The Quixote Center launched InAlienable in 2018 to demand justice for migrants at the US border, within the United States and throughout their journey. We work to end immigrant detention, and defend the right to asylum, which has been eroded over the last several years. We also partner with organizations who work with migrants in the United States and in Latin America.
Find out more about our Solidarity Travel Program HERE.
The Quixote Center’s principal international partnership is with the Franciscan Network on Migration. The Franciscan Network on Migration is an effort to connect shelters run by Franciscan orders which provide assistance to migrants who are traveling through Mexico, Central and South America. We serve as the fiscal sponsor for the Franciscan Network on Migration within the United States, and coordinate advocacy efforts with their staff.
See where the Franciscan Network on Migration works here.
You can donate to support the work of the Francsican Network here.
In 2022 we launched a solidarity travel program that brings advocates from the United States to visit and work with shelters in southern Mexico. These trips take place every six months. Find out more HERE.
MEXICO CITY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2021
Lic. Andrés Manuel López Obrador
Constitutional President of the United Mexican
Lic. Marcelo Ebrard Casaubón
Secretaryof Foreign Affairs
Lic. Alejandro Encinas Rodríguez
“What is happening is that human rights are being violated here, refugees are people who left their country because of threats. If we are here it is because we are looking for a better life. People who have papers- they can not take them, put them on a bus and take them to Guatemala, that is a violation of human rights. There are people who have one-year visitor cards, who have residency, who have a document that says Tapachula, Chiapas, those same people are grabbed and taken to Guatemala.
On Saturday a caravan of migrants formed in Tapachula in the state of Chiapas, Mexico. The group was mostly composed of Haitians, but included others from Venezuela, Central America, and Guinea. The caravan tried to leave Tapachula in protest of the refusal of the Mexican government to grant asylum - or even render a judgement - after a year or more of waiting.
Dozens of non-governmental organizations in Mexico issued a denunciation of the United States and Mexican governments policy of summary expulsions involving migrants from Central America, expelled from the US under Title 42, flown to southern Mexico to be bussed to the border with Guatemala; as well as Haitians summarily expelled from Mexico to Guatemala despite having legal status in Mexico. The Quixote Centered joined with others endorsing the statement. The English translation is presented below.
Hanlon’s Razor is an informal principle of logic which states, “never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity." Living in Texas for the last ten years, I have decided that one must turn Hanlon’s razor on its head to explain Texas politics.
In August, the United States began sending Central Americans who had been detained at the US/Mexico border under Title 42 to southern Mexico. There, they were put on buses and taken to the border with Guatemala and dumped.
It has been over a year since we discontinued the Daily Dispatch, which served as our regular (indeed, daily) summary of immigration policy. We are not bringing it back any time soon, but this week feels like one where we need to offer some news briefs and updates from a few areas of immigration policy. So in this installment of the Occasionally Recurring Dispatch!
[The Justice Peace and the Integrity of Creation Committee of the Franciscan Family of Honduras is a fellow member of the Franciscan Network on Migration. The new free trade zone law in Honduras continues the current government's pattern of providing open access to Honduras' natural resources and exploitation of workers. Speaking out against such "reform" is crucial. This kind of liberal investment environment, promoted as a means to address the "roots of migration," will likely make things worse in the long run by dislocating communities and undermining labor.]
In December, the Quixote Center delivered funding to one of our partners in the Franciscan Network on Migration for a project called “Psychosocial Intervention in Shelters: A Response to Eta and Iota.”
One June 24, 2021 the Advisory Committee of Franciscan Network on Migration collaborated with Franciscans International and together with 30 other organizations (including the Quixote Center) to make a joint Declaration on the harsh reality faced by migrants in Mexico, Guatemala and the United States. The statement as delivered by Ana Victoria López Estrada is below in English and Spanish.
As a candidate Biden promised, and seemed poised early on, to chart a new path toward a more people-centered reform agenda. As president he has taken many hopeful steps, but still leans on deterrence and criminalization to a degree that is concerning.
