Diego Silva, director of the Buckner Family Hope Center in Peñitas, Texas, originally wrote this column for the Baptist Standard as part of a special series "Justice looks like ..." allowing readers the opportunity to consider justice from numerous viewpoints.

When I was 13 years old, my parents set my sister, brother and me in our small living room and told us we were moving to the United States. That news came as a big shock to us, even though many of our family members already had left Brazil in the 1990s to pursue a better life in other countries.

I did not know it then, but my parents — like many others — were faced with the task of making major decisions every day just to survive.

My parent’s decision was based on a strong commitment to provide for their family and rested on the reality that freedom to seek a better life is intertwined with a commitment to justice — specifically, the ability to choose what the life of their family should look like.

Furthermore, it speaks to the incredible amount of life-altering decisions vulnerable families must make every day.

Read the rest of the article at the Baptist Standard.