Randa Abdel-Fattah

Music for this episode was composed by Ramtin and his band, Drop Electric, which includes...

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This is America in Pursuit, a limited run series from ThruLine and NPR.

I'm Randa Abdel-Fattah.

Each week, we bring you stories about life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness in the U.S.

that began 250 years ago.

Last week, we talked about the expansion of the United States into a newfound global power.

But even as the country was expanding its borders around the world to include places as far away as the Philippines in the late 19th century, it was also limiting what was and wasn't part of the United States by creating boundaries and borders, especially along the border between the U.S.

and Mexico.

Today on the show, ThruLine producers Anya Steinberg and Christina Kim take us to the border city of Ambos Nogales to tell us the story of one of the first walls on the U.S.

southern border.

That story, after a quick break.

Today, there are over 700 miles of border wall between the U.S.

and Mexico.

In 2025, President Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill Act allocated over $170 billion over four years towards increasing immigration enforcement.

Roughly $50 billion of those dollars are intended for new construction and reinforcement of the border between the U.S.