Humanizing Through Story

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Witnessing the Journey

Throughout this work, I heard stories from asylum seekers and refugees who fled violence, persecution, and unimaginable uncertainty. Many made harrowing journeys, crossing deserts, rainforests, and dangerous territory controlled by cartels and criminals. Leaving everything behind, homes, families, and safety, to seek protection and hope in the United States.

At refugee camps and shelters, I met families carrying deep wounds and fears but also extraordinary strength and resilience. Mothers and fathers who faced violence and loss along the way. Families navigate a broken system that often forces impossible choices and traps them in limbo. A system promising safety and due process but frequently delivering trauma, separation, and fear.

While many immigrants diligently follow the legal process, attending court hearings, applying for asylum, gathering evidence, and complying with a complex and often confusing set of requirements, they are increasingly subjected to aggressive enforcement actions. Sweeping ICE raids have become more frequent and widespread, targeting countless individuals who are doing everything the right way. These raids do not distinguish between those with legitimate claims or lawful status and those without. Mothers are forcibly separated from their children. Wives are torn away from their husbands. Even legal permanent residents and U.S. citizens have been caught up in these operations, detained, and in some cases deported without proper cause, notification, or due process. In many of these cases, due process is not just denied; it is deliberately cast aside, replaced with expedited removals that offer little to no opportunity for people to defend themselves or present their case.

Increasingly, ICE agents are showing up in plain clothes with their faces covered, refusing to identify themselves. They bang on doors without warrants, wait outside schools and workplaces, and detain individuals without a clear explanation. For many, this resembles state-sponsored kidnapping. Families do not know where their loved ones are taken. Children are left waiting at bus stops or come home to an empty house. The terror this causes is profound, not just fear of deportation, but fear of disappearance.

A recent lawsuit filed in Washington, DC challenges ICE’s practice of arresting people when they come to immigration court hearings. Advocates say this policy breaks long-standing rules and turns courts, once considered safe places for migrants, into traps. The policy pushes lawyers to dismiss cases so ICE can arrest people in court, putting them into fast-track removal processes with little or no legal help. Critics say this violates migrants’ rights by denying them fair hearings and transforming immigration courts into instruments of punishment rather than justice.

In addition, many are raising alarms about a detention center in Florida that has been called a concentration camp. The facility is overcrowded and inhumane, with reports of people being held in harsh conditions and suffering serious mistreatment.

This harsh crackdown shatters families and communities, inflicting deep trauma that reverberates far beyond the immediate victims. It contradicts the foundational principles of justice and humanity upon which our legal system is supposed to be built. The presumption of fairness, due process, and protection under the law is too often ignored or intentionally circumvented. The human cost is profound. Families are broken. Children are left without caregivers. Communities lose trusted members and live in constant fear. This suffering is both immense and unacceptable, demanding urgent attention, accountability, and reform.

Moving Forward

There is still much more to tell. I am working on a series of short videos and a longer documentary to continue sharing these stories. If you want to support this work or help amplify these voices, please reach out or follow along for updates.

Standing in Solidarity

This project is a commitment to humanizing these stories, to witness, document, and share the lived realities of immigrant families and communities. It is a refusal to let fear, lies, and hate define who we are. The people I have met are more than headlines or statistics. They are neighbors, friends, and community members deserving dignity and respect.

OTHER STORIES HTS HAs COVERED:

The Weelaunee People’s Park (aka Intrenchment Creek Park), part of the South River Forest, is threatened to be deforested after a land swap between Ryan Millsap, owner of Blackhall Real Estate, and the county. The swap is in a current lawsuit. This is another danger that looms over the forest on top of the 180+ acres of land that is being developed for "Cop City," the country's largest police training facility. This project is being protested by community members, faith leaders, environmentalists, land defenders, indigenous members, and others as it threatens the land and the communities this forest surrounds. Photos just below are linked to Instagram posts and videos from out time there as well as a few links to resources about the movement.

The movement to protect the forest and stop the construction is an ongoing battle. Although it has been going on for years it got major headlines after police, who were performing a raid in the forest, shot (57 times) and killed the climate activist, Manuel “Tortuguita” Terán back in January 2023. Activists just held a 6th week of action at the end of June. There have been over 40 arrests and charges of “Domestic Terrorism” (NPR article from June 28th 2023). The city council has approved $31 million in taxpayer money despite 2 years of protests and over 16 hours of testimony from over 200 people hours before the vote. Read about this city hall meeting here (NYT article). activists adn community members are working to get 70,000 signatures for a petition to put the construction of Cop City on the ballot for the next election which would allowing the people of Atlanta to decide if they wanted it built or not.

This is a forever changing and updating issue that has many moving pieces so go follow the organizations on the group for constant updates and resources. FOLLOW: Stop Cop City Instagram , The Weelaunee Defense Society, and this Linktree with many other links to read and follow.

On April 6th, 2023, the supermajority Republican-led House voted to expel both Justin Jones & Justin J. Pearson from their elected house position, the two youngest Black elected officials in the state. In a surprise turn, Gloria Johnson was not expelled from the house. These votes came in response to the three representatives taking to the house floor and walking to the well, demanding that actions be taken to stop the killing of kids in schools. They joined in solidarity with the protesters that had been showing up at the Capitol in response to the mass shooting at the Covenant private school just days before. A decision by the three to take to the well was after 40-plus minutes of not being recognized by the speaker of the house and a refusal to talk about gun reform.
There have been only three other cases of expulsion from the Tennessee House, and in all three of those cases, it was because of illegal actions, from sexual assault to bribery. Jones and Pearson were expelled for simply taking to the well and talking without being called upon by the speaker, an action both said was to voice the concerns of their constituents and much of Tennessee. Members of the house including the speaker, Cameron Sexton, compared this peaceful protest to the Jan 6th insurrection and lied saying the protesters tried to barge into the chamber. Yesterday one accused them of trying to create a mutiny and another said they were just having a tantrum and wanted attention…

…Days later Justin Jone was reinstated by the Nashville Metropolitan Council as the interim representative and Justice Pearson was reinstated 2 days later by his district.

*** Although the Line 3 movement (direct actions and pipeline construction) is over in some capacity, it is still very relevant to this day (2023 and beyond). Legal battles are still unfolding, like court dates lawsuits over Enbridge action, environmental damage, and arrests of protesters. Moreover, the ideas, values, and purpose of the line 3 movement are still needed. Currently, other pipelines, BigOil construction, mining, and deforestation projects are unfolding or planned on native lands, through our waterways, in our oceans, wetlands, old-growth forests, and healthy/vital echo systems. We must continue being aware and standing against these issues that destroy and poison our communities and planet. Enbridge is currently trying to build in the gulf off the coast of Corpus Christi, TX, on Karanakawa Peoples' land, where thousands of artifacts are buried. They are not federally recognized, making it harder to fight the Canadian corporation. This is just one example of many. 

LINE 3 RESISTANCE

*written in June 2021, and some information is out of date but the fight continues in MN and all over the world. Our planet and water is sacred and needs our help!

The indigenous people and their allies fighting this pipeline for over five years are doing it to protect life as we know it. It isn't about just stopping a pipeline, but it's about protecting is sacred, and all life is sacred. The Prayer camps in northern Minnesota have been set up to stand against Enbridge corporation building a pipeline directly through treaty territories. Treaties hold the supreme law of the land, according to the Constitution, yet every treaty has been broken in some form or fashion. Enbridge is a foreign (Canadian) corporation coming into the US during a pandemic and an extreme drought to build a pipeline through Native Treaty land, taking billions of gallons of water to do this, all while they are kicking out the indigenous people from their land and paying police and security to arrest, harm, and harass these indigenous people and their allies (water protectors) who are peacefully protesting and protecting the land and water for all of us. This pipeline line has already had several frac-out spills during the build; they have spilled chemicals in a wetland right near the headwaters of the Mississippi, and Line 3 workers have been arrested in Sex Trafficking.

The fight against this pipeline has been going on for years, but it's about much more than just a pipeline. It's about protecting indigenous people because pipelines bring man camps which brings a rise in #mmiw (missing and murdered indigenous women); it's about protecting the sacred land and animals that need these habitats. The fight is to preserve the water for future generations of all people, fight climate change, honor treaty rights, and so much more.

I covered some of the unfolding stories in northern Minnesota around Enbridge Inc trying to build a tar sands pipeline through Anishinaabe treaty land, some of which is going through the headwaters of the Mississippi. I will be sharing some stories and interviews here as soon as I can but until them, follow along on INSTAGRAM for daily updates and photo stories about this movement.

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On April 11th, 2021, Daunte Wright was killed by police. Setting in motion weeks of protests from the community, a community still trying to heal from the public killing of George Floyd. I found myself within this community in Minnesota, as I was covering the trial of Derek Chauvin (the officer who killed Mr. Floyd) and documented what I witnessed on the streets as the community demanded answers for the death of Daunte Wright. These are some of the stories and observations.

Links to latest stories, photos, and more:

We refuse to remain silent in the face of genocide. What is happening in Gaza is not a conflict. It is the ethnic cleansing o an entire people. Israel is carrying out a campaign of extermination against Palestinians. The United States is openly supporting this through its words and by funding the weapons that fuel this violence. Over 16,450 children have been recorded as killed. The total death toll exceeds 50,000, with some estimates reaching as high as 200,000. The United States’ role in this genocide is direct and ongoing. Our government continues to supply weapons and financial aid that keep this violence going. In recent months, more Palestinians have been killed while waiting in lines for food and humanitarian aid by Israeli forces and U.S. contractors than were killed by Hamas on October 7th.

We mourn the sacred lives taken on October 7th when over 1,000 people lost their lives. At the same time, We condemn the response by Israel, a campaign of mass killing and displacement that has claimed the lives of over 100,000 Palestinians and continues to devastate Gaza, Lebanon, the West Bank, and beyond

We cannot look away. We must name this genocide. We must mourn. We must resist. We must demand accountability.

⬇️ PLEASE READ OUR FULL STATEMENT ⬇️

We understand that the news and information coming out about the Palestine conflict can be disorienting and overwhelming, as well as painful and heartbreaking. Where do we begin to understand the complex, long history of this region that spans over 150 years? How do we engage? I have been asking these questions myself and wanted to create a space for some of these questions to begin to be answered. We are compiling a long list of resources to help us on this journey. Some of this information may ask you to question what you've known or have been taught most of your life. It may shift your worldviews and push you into uncomfortable places, but let it. All those emotions are valid, so engage and sit with them. We don't need to know all the details to say something, but we must be vocal so that radical love can overcome and be present in spaces of war and conflict. We must not lose our humanity.

*Written in Early 2021 and since then Dereck was convicted on all charges*

The trial of Derek Chauvin, the officer who killed George Floyd in May 2020, is currently underway. Of now, on March 15th, there are eight jury members selected. George Floyd's death sparked a massive racial reckoning across the country and beyond this summer that continues to happen in cities all over the country. The trial has brought attention back to the movement, and Minneapolis is demanding George's killer be convicted for his actions. That police brutality and racism be rooted out of the system. A system has been oppressing, discriminating against, and killing Black people at alarming rates in Minneapolis and all over the country.

Im only getting to spend about a week here, but I've already met amazing people and been part of some incredible, powerful, and humbling events. From a vigil for Breonna Taylor, who (was killed a year ago on March 13th), several protests about the trial, a press release from the Floyds Family, Asian Solidarity March, and other small events. Some of the photos and stories are linked right below, and one video on YouTube, "To My Black Queens." 

I spent two week in Rapid City SD where I worked with the Red Ribbon Skirt Society that works to educated about MMIW(Missing & Murdered Indigenous Women) and provide a space of healing for those effected by it. I also did a small video interview with Hippie Haven, the very first Zero Waste store in SD. I then traveled to The Roots Prayer Camp a little North East to a small indigenous led camp that is fighting the Keystone XL pipeline. This pipeline was stopped by a Presidential Executive order at the border of the Sioux nation but TC Energy & the State of SD is actively trying to push the pipeline through. They have been and are still on treaty land building this pipeline illegally. SD currently ( of March 8th) has a bill on the table HB 1194 that states:

“ The Executive Board of the Legislative Research Council may review any executive order issued by the President of the United States, if the order has not been affirmed by a vote of the Congress of the United States and signed into law, as prescribed by the Constitution of the United States.”

I’m collecting stories surrounding the camp, the pipeline, the connection of MMIW & mancamps, and some independent short stories by elders about then history of the land, pipelines, and other history. They are also looking to protect the land where the campo is permanently to bring back and protect native plants and animals pushed out/destroyed by cattle grazing. You can see some of the work i’ve done here on Instagram & specific Stories linked right below

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