Oscar Avila

A ragged-looking man takes deep breaths as a doctor listens through a stethoscope for a stubborn killer. Her verdict is good news. The medication seems to be containing his tuberculosis....

JUAREZ, Mexico — When he crossed illegally into the U.S. in 2002, Cesar Sanchez didn't plan on stabbing a girlfriend's estranged husband eight times. Yet there he was, a convicted...

Leaving the taco shop, I might have assumed that familiar weight in my gut was a sign of gastrointestinal distress to come. But it was probably guilt, guilt that I...

ZINAPECUARO, Mexico — Once again, the immigrants are returning to this town in their Pathfinders and Escalades with the Illinois license plates, trunks full of Christmas presents. Their annual December...

With their blond hair and blue eyes, the Mennonites are a conspicuous but largely silent population in this northern Mexico town. Earlier this month , their silence was a defiant...

MEXICO CITY — U.S. officials warn that Mexican crime rings are now conducting kidnappings and assassinations north of the border, a rising threat to the home front that may affect...

Three years ago, Jose Guadalupe Ortega crossed illegally into Texas through a hand-dug tunnel with men he didn't know or trust. If things went bad, he knew he couldn't count...

When Hernando Cortes and his little band of Spanish conquistadors arrived at the capital of the Aztec empire in 1519, they found a teeming, sophisticated city of 200,000 with treasure,...

Officially, Carlos Noel does not exist. Although his French last name is a giveaway that his family roots go back to neighboring Haiti, Noel is not an illegal immigrant living...