By the Bridge or by the River? Stories of Immigration from the Southern Border takes readers on a first-hand journey through America's current immigration crisis at the U.S. southern border. Woven into one compelling narrative, it tells the stories of seven families held at a U.S. government family detention facility in the summer of 2018, exploring the circumstances that drove each of them to the United States. It further focuses on one family as they are released from the detention facility and start a new life in America while their asylum application is pending, and the unlikely and heartwarming friendship they develop with the author.