You’re Not Welcome

is a series documenting Latin American skateboarders who have immigrated to the U.S., showing how skate culture functions as both refuge and resistance amid one of the most volatile immigration moments in recent history. It portrays Latin American immigrants not merely as political subjects, but as cultural contributors: athletes and community builders.

The central story follows a 25‑year-old Venezuelan professional skateboarder who navigated through the dangerous Darién Gap alone, leaving family behind, and was granted asylum into the United States in October 2024. During a 2018 protest in Caracas, he was injured when an explosive device nearly severed his left hand. He could not safely return to Venezuela because his participation in anti-government protests made him a target of state repression.

Now in Texas, he is sponsored by an American skate brand, works as a food delivery driver, and teaches youth skateboarding to send money home. His life reflects a contradiction central to the modern refugee experience: he has followed the system’s rules, contributed culturally, and supported family, yet continues to live under uncertainty and risk.

Most images focus on him alone, conveying the quiet work of building a life far from home. The solitude in the images is not a denial of community but a reflection of the emotional cost of migration that often goes undocumented, like missing birthdays, funerals, and everyday moments with loved ones left behind.

At a moment when U.S. immigration discourse is dominated by enforcement and fear, this project turns to the defining part of displacement and what happens after, in the quiet effort to exist, belong, and endure while socially and economically exposed.