Divided Families

Category Archives: Divided Families


Divided Families: Advisory

DIVIDED FAMILIES: AN IN-DEPTH REPORTING PROJECT 
NOTE: There are more photos and also video available. We can mail a disc.
A young mother whose son is already beginning to forget his father. Two men who have searched for their missing brother for years. Border Patrol agents who toil miles from their families. These are the some of […]

Divided Families: Left Behind,1130

LEFT BEHIND, A TEENAGER TRIES TO HOLD ON TO LIFE IN AMERICA
NOTE: Video is available. This story is intended to run alongside the story Divided Families: American At Heart.
By AMANDA SOARES
Cronkite News Service
RIMROCK, Ariz. _ Humberto was getting ready to go to school one morning when he heard the police bang on the front door.
“It’s […]

Divided Families: American at Heart,990

AMERICAN AT HEART: FAMILY STRUGGLES TO START OVER IN MEXICO
NOTE: Video and a Soundslides presentation are available. This story is intended to run alongside the story Divided Families: Left Behind.
By AJA B. VIAFORA and AMANDA SOARES
Cronkite News Service

IXTAPAN DE LA SAL, Mexico _ Hector and Marcos are about as American as two young men can be.
They […]

Divided Families: Border Patrol,1130

DESOLATION, ISOLATION MAKE BORDER PATROL JOBS MORE DIFFICULT
By RYAN KOST
Cronkite News Service
PAPAGO FARMS, Ariz. _ Just over the western horizon, 2 1/2 hours outside any major city, dust flies into the air.
Border Patrol agents are tracking ghosts. Until the agents see the migrants crossing here in person, they’re nothing but a spiral of dust or […]

Divided Families: Churches,965

DIVIDED FAMILY SERVES CHURCH SOUTH OF BORDER
By BRIAN INDRELUNAS
Cronkite News Service
SAN LUIS RIO COLORADO, Mexico _ On a Sunday morning at Templo Mikedash, it’s hard to miss the Zavala family.
Efrain, 22, sings and plays his guitar as part of the Methodist church’s band. His brother Damian, 21, leads the congregation in prayers. Another brother, Saul, […]

Divided Families: Death in the Desert,1560

DEATH IN THE DESERT FORCES FAMILY TO START AGAIN IN MEXICO
NOTE: Video and a Soundslides presentation are available.
By TEANA WAGNER
Cronkite News Service
DURANGO, Mexico _ Hector Valdez walks daughters Sandra and Nancy to school, holding their backpacks until he kisses them goodbye and watches them march away wearing their uniforms and smiles.
“The hardest time of the day […]

Divided Familes: Missing,1185

FAMILY SEARCHES FOR BROTHER WHO VANISHED CROSSING BORDER
By AJA B. VIAFORA
Cronkite News Service
MESA, Ariz. _ After spending three weeks trying to cross the border from Mexico into Arizona, 31-year-old Porfirio Montufar had finally made it.
It was a trip that Porfirio, a Mexican national, had made several times before. For the past 13 years, Porfirio had […]

Divided Families: Power of Policy,930

EXPERTS: IMMIGRATION OVERHAUL COULD REMOVE EDGE FOR FAMILIES
By BRIAN INDRELUNAS
Cronkite News Service
For years, immigration law in the United States has given an edge to families.
Those who can show that they have family members in this country make up the biggest percentage of those who are given permanent-resident status.
But if immigration laws ever get a serious […]

Divided Families: Leaving Arizona,1290

SOME IMMIGRANTS LEAVING ARIZONA IN FACE OF EMPLOYER SANCTIONS LAW
NOTE: Video and a Soundslides presentation are available. 
By LEAH DURAN
Cronkite News Service
AVONDALE, Ariz. _ In the corner of a living room in a small house that he rents in this Phoenix suburb, Juan Carlos has piled six black garbage bags stuffed with clothes and housewares along […]

Divided Families: Remittances,1780

WORTH BILLIONS, REMITTANCES TO MEXICO ARE BIG BUSINESS
EDITOR’S NOTE: This story was reported from Tempe, Ariz., and Veracruz and Jalisco, Mexico.
By KRISTI EATON
Cronkite News Service
As he has done most every week for eight years, Pedro Cordova Martinez steps into El Paisano Mercado, a convenience store near his home in Tempe, Ariz., and makes his way […]

Divided Families: David’s Story,745

DAVID’S STORY ONE OF MANY INVOLVING MEXICAN TEENS CROSSING BORDER
By KRISTI EATON
Cronkite News Service
ZAMAJAPA, Mexico _ When David Tetzoyolt Juarez was caught trying to cross illegally into Arizona from Mexico, he had no money, no ability to speak the language and no idea that his planned destination _ Mississippi _ was actually a state more […]

Divided Families: Detained Children Photo Story

PHOTO STORY: DETAINED CHILDREN
NOTE: This introductory text is intended to run alongside the photographs.
Every month, thousands of undocumented teenagers are caught trying to cross into the United States. The teens travel by plane, bus and sometimes foot, thousands of miles _ often on their own _ to try to reach the United States.
After they are […]

Divided Families: Dream Act,1090

FAMILY HOPING FOR MIRACLE AS TUCSON MAN FACES DEPORTATION
By ANGELA LE
Cronkite News Service
TUCSON, Ariz. _ Victor Napoles, a 21-year-old Mexican national who grew up in Tucson, is facing deportation after losing a case that began with him barking at another man’s dog.
That man turned out to be a U.S. Border Patrol agent.
Now Napoles, the oldest […]

Divided Families: Deported,1060

WITH DEPORTATION LOOMING, FAMILY FACES BEING SEPARATED BY BORDER
By ANGELA LE
Cronkite News Service
TUCSON, Ariz. _ Juan Villa, a lifelong Tucson resident, is on the brink of being deported.
If he loses his legal fight to remain in this country, his wife and U.S.-born children face what amounts to an impossible choice: stay in the U.S., where […]

Divided Families: Fighting the System,1855

‘ONION KING’ BATTLES U.S. OFFICIALS OVER RESIDENCY APPLICATION
NOTE: Video is available. The still images for this story are taken from video.
By JORDAN LaPIER
Cronkite News Service
SAN LUIS RIO COLORADO, Mexico _ He’s called the “Onion King.”
Jesús Bustamante owns the company that farms 4,000 acres of dates, pomegranates, radishes and green onions here, just across the border […]

Divided Families: Deportee Family,1110

WITH FATHER DEPORTED, DIVIDED FAMILY STRUGGLES TO STAY CONNECTED
By DEANNA DENT
Cronkite News Service
TUXTLAN, Mexico _ Van Bui Rios holds her sleeping son in her lap as the small airplane carries them across the U.S.-Mexico border. 
Bui is headed to Guadalajara to see her husband, David Rios, who was deported from the United States to Mexico in the fall […]

Divided Families: Technology-Los Angeles,805

TECHNOLOGY ALLOWS SEPARATED FAMILIES TO REUNITE THROUGH VIDEO
NOTE: Video is available. This story is intended to run alongside the story slugged Technology-Guatemala City and Technology-Amigo Latino.
By LEAH DURAN
Cronkite News Service
LOS ANGELES _ Feliciano left his home in Guatemala late one night while his son and daughter were sleeping.
He kissed them both, held his wife one […]

Divided Families: Technology-Guatemala City,710

THE VIEW FROM GUATEMALA CITY: ‘DADDY, HURRY BACK HOME SOON’
NOTE: Video is available. This story is intended to run alongside the story slugged Technology-Los Angeles and Technology-Amigo Latino. The images for this story are taken from video.
By ADRIAN BARRERA
Cronkite News Service
GUATEMALA CITY _ Pricila kept trying to explain to her two young children where their […]

Divided Families: Technology-Amigo Latino,385

VIDEO CONFERENCING BUSINESS LINKS PEOPLE IN LATIN AMERICA TO U.S.
NOTE: This story is intended to run alongside the story slugged Technology-Los Angeles and Technology-Guatemala City.
By ADRIAN BARRERA
Cronkite News Service
GUATEMALA CITY _ Gabriel Biguria started Amigo Latino video conferencing company five years ago with one office in Guatemala and another in San Francisco.
“It’s basically a business […]

Divided Families: Empty Towns,710

WITH MANY GONE NORTH, SOME MEXICO TOWNS SHORT ON YOUNG MEN
By ADRIAN BARRERA
Cronkite News Service
ZACATECAS, Mexico _ Not long ago, Francisco Javier Balderas Medina, 18, was getting ready to try to cross illegally into the United States along with most of the rest of his friends from the small town of El Cargadero.
But he knew […]

Divided Families: Maquiladoras,1515

MANY HEADED TO U.S. WIND UP AT MAQUILADORA PLANTS ON BORDER
By CODIE SANCHEZ
Cronkite News Service
AGUA PRIETA, Mexico _ Neftali Fuentes left his home, family and everything he knew in Chiapas last fall to seek out the promise of work and opportunity along the U.S.-Mexico border.
After an exhausting three-day bus ride, 18-year-old Neftali arrived in […]

Divided Families: Generation Abandoned,1650

ELDERLY OFTEN LEFT BEHIND WHEN RELATIVES CROSS THE BORDER
NOTE: This package can be run as a photo story accompanied by introductory text and vignettes about the people featured or as a story accompanied by photos. Photos for each person featured are listed below the story. Clients are encouraged to offer a link to the Soundslides […]