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 HERE.
Find out more about our Solidarity Travel Program HERE.
Partners
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
Location of Shelters in the Franciscan Network on Migration
Migration Solutions; and Franciscan Network on Migration in Brazil
There is a lot of noise about migration coming from political campaigns, and from all sides. Most recently the U.S. government has limited asylum applications at the border in order to stem an ever-growing flow. Congress couldn’t pass bipartisan legislation to do essentially the same thing, because on the political right, politicians want to use the issue to rally their base.
Report from Panama
During the week of March 11, Quixote Center, together with our partners with the Franciscan Network on Migration, organized and led a group of U.S.-based immigration advocates and policy experts to visit the migrant path in Panama, starting with the treacherous Darien Gap. Our Panama colleagues released a report in response to what we witnessed at the Darien.
Our colleagues note the following concerns:
Human Rights in Panama’s Darien Gap
Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state. Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country. Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution.
-Universal Declaration on Human Rights, Article 13/14
Homeland InSecurity
We are getting closer to unpacking the complicated web of laws and agencies responsible for preventing U.S.- made weapons from getting into the hands of criminal elements in Haiti.
On Wednesday Quixote Center convened partner organizations together with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) staff director in charge of global trade violations and export enforcement coordination.
The Quixote Center and Franciscan Network on Migration Call on Congress to Vote Against Anti-Immigrant Proposals
The Quixote Center and Franciscan Network on Migration Call on Congress to Vote Against Anti-Immigrant Proposals
What’s Quixote Center doing in Panama?
In 2023, migrant crossings through Panama reached a historic high, as half a million people traversed the deadly Darién gap, and one
Migrant Communities Are not Disposable
Our current refugee and asylum systems were created in response to the horrific failure of the U.S. to accept Jewish refugees fleeing the Holocaust, and instead turning them away.
All Families, from the U.S. border to Palestine, Deserve a Chance at Life
For Immediate Release: Dec. 8, 2023
Press Contact: alexandra@quixote.org
The U.S. Border in Panama
Under pressure from the US, and with a large financial incentive, Panama is attempting to control the flow of migrants in its territory through deterrence and deportations.
Prophets and Mystics
…recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world…
Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UNDHR), Preamble
Defending human rights is a political act. Without respect for human rights, democracy crumbles and stability gives way to civil unrest, insecurity, and migration, as people do what they feel they have to do to survive.