Asylum Seeker

Tijuana, Mexico - June 2019: I am watching a toddler sleeping in her mother’s arms. She has been running around the children’s area at the offices of the border legal service organization Al Otro Lado all afternoon, busily building stacks of books and knocking them down, grabbing dinosaur puzzle pieces from outraged older children who are just about to put the whole thing together, running out into the rest of the room, where eight folding tables accommodate asylum seekers come to consult with legal advocates about their cases. Finally, her mother picks her up and holds her in her lap.