Quixote Center Initiates Programming in Panama
By Kim Lamberty
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
Statement: On the fire at the Immigration Detention Station in Juárez, Mexico
Below is a statement we released with our partners at the Franciscan Network for Migrants. Click HERE to read the original statement in Spanish.
Along Panama's Migratory Path
This past week, the Quixote Center team traveled to Panama to meet with our partners at the Franciscan Network on Migration (RFM), to learn more about the conditions migrants encounter in Panama and see how we can continue to accompany and support the RFM’s work there.
What is an Asylum Ban, and How Can We Stop it?
The Biden administration proposed a new rule that would bar most migrants from being able to seek asylum if they did not seek asylum in a country through which they transited or based on how they entered.
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.
