Crossing the border to El Norte has never been more perilous. And yet asylum seekers keep coming, running, as they have been for decades.

As a lifelong educator who spent years teaching “behind the lines” in Nicaragua, Guatemala, and El Salvador during the 1980s war years, I am compelled to tell the stories of those who are chasing the dream, even at the risk of landing in the crosshairs of President Trump’s strategy of deterrence by cruelty.

I propose an article or series of articles leading eventually to a book, for there are as many tales as there are people. The medium will be oral histories, interviews that can also be filmed and recorded and distributed across multiple platforms. The stakes couldn’t be higher – these stories will be told in the months before U.S. voters decide whether to eject Trump from the White House or give him another four years.

To collate the stories, I need access to a number of individuals who are willing and able to speak on the record. I seek access and time with those who

• tried to reach the US border but turned back;

• crossed legally sought asylum only to be labeled criminals and detained;

• were detained but managed to get into the US;

• were detained and subsequently deported; and

• came across many years ago, made a life in the US, birthed and brought up US citizens only to find they are now being hunted and forced to “go back where they came from.”

Throughout, emphasis will be placed on those whose children were taken, indeed, who may be searching for their young ones still.

With this project, I wish to reveal the aspirations and ordeals of real people living in the many metaphorical borderlands. In the process, I will also expose how their choices, and their journeys, have been shaped by unjust US policy decisions as regards the region going back decades.