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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 5:36 PM EST

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.

Noah Caldwell

See stories by Noah Caldwell

Scott Detrow

Scott Detrow is a White House correspondent for NPR and co-hosts the NPR Politics Podcast.

See stories by Scott Detrow

Eyder Peralta

Eyder Peralta is NPR's East Africa correspondent based in Nairobi, Kenya.

See stories by Eyder Peralta

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