Gustavo Solis

It’s not unusual to wait two or three hours to cross the border from Tijuana to San Diego. But drivers usually didn’t have to wait long to go the other way, easing the commute. Gustavo Solis of KPBS in San Diego reports that the growth in border towns now means rush hours in both directions. (Originally aired Jan. 3, 2024.)

Border security is a big talking point this election season, not just in Arizona but across the country. Republicans like Donald Trump repeatedly point to a crime wave driven by undocumented immigrants. But research shows immigrants are actually less likely to commit crimes than native-born Americans.

But data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and other federal agencies show the vast majority of fentanyl comes through legal ports of entry. And the people bringing it into the country are native born Americans.

Contrary to election-year rhetoric, Mexican drug cartels don’t rely on migrants crossing the border illegally to bring fentanyl into the country. The truth is, in many ways, more disturbing. Rather than use undocumented migrants who are already vulnerable to capture, and even death, the cartels use people who regularly cross the border legally. And an increasing number of these people are high school and college students. Gustavo Solis of KPBS in San Diego reports.

Narcan is available at the Live and Let Live Alano Club in Hillcrest. It is free to anyone who wants it with no questions asked. LLLAC is a Live Well partner with the San Diego County Department of Health, San Diego, CA, July 1, 2022.

A table with Narcan Nasal spray is organized at a press conference, Jan. 23, 2023.

People look through the border fence just west of the San Ysidro Port of Entry. May 10, 2023.

As more unaccompanied children seek asylum in the U.S., the federal government is struggling to find appropriate housing for them. According to internal data from the Immigrant Defenders Law Center, children from Africa and the Middle East stay in federal custody longer than children from Spanish-speaking countries

By Gustavo Solis / Investigative Border Reporter Contributors: Carlos Castillo / Video Journalist

In San Diego, as in many parts of the US, lifesaving medicines like naloxone have helped reduce the number of fentanyl overdoses. But in Mexico, the country's restrictive drug policies make naloxone almost impossible to get. From KPBS, Gustavo Solis reports that good Samaritans are essentially smuggling the medicine into Mexican border towns like Tijuana.