Desperate Journey - American Odysseys

IRIN film by Susan Farkas

Fleeing violence and poverty, hundreds of Central Americans cross the US-Mexico border into Texas every day. The US government spends billions of dollars each year trying to keep them out, or deporting those the border patrol apprehends.

The journey north is dangerous and gruelling. Many of those trying to make it into the US do not survive - abandoned in the rugged border terrain by people smugglers, at risk of sexual violence and death.

This film explores the stories of those involved in this tragedy - the undocumented migrants, the law enforcement agents, the local farmers, and those trying to document the identities of the deceased who expired on the journey.