Welcome to strangers from KCW and Radiotopia.

I'm Leah Tao.

There's been a lot of talk about walls this year, and about one wall in particular.

You know what I'm talking about. The one that would keep illegal immigrants from coming in from Mexico.

And opinions are divided on this to say the least, on the wall itself and what it means for the future,

but also on the question of the 11 million undocumented immigrants who are already here and have been for decades in some cases.

If you're part of our strangers community on Facebook, you probably know how I personally feel

about the election of Donald Trump. But you also know that I've reached out to Trump supporters

because I want to understand their point of view better, and I've received many emails from

Trump voters that have surprised me and opened my eyes to things I did not see before, and

I plan to speak with these people further and hopefully make an episode out of it.

But today's show is not that, and it's not meant to be political per se, although it is about Mexican immigration,

and perhaps there's no way to enter into that territory at this very moment without it being

perceived politically. We have three stories for you today, and how you experience them will

probably depend on your own preconceived ideas around the issue, but try to

keep an open mind and let them surprise you, because some of them might not go exactly where you

think they will. These are stories about people who've come here and people who've tried,

and people who live right on the border and witness the traffic firsthand. There are reminders that immigration

is not just about statistics. It's very much a matter of real humans, sometimes even of life

and death. But as you'll hear, it's also an issue where liberals and conservatives, or immigrants

and the border patrol, can sometimes make unlikely bedfellows.

None of these stories were produced by us. The first two are from a brilliant radio show and podcast called State of the Reunion.

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