Keynote - Resilience at the Border: One Man's Story of Migration, Resistance, and Keeping His Family Together

In late 2019, Lucas, his wife, and their two children (a 7-year-old daughter and a 4-year-old son) arrived at the U.S.-Mexico border to seek asylum after fleeing gang violence and organized crime in Guerrero, Mexico. They waited on the Mexican side of the border for several months before being called for processing by U.S. agents in February of 2020. In this keynote, Lucas shares his story: life in immigrant detention during COVID-19, facing separation from his family while waiting for asylum, and the difficult decisions he faced to save his life and his family.