Since 2020, I have traveled the U.S.-Mexico border, looking beyond the sensationalized narratives that dominate American news and politics. My photographic work seeks a deeper humanitarian understanding of both the forces driving migration and, more importantly, the people who are forced to migrate. Families I have met have left at a moment’s notice, escaping persecution. The dangers they face do not end at the border. As an American photographer and daughter of a political refugee from Morocco, my own family's traumatic migration stories transmitted an intergenerational burden that compels me to understand why people are forced to flee and the ways the United States continues to demonize and reject those seeking refuge and protection. In my work as a documentarian, my goals for this coming year are: to document the families I have remained in touch with in the United States who are threatened by immigration enforcement, to visit with and document the families who were denied their asylum appointments at the border on January 20th who have dispersed into communities in Mexico, to present these photographs (while maintaining safety for the families involved) as a counternarrative to the mainstream news in publications and presentations, to create a set of 20 new images that speak to these current struggles, and to write about what I have witnessed doing this work. The funds from the Lucie Foundation would be a key component to complete this next leg of work by July 2026.
