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.
Resources
Resources
Statements from our partners
Read the Red Clamor statement February 2025 in English HERE y en Español AQUI.
Read the Red Clamor Panama statement February 2025 HERE y en Español AQUI.
Read January 21st, 2025 Joint Statement with our partners at the Franciscan Network on Migration here
Read November 22nd, 2024 statement from the https://redfranciscana.org/en/Franciscan Network on Migration's National Assembly in Mexico here.
Reports from Solidarity Trips
Participants from our March 2025 trip to Panama hosted a webinar titled Stranded and Forgotten. You can listen to it HERE.
Participants from the March 2024 trip wrote the report: Danger in the Darién Gap: Human RIghts Abuses and the Need for Human Pathways to Safety to denounce US efforts to further externalize US border to Panama.
Location of Shelters in the Franciscan Network on Migration
Location of Shelters in the Franciscan Network on Migration
Statement: Migrants in Tapachula Face Barriers to Asylum in Mexico
The following is a statement released by the Colectivo de Observación y Monitoreo de Derechos Humanos en el Sureste Méxicano, of which our partners at La 72 are a part. We have translated the statement from Spanish to English. To read the original statement, click HERE.
An Immigration Advocate on the Meaning of Solidarity
During our solidarity trip to Southern Mexico in November, seven participants from partner organizations joined us. The following is a reflection from Sofia Rosales-Zeledon, a Grassroots Advocacy Associate with the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA). A young Latinx professional, organizer, and community activist, she is passionate about immigrants' rights and racial equity. As a Grassroots Advocacy Associate, she helps AILA members engage with national advocacy campaigns around AILA's priority areas.
An Advocate's Reflection on the Quixote Center's Solidarity Trip
During our solidarity trip to Southern Mexico in November, seven participants from partner organizations joined us. The following is a reflection from participant Thomas Cartwright, an activist with Witness at the Border. A retired financial executive from Columbus, Ohio, Thomas Cartwright is now a global refugee advocate. He advocates for the rights of migrants in Congress, regularly visits border regions from the U.S.-Mexico border to Greece, and his work to monitor ICE removal flights has been instrumental in our work to defend Haitian migrants.
What TPS is and why we are asking Biden to extend and redesignate it for Haiti
The Quixote Center is calling on the Biden administration to extend Temporary Protected Status (TPS) to Haitians who will otherwise lose this status in February of 2023. We are also calling for the administration to redesignate the date for TPS so that all Haitians currently in the United States may apply.
Presente! Melvin Calero Mendoza
Melvin Calero Mendoza died in immigrant detention on October 13, 2022. He was the first immigrant to die in ICE custody since the current fiscal year (FY2023) began on October 1, 2022; the 45th immigrant to die in ICE Custody over the last five years.
In Memory of Unfinished Journeys
November 1st and 2nd marked Día de muertos in México; however, México is not the only country to celebrate the tradition of honoring the dead this week.
Organizations Denounce Guatemalan Government's Treatment of Migrants
[Note: This is a translation of the denunciation. The original in Spanish can be read here]
TO STATE AUTHORITIES
TO THE GUATEMALAN INSTITUTE ON MIGRATION
TO THE MINISTRY OF THE INTERIOR
TO ALL PERSONS OF GOOD FAITH
The undersigned organizations denounce:
The US must restore asylum at the border, not expand Title 42
This week, the Mexican government confirmed that the Biden administration is considering expanding Title 42 for some nationalities while also