Quixote Center recognizes migration as a fundamental human right that also benefits the communities that receive them. Beyond their economic contribution, the integration of people from all over the world enriches the cultural diversity and strengthens the social fabric of the United States, a nation built by migrants for migrants. 

The Quixote Center’s principal international partnership is with the Franciscan Network for Migrants (FNM). The Franciscan Network for Migrants is an effort to connect shelters run by Franciscan orders which provide humanitarian assistance to migrants who are traveling through Mexico, Central and South America. We serve as the fiscal sponsor for the Franciscan Network for Migrants within the United States, and coordinate advocacy efforts with their staff.  

Quixote Center and FNM organize Solidarity Trips every six months since 2022 as part of our advocacy, bringing U.S. based migrant justice professionals to Southern Mexico and Panama to see firsthand how the U.S. border externalization policies impact the lives of hundreds of thousands of people trying to seek refuge in the United States. 

Find out more about our Solidarity Travel Program .

As a result of our 2024 Solidarity Trip to Panama, we are currently working with the FNM Panama team on a Training of Trainers program to equip volunteers to provide spiritual accompaniment and observe that the human rights of migrants are respected in the Darien where FNM has established a permanent presence in the community of Bajo Chiquito.

Statements

Read March 11, 2025's Executive Decree from Panamanian President Jose Mulino en

Read the Red Clamor statement February 2025 in y en . 

Read the Red Clamor Panama statement February 2025 . 
Read the Red Clamor Panama statement February 2025 in Spanish . 

Read January 21st, 2025 Joint Statement with our partners at the Franciscan Network on Migration  

Read November 22nd, 2024 statement from the Franciscan Network on Migration's National Assembly in Mexico .  

Reports

Participants from the March 2024 trip wrote the report:  to denounce US efforts to further externalize US border to Panama.  

  

 

History of the Program

The Quixote Center launched the Migrant Justice program in 2018 to demand justice for migrants at the US border, within the United States and throughout their journey. We worked to end immigrant detention, and defended the right to asylum, which has been eroded over the last several years. We also partnered with organizations who work with migrants in the United States and in Latin America, organizing webinars and publishing reports.

Location of Shelters in the Franciscan Network on Migration

The crisis in Haiti: The United States continues to block reform and the passage of people fleeing

Thu, 05/12/2022 - 3:58pm by Tom

The Biden Administration expelled 450 people to Haiti, including 44 children, 20 of whom were infants, on three flights this week. These flights bring the total to 235 expulsion flights to Haiti since Biden took office, more than 23,000 people in total, and 21,000 in the eight months since the debacle in Del Rio last September. Another 8,000 people were summarily expelled into Mexico during the Del Rio crisis.

The world is on fire, and we're blocking the door

Thu, 04/28/2022 - 4:18pm by Tom

“I'm not here because I want to be here. I'm here to save the lives of my children.” - Mexican asylum seeker, expelled under Title 42 in March 2022

i want to go home,
but home is the mouth of a shark
home is the barrel of the gun
and no one would leave home
unless home chased you to the shore
unless home told you
to quicken your legs
leave your clothes behind
crawl through the desert
wade through the oceans
drown
save
be hunger
beg
forget pride
your survival is more important

Immigration advocates gather in front of Union Station in Washington D.C. to welcome migrants in a press conference.

Texas joins the Title 42 frenzy

Fri, 04/15/2022 - 4:23pm by Tom

Texas' governor Greg Abbot is putting immigrants on buses to Washington, D.C., apparently as some kind of protest related to the Biden administration's decision to end Title 42. The first bus arrived on Wednesday, April 13, but not at Homeland Security, Congress or the White House. Rather, the bus arrived in front of a building on Capitol Hill that houses several television networks' newsrooms, including Fox.

The Title 42 nightmare may be coming to an end… but what comes next?

Fri, 04/08/2022 - 4:16pm by Tom

“Expelling asylum seekers under Title 42 has not done anything to protect us from COVID” From the Congressional of Dr. Adam Richards, Physicians for Human Rights

Title 42 appears to be on its way out. After two years and 1.8 million expulsions, impacting well over 1 million people, Biden announced, and the CDC confirmed, that Title 42 would end on May 23, 2022.

The Biden Administration Must Restore Safe and Just Asylum

Fri, 04/01/2022 - 1:46pm by Alexandra

April 1, 2022 | Press Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: April 1st, 2022

 

CONTACT: Alexandra Gulden

alexandra@quixote.org

301-699-0042

 

The Biden Administration Must Restore Safe and Just Asylum

Washington D.C.—Today, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky issued a new order terminating the Title 42 order on May 23rd. Under the Trump-era policy, U.S. border officials were allowed to summarily expel or turn away over a million migrants and asylum seekers. The Quixote Center issued the following statement in response:

Quixote Center organized the Vigil to End Title 42 at the CDC offices, Washington, D.C. on March 21, 2022.

Work to End Title 42 Now!

Fri, 03/25/2022 - 2:38pm by Tom

The Centers for Disease Control and Protection the Order Suspending Introduction of Certain Persons from Countries Where a Communicable Disease Exists on March 20, 2020. The order claimed authority under Sections 362 and 365 of the Public Health Service (PHS) Act, 42 U.S.C.

Texas' Attorney General: Refugee children are not welcome

Fri, 03/11/2022 - 6:13pm by Tom

“‘He won over everyone with his smile, fearlessness and determination worthy of a real hero,' the statement said. It is unclear why the boy was unaccompanied.”

The story of an 11-year-old boy, who was put on a train to Slovakia by his parents so he could get out of Ukraine, was who called him a “hero of the night.”

The long arm of US border policy

Fri, 02/25/2022 - 1:39pm by Tom

"We are looking for a way to get out of Chiapas because in Chiapas there is no way to live because people are treating you like animals, your rights are being violated. So if we are refugees we are fighting so that we can get out and looking for a way to live so that we can eat.” —Haitian migrant to the Colectivo de Observación y Monitoreo de Derechos Humanos en el Sureste Méxicano, August 2021.

Biden has deported nearly as many Haitians in his first year as the last three presidents - combined

Fri, 02/18/2022 - 3:23pm by Tom

Biden has expelled nearly as many Haitians in 12 months (20,200+) as were deported during the previous 20 years (22,000-23,000)*** under three different presidents. Indeed, Biden’s administration has likely expelled far more: In addition to these official removal numbers, another estimated 8,000 Haitians were expelled back into Mexico in September of 2021, voluntarily according to DHS Secretary Mayorkas, but in circumstances that make that characterization suspect.

Stop the Deportation Flights artwork.

Haiti's Biden Problem

Fri, 01/28/2022 - 1:29pm by Tom

The Biden Administration deported more than 16,000 Haitian refugees between September 19, 2021 and January 25, 2022. A large portion of these expulsions are family groups; nearly 20% of those expelled are children. The obscenity of expelling refugee children, some as young as 15 days old, would seem to require no complicated exegesis to demonstrate. It is quite obviously the wrong thing to do. Yet, Biden persists.

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