A moment of rest..

Arianna Salgado (Organized Communities Against Deportations), Sergio Agueta (STRONG for Youth) and Alex Sanchez (Homies Unidos)

05.12.18 - So I shot this while I was filming a panel discussion on Deportations at John Jay College. The discussion was a hard one. Many people fleeing gang violence in El Salvador are being sent back. They’re disappearing within weeks. Immigration courts lack the sufficient oversight and manpower to properly adjudicate the recent increase in deportation cases. And now, through this new obsession with paring MS-13 with Latinx immigrants, a new wave of invasive practices are hitting the streets.

And yet, in the face of so much, Sergio Agueta (STRONG for Youth) and Alex Sanchez (Homies Unidos) shared a brief, warm smile. A private joke between friends? A nostalgic grin to shared experiences? I don’t know. But it was there for moment, before the discussion once again took its turn to more serious things.

A moment of rest, before more work is done.

- Paul N.