It's a cloud this day in Baja, California, just across the border from San Diego.

And I'm sitting in the backseat of an unmarked police pickup truck, staring at a barbershop.

I'm with a team of Mexican police called the International Liaison Unit.

They're known by another name, the Gringo Hunters.

Today I'm riding along as they hunt down Damien Salinas.

An American man wants it for murder.

From the newsroom of the Washington Post, this is Post Reports.

I'm Ella Heizadi and from Martin Powers.

It's Friday, July 15th.

Today, an immigration problem that you don't often hear about.

American fugitives fleeing to Mexico.

By some measures, more than 1,600 fugitives have been sent back to the US in the past 20 years.

Mexican police say that number is climbing.

Kevin Seaf is the Mexico City Bureau chief for the post.

And he brings us the story of apprehending a murder suspect with a group of police

known to locals as the Gringo Hunters.

There's an idea of Mexico that exists in the Gringo imagination.

The Instagram beaches of Tulum, the cartels of Netflix, a place of American escape.

Press the border, the movies tell you, and you're home free.

Think Velma and Louise, Terminator.

Think Jimmy Hendrick's singing way down to Mexico.

And the people who take the dream of vanishing most literally, they're fugitives.

...