Milestones in Nogales
In classrooms across Nogales this June, children proudly adjusted graduation caps and posed for photos with classmates. Parents filled courtyards, clapping and wiping away tears as students carried home diplomas decorated with bright colors and handwritten messages.
For many migrant families, these ceremonies marked far more than the end of a school year. They represented stability rebuilt after displacement, and children beginning to imagine futures that extend beyond the uncertainty of their present.
More and more families arriving in Nogales are not simply passing through for a few days or weeks. Many spend months or longer waiting for opportunities to seek protection, reconnect with loved ones, or determine what comes next. In the midst of that uncertainty, families continue building meaningful lives together. Children attend school. Parents create routines around homework and school calendars. Community spaces become places where healing and belonging can slowly take root.
For Clara, who arrived in Nogales from Guerrero more than a year ago with her husband and three children, this graduation season carried deep emotional weight. Her youngest son recently completed his first full school year in Nogales.
“After everything we’ve been through, seeing him happy, holding his diploma and spending time with other children made me feel like, little by little, we are moving forward,” she shared.
The adjustment was not easy. Clara says her youngest son struggled at first after the family’s displacement. Over time, though, school became a place where he rebuilt confidence and formed friendships. One of his teachers recently told Clara that although it had been difficult for him to adapt initially, he slowly began participating more in class and enjoying school again.
For Clara, those changes meant everything.
Throughout Nogales, families celebrated children who had completed their first full school year after arriving at the border. In classrooms and community spaces across the city, these milestones offered moments of joy amid uncertainty.
From classrooms to certification ceremonies, this season in Nogales has been marked by growth, resilience, and milestones.
Keeping Childhood Intact
For many parents in Nogales, graduation ceremonies are about far more than academic milestones. They are moments of relief. Proof that despite displacement, uncertainty, and painful transitions, their children are still growing into themselves.
Helping Children Build Stability in Nogales
School often becomes one of the first places where children begin recovering a sense of normalcy after migration. Classrooms create structure, and friendships slowly form. Daily routines help children regain confidence after months, and sometimes years, shaped by instability.
Camilla knows how meaningful those small changes can feel.
After arriving in Nogales from Venezuela with her four children, she faced the challenge of helping her family adapt to an entirely new environment. Everything felt unfamiliar, from the climate to the culture to the rhythms of daily life. This year, though, she watched her children begin settling into school and embracing milestones she once worried they’d miss.
Her two youngest children celebrated first and second-grade graduations, while her oldest daughter completed fourth grade and prepared for a new stage of school.
“When I see them getting excited about their classes, their friends, or a graduation, I feel like they get to be children again,” Camila shared.
For Camila, school has offered more than education. It has given her children opportunities to build friendships and feel connected to the community around them. Teachers played an important role in that process, helping her children feel welcomed while encouraging their confidence in the classroom.
Parents at Kino often describe how emotional it feels to see ordinary moments of childhood return. Homework comes home in backpacks again. Children talk excitedly about classmates. Graduation ceremonies become reasons to celebrate.
At the same time, maintaining those routines requires constant effort from parents already carrying enormous responsibilities. Alongside caring for her children, Camila helps support her family through a small jewelry and baking business. Clara sells food and baked goods while helping her children navigate school and life in Nogales. Summer vacation brings new challenges as parents work to keep children engaged, supported, and connected to community spaces.
Parenting Across Distance
For some families, preserving childhood and remaining part of important milestones happens across distance and separation.
Parents who have been deported or separated from their children often find themselves accompanying these moments from afar. Graduation photos are shared through messages and video calls. Parents call before ceremonies begin or wait anxiously afterward to hear how everything went.
Even from a distance, many continue encouraging their children’s education and growth however they can.
For migrant families, dignity means far more than physical safety alone. It means seeing children build friendships; celebrating graduations and report cards; and protecting a child’s ability to imagine a future for themselves, even in the midst of uncertainty.
Building Something New
As families begin rebuilding routines in Nogales, many also begin searching for ways to create greater stability for themselves and their children. For some, that means starting small businesses. Others participate in workshops, pursue certifications, or develop new skills that help them navigate an uncertain future.
These efforts are about far more than income alone.
They create opportunities to regain a sense of purpose after displacement and invest in a future that may once have felt out of reach.
In 2025, that process became even more urgent. Thousands of people found themselves stranded in border cities after the cancellation of CBP One asylum appointments. Families who had expected to continue their journeys suddenly faced the reality of remaining in Nogales for months or longer. What had once been a place of transit became a place where many people began building new lives.
More Than a Workshop
One of the clearest examples of this growth can be found in Kino’s Livelihood Project.
Created to support migrants facing prolonged periods of uncertainty, the Livelihood Project provides opportunities for participants to develop practical skills while building confidence and community. Workshops have included baking, sewing, entrepreneurship, and other forms of vocational training designed to help participants move toward greater stability.
In 2025, Kino launched a partnership with the Centro de Capacitación para el Trabajo Industrial (CECATI), a local vocational institute, allowing participants to pursue accredited training and professional certifications. Last year, 404 migrants participated in the Livelihood Project.
Yet the program’s impact extends beyond skill-building.
Participants learn practical trades and earn certifications, but they also form relationships that help them navigate life in Nogales. Workshops become spaces where people build confidence, exchange knowledge, and find encouragement during periods of uncertainty.
For many participants, these workshops become turning points that reshape how they see themselves and what they believe is possible.
One Person’s Journey Forward
When Yanet arrived in Nogales, she was preparing for a long-awaited opportunity to seek asylum in the United States. Instead, everything changed overnight.
On January 20, 2025, Yanet was among the thousands of people whose CBP One asylum appointments were suddenly canceled. Like many families, she found herself facing an uncertain future at the border. The plans she had carefully built toward disappeared in an instant, leaving her to determine what came next for herself and her four children.
For a time, the uncertainty felt overwhelming.
Yet as Yanet began spending more time at KBI, she found opportunities not only for support, but for growth. Through the Livelihood Project, she enrolled in baking workshops and became part of a community of women who were navigating similar challenges. Together they learned new skills, shared experiences, and began imagining possibilities that extended beyond simply getting through each day.
The experience culminated in an important milestone: earning a formal baking certification through Kino’s partnership with CECATI, a local vocational institute. For Yanet, the certificate represented far more than a new credential. It was tangible proof of her determination and her ability to continue building a future despite unexpected setbacks.
Alongside several classmates from the program, Yanet helped launch a small baking business. Today, they sell their products at locations throughout Nogales, generating income while continuing to grow their skills as entrepreneurs. What began as a workshop evolved into something much larger: a source of confidence, community, and economic stability.
Just as meaningful were the relationships formed along the way. Through the Livelihood Project, Yanet found people who understood the challenges she faced and who encouraged one another as they adapted to life in Nogales. The city that once represented uncertainty slowly began to feel different.
Reflecting on that journey, Yanet shared:
“Nogales has received me with open arms; just as I live in Nogales, Nogales lives in me.”
Her story is ultimately about more than a certification or a business. It is about what becomes possible when people have access to community, opportunity, and accompaniment. Faced with circumstances she never anticipated, Yanet chose to keep moving forward.
And in doing so, she began creating a future for herself and her children in a place she never expected to call home.
Futures Still Growing
Stories like Yanet’s demonstrate how accompaniment creates ripple effects far beyond individual programs. Across Nogales, families are continuing to invest in their futures in ways both large and small. Children complete school years and celebrate graduations. Parents work to create stability in the midst of uncertainty. Participants earn certifications, develop new skills, and discover opportunities they may never have imagined when they first arrived at the border.
Migration is often rooted in love: a parent’s desire to create opportunities for their children, a family’s commitment to one another, or the hope of building a more secure future.
This graduation season, those motivations were visible across Nogales. They could be seen in children proudly carrying diplomas home, in parents cheering from school courtyards, and in participants receiving certifications that recognized months of dedication and hard work.
For Clara, that journey forward was reflected in the smile of her son holding his diploma. For Camila, it was watching her children become excited about school and friendships again. For Yanet, it was earning a certification and launching a business that helps support her family.
Each story is different. Yet together they remind us of something powerful: even in the midst of uncertainty, futures continue growing. Through education, accompaniment, community, and opportunity, migrant families in Nogales are creating lives marked not only by resilience, but by possibility.
And little by little, they are moving forward.
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