© All Rights Reserved 2025 | Privacy Policy
Tax ID / EIN: 23-7441306
Skyline of Las Vegas
Real news. Real stories. Real voices.
Donate
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
Supported by
NPR

Taking a ride on a freight train to cover migration to the U.S.

By Noah Caldwell,
Scott Detrow, Eyder Peralta
Published March 1, 2025 at 2:36 PM PST

In this series, NPR takes readers and listeners behind the news and explains how we do our journalism. Here, Eyder Peralta transports us to Mexico for this week's Reporter's Notebook.

For decades, migrants have been riding north through Mexico aboard a freight train nicknamed "La Bestia." An NPR reporter hopped on board to ask some migrants why they do it.

Copyright 2025 NPR
NPR
Noah Caldwell
[Copyright 2024 NPR]
Scott Detrow
Scott Detrow is a White House correspondent for NPR and co-hosts the NPR Politics Podcast.
Eyder Peralta
Eyder Peralta is an international correspondent for NPR. He was named NPR's Mexico City correspondent in 2022. Before that, he was based in Cape Town, South Africa. He started his journalism career as a pop music critic and after a few newspaper stints, he joined NPR in 2008.
Related Content
The Dining Issue
Sink your teeth into our annual collection of dining — and drinking — stories, including a tally of Sin City's Tiki bars, why good bread is having a moment, and how one award-winning chef is serving up Caribbean history lessons through steak. Plus, discover how Las Vegas is a sports town, in more ways than one. Bon appétit!