In the thick of the Trump candidacy in 2016, and through the travel bans his administration issued in 2017, journalist Kelsey Freeman lived in a small, industrial town in central Mexico, located along a migration pathway. There, she interviewed countless migrants who were fleeing poverty and violence at home only to become exceedingly vulnerable as they headed north toward the U.S. border. No Option but North interweaves these harrowing and heart-breaking migrant stories with anecdotes from Freeman's experiences in Mexico to explore what it means to be a migrant in today's world.