More than 2.7 million undocumented migrants across the U.S. Southern border in the 2022 fiscal

year, that's how they measure it.

This was an all-time high according to the federal government.

The surge has again put the issue of immigration at the forefront of American politics, and

amped the rhetoric way up.

Immigrants have been demonized and disparaged and blamed for rising crime and job loss.

None of this, of course, is new.

In fact, what's happening now, the detentions, the deportations, the question about who has

rights and who doesn't?

Some of that can be traced back to another surge of immigrants into the United States, a

surge that took place more than 40 years ago.

Hey, it's Rachel Martin.

This is up for Sunday.

The migrants back then didn't come by land.

They came by boat from Cuba on something called the Meriel boat lift.

And what happened to some of them once they arrived helps explain a lot about our current

immigration system and the deep divisions that surround it.

Today, we're bringing you the story of those Cuban migrants.

That's the focus of the latest season of White Lies.

An investigative series from NPR hosted by Chip Brantley and Andrew Beck Grace, this tale

of mass migration and indefinite detentions begins in Talladega, Alabama.

Before we found the man in Vancouver, before we sued the State Department, before we

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