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“My father went to work in a chocolate factory. When he'd come home, his hair was all full of chocolate; his pillows were all brown.”

“He said, 'When the border patrol changes shifts, you're going to run.'”

Because Najeeb Abreely remembers what it was like to emigrate to America, he can soothe the fears of frightened immigrants he must now inspect and question.

After her father's death, Esperanza and her mother are left with few options and forced to flee to America. The immigration officers are only the first obstacle they must face. Beyond them, the Great Depression and an uncertain future awaits.

In their trek from Mexico to the U.S. border, this young group is reminded that dangers lurk beneath them and hang over their heads every day and every night.

Helen Tsuchiya, born a U.S. citizen, tells what it was like to move from her home to an internment camp surrounded by barbed wire after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

Felipe Morales' telling account of an encounter with a blind woman on the streets of Washington, D.C. was recorded for This I Believe. The NPR project features brief personal essays in which people from diverse backgrounds discuss how their values affect their daily lives.