Bowden info

Part 2
Recently a group of volunteer patrols known as the Minutemen stopped Mexicans from sneaking across the Arizona border. Some states want to mimmick their success. If somehow they could stop the migration and deport the 11 million illegal aliens already here, the economic effect would be devastating. Crops would rot in the fields. Hotels, restaurants and construction businesses would fold. America's dependence on cheap labor ensures this won't happen. Even as Congress debates the immigration problem, thousands of illegal immigrants are arriving. In the second part of our series, reporter Scott Carrier looked at the problem from both sides of the frontier.
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Part 3
How bad would things have to be in your town, in your state, for you to risk your life crossing an international border that stretches across harsh desert terrain, with only a pair of thin-soled shoes and a jug of water? Around the border area of Tuscon, Arizona alone the border this year, nearly a half million mostly Mexicans were picked up by the border patrol trying to leave Mexico for the United States. Probably double that number made it in the country. At least several hundred will die trying. Scott Carrier takes us to the US border with Mexico to find out why so many Mexicans are crossing, and what it looks like to US resident Byrd Baylor, whose home has a window on this human migration.
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Part 4
Everyone knows there are illegal aliens crossing the US/Mexico border. What people don't know is that it's a billion dollar business, with an organized network of traffickers branching out to cities all across the US. Efforts to seal off the border in some sections has not stopped the flow of illegal immigrants, ore even slowed it down. But it has made it more expensive and dangerous. Reporter Scott Carrier and photographer Julian Cardona met up with someone who has been involved in human smuggling near Douglas, Arizona.
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Part 5
How to end the problem of illegal immigration? Writer Charles Bowden tells Scott Carrier what it will take.
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About the series:

Congress is now grappling with how to control this near-perfect model of a free-market for human labor. The draw of relatively well-paying jobs in the United States has created a seemingly endless flow of jobless Latinos — mostly Mexican — illegally entering the country in search of more promising lives. Nearly half a million are expected to cross this year, joining the 11 million already in the country. Thousands will endure extreme conditions to cross the desert. Most will make it, but at least 300 will die trying.

The drama of these crossings is played out along 1,833-mile long border of the southwestern United States with Mexico. Carrier, one of the signature voices in public radio, shows an uncanny ability to set up the story for the listener. He then skillfully steps aside to let the central figures tell their own stories.

The Undocumented War poses some uncomfortable questions that America has yet to answer: Would this country go through the trauma of weaning itself from it addiction to cheap labor if it meant deep economic suffering for Americans?

Scott Carrier on The Undocumented War:

The Numbers behind the War:

Funding: