Quixote Center recognizes migration as a fundamental human right under international law. In the United States, migrants strengthen our economy, enrich our culture, and strengthen our social fabric. 

Quixote Center’s principal international partnership is with the Red Franciscana para Migrantes (RFM - Franciscan Network for Migrants). RFM connects Franciscan-run shelters and other humanitarian assistance programs for migrants who are making the dangerous trek through Mexico, Central America, and South America. We support RFM by

  • Serving as the fiscal sponsor for RFM within the United States and coordinating advocacy efforts with their staff. 
  • Providing on-going financial support to RFM programs in Panama, a particularly strategic and difficult migrant crossing point.
  • Offering capacity-strengthening funding to RFM teams, so far supporting teams in Colombia, Brazil, and Mexico. 

Quixote Center and RFM organize Solidarity Trips since 2022 as part of our advocacy and education mission, bringing U.S. based migrant justice activists and other professionals to Southern Mexico and Panama to see firsthand how the U.S. immigration impact the lives of hundreds of thousands of people fleeing their homelands to seek a new life, in the United States or elsewhere.

View our Between Borders video series .

Find out more about our Solidarity Travel Program .

Partners

RFM - Red Franciscana para Migrantes (Franciscan Network for Migrants)

The Franciscan Network for Migrants (RFM) is a network of individuals and service centers across the Americas that, inspired by Franciscan spirituality, reach out to migrants to support, promote, protect, and defend their rights in their respective countries of origin, transit, and destination.

Location of Shelters in the Franciscan Network on Migration

Update: #FreeThemAll Campaign

Thu, 05/07/2020 - 2:06pm by Tom


Protesters drive in a caravan around Immigration and Customs Enforcement El Paso Processing Center to demand the release of detainees due to safety concerns amidst the COVID-19 outbreak on April 16, 2020, in El Paso, Texas. Photo Credit: Photo by Paul Ratje / Agence France-Presse / AFP

Situation of shelters in the Franciscan Network on Migration during COVID-19

Fri, 04/10/2020 - 3:00pm by Tom

The Franciscan Network for Migrants (RFM) emerged in April 2018 during the annual Justice, Peace, and the Integrity of Creation Course, held in Guadalajara, Mexico. During 2019, the Network took form, organized with four original houses for migrants belonging to the Order: La 72 (Mexico), The Migrant Center of New York (USA), Comedor para Migrantes San Francisco (Mexico) and Pilgrims’ house of the Migrant “Santo Hermano Pedro” (Guatemala). 

ICE detentions are way down this month. That is not all good news.

Thu, 04/09/2020 - 5:00pm by Tom

According to , on March 21 ICE was holding just over 38,000 people. On March 28 the number was down to 35,671; by April 4 the number was 33,863. Which means over the last two weeks the number of people in ICE detentions has fallen by 4,200, or just over 11%. As we, and many other people have been advocating releases, this seems like good news.

Mexico’s detention network is human rights disaster - and U.S. policy is making it worse

Tue, 04/07/2020 - 11:05am by Tom

At all times, and certainly in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, the governments of Mexico and the U.S. must protect the rights of migrants. In the current context of a global pandemic, both governments must halt enforcement actions and deportations, and release people from detention facilities where their lives are endangered by overcrowded and unsanitary conditions.

La 72, Franciscan Network on Migration and others, denounce Mexican immigration authorities after death in custody

Fri, 04/03/2020 - 4:05pm by Tom


Firefighters on the scene. Image/La 72

Héctor Rolando Barrientos Dardón died on Tuesday during a fire at the Tenosique Migration Station, an immigrant detention facility near Mexico’s border with Guatemala in the state of Tabasco. His death occurred during a protest by several men who were denouncing their ongoing detention in the overcrowded facility, a situation which puts their lives at risk in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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