Fronteras: A Changing America

SAN DIEGO — Union organizer Genoveva Aguilar helped kick off a march commemorating Cesar Chavez Day in San Diego on Monday.

“Our union has lost many of its good-spirited members because of immigration audits and E-Verify," Aguilar belted into the microphone. "Are we going to permit this?"

"No!” the crowd yelled back.

Dozens of marchers held signs and wore T-shirts calling for immigration reform, including a path to citizenship for undocumented workers.

Mexican drug cartels are sending operatives beyond the border and into the American heartland, the Associated Press reports.

The groups have begun deploying agents from their inner circles to the U.S. Cartel operatives are suspected of running drug-distribution networks in at least nine non-border states, often in middle-class suburbs in the Midwest, South and Northeast.

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. — The uranium mining company Energy Fuels Resources took me to one of its working mines north of Grand Canyon National Park for a recent story. Donn Pillmore, who oversees all the mines on the Arizona strip, and Pamela Hill, a lobbyist for the mining industry, spent the whole day with me. Pillmore was pretty guarded but grew warmer as the day wore on. Hill seemed friendly.

Growing Population Of Muslims Calling Tijuana Home

Every day, at a small, nondescript building in Playas, Tijuana, a handful of people gather to pray. They are worshiping at a masjid, or mosque, one of two new Islamic centers within a mile of one another, both of which have opened within the past three years.

An annual Good Friday pilgrimage is underway in Northern New Mexico. Tens of thousands of Catholics are expected to visit a tiny church that's nearly 200 years old.

Many arrive by foot on a multi-day journey that includes traversing a major U.S. highway. Some come to seek forgiveness, others to ask for help or give thanks.

Did the wave cartel violence during 2007-2011 impact the number of Americans visiting Mexico? Of course, but not as much as you would think.

In three years, drug war related deaths in Mexico increased 440 percent — from 2,826 deaths in 2007 to 15,273 in 2010.

The Los Angeles Times reports that major Mexican civic groups are pressing President Enrique Peña Nieto to proceed cautiously with his plan to create a national paramilitary force to combat violence in the country.

PHOENIX — There was a lively debate in federal district court in Phoenix last Friday over whether Arizona can ban young immigrants who qualify for an Obama administration program from getting driver’s licenses.

In a hearing that lasted well over two hours, the judge grilled both sides with tough questions.

Or so I heard from other reporters. I didn’t get to see it myself.

SAN ANTONIO, Texas — This week is Semana Santa – or Holy Week. It’s a big week in Mexico, when schools cancel classes and businesses take a holiday for the last week of Lent before Easter. And it’s a big week for retailers in the Southwest, because Mexican shoppers cross the border in droves.

The Easter holiday is a very busy time to cross the border.

When is a win not a win? When the U.S. Men's National soccer team goes into Azteca Stadium in Mexico City and holds El Tri to a 0-0 tie.

When is a win not a win? When the U.S. Men's National soccer team goes into Azteca Stadium in Mexico City and holds El Tri to a 0-0 tie.

On March 10, a gun battle erupted in Reynosa, a border city across the Rio Grande from McAllen, Texas. The battle raged all night. The events that followed illustrate the complexities of a drug war inflated with intimidation and speculation.