They were here one day, gone the next. More than 1 million illegal immigrants have been deported since 2008 in one of the largest forced migrations in U.S. history. For many, the countries of their birth have never been and will never be home.
The Los Angeles Times followed some of these people beyond the border to find out what happened to them and their families.
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Ana and Gerardo's devotion swayed many who doubted that a marriage with a 41-year age gap was real. But one skeptic is problematic — the official deciding whether to give Ana a U.S. visa.
After more than a year in Mexico, a 21-year-old deportee makes another perilous border crossing. It is desperation that drives him to risk his life repeatedly, he says.
Luis Ernesto Rodriguez eyed the metal door as he waited for his little girls. Now 6 and 5 years old, they were his only children, inseparable, with thick black hair and mischievous smiles that reminded people of little mermaids.
In this hardscrabble farming village, an American teenager like Luis Martinez was bound to stand out.
The freight train slowed through downtown and screeched to a stop in front of Luis Luna. He scrambled under a boxcar and climbed onto narrow beams that crisscrossed the undercarriage.
Mario Ramos stirs a pot of beans with a bent spatula as the men crowd into the kitchen, the ragged line stretching out the splintered doorway.
They stuck together, walking slowly on busted sidewalks, approaching corners warily. They hurried past smoky taco stands and fleabag hotels. Nobody strayed.
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