I met a man, originally from Mexico, who had been brought by his parents to the US as a 7-year-old child. In his thirties he was picked up by ICE in the Northwest US after a traffic violation and sent to the detention center because he was “undocumented”. Several AIDNW volunteers visited him over the course of the two years he was held inside the detention center. I met him when he was finally released after two years to his family in Eastern Washington to await his final case decision before the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. As it turns out, my family and his family were from the same part of Mexico, and he was only a year or two years younger than I am. But the fact that he was, through no fault of his own, brought to the US without documentation had completely altered the path of his life. While we waited for his family to pick him up, he explained to me the uncertainty of not knowing whether he was going to be sent back to a country about which he had only the vaguest memories. I can only imagine how difficult it must be for him to build his life now, as he awaits a higher court decision, while knowing it could all evaporate overnight if the court orders his deportation. His story was a humbling reminder that our lives are built on a series of chance events as much as they are built on our actions, and we should always remember that and treat each other with compassion.