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 .

Find out more about our Solidarity Travel Program .

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

Statements from our partners

Read the statement February 2025 in y en . 

Read the Panama statement February 2025  y en . 

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

Read November 22nd, 2024 statement from the https://redfranciscana.org/en/'s National Assembly in Mexico .  

Reports from Solidarity Trips

Participants from our March 2025 trip to Panama hosted a webinar titled Stranded and Forgotten. You can listen to it .

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

  

 

Location of Shelters in the Franciscan Network on Migration

Quixote Center Denounces Title 42 Extension & MPP Expansion

Tue, 12/07/2021 - 3:53pm by Alexandra

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: December 7, 2021

CONTACT: info@quixote.org

Greenbelt, MD–On Friday, the CDC announced it would extend migrant expulsions under Title 42; and today, the Biden administration will return its first group under the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) 2.0, or “Remain in Mexico.” The Quixote Center condemns the continuation of both Trump-era policies. Though Biden promised to “end Trump’s detrimental asylum policies” on the campaign trail, he has continued to systematically deny migrants their right to asylum.

Mothers of Disappeared Migrants Travel to D.C. for Justice

Sat, 10/23/2021 - 12:54am by Alexandra

On a brisk Tuesday morning, across from the white dome of the U.S. Capitol, a group of five women from Central America gathered to bring awareness to the hundreds of migrants who disappear each year while attempting to cross into the United States. Dressed in shawls and cute jackets, hair impeccably styled, any one of them could have been one of my tías, or my abuelita. Despite the October cold, the mothers stood tall—heads lifted high—as they recounted their stories. 

Why is the GEO Group getting paid to fly deportation flights to Haiti?

Thu, 10/07/2021 - 4:50pm by Tom

Deportation flights are a big business. Typically these flights are managed by - yes, ICE has its own airline. The of responsibility runs like this: Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE’s) office of Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) is the entity responsible for deporting people. ERO oversees ICE Air Operations.

Removal flights to Haiti continue at a slower pace, Title 42 must be ended!

Wed, 10/06/2021 - 3:53pm by Tom

Between September 19 and October 5, the Biden administration expelled over 7,200 people to Haiti on 67 flights. Between February 1 and September 15, the Biden administration deported 2,140 people on 37 flights.

So, since taking office Biden has expelled 9,300 people to Haiti on 94 flights. Three-fourths of those expulsions have happened over the last two weeks. The Biden administration has also repatriated 400 people interdicted at sea.

United States loses its mind over Haitian migration yet again

Fri, 10/01/2021 - 5:53pm by Tom

Between Sunday, September 19 Thursday, September 30, the Biden administration sent at least 57 deportation flights to Haiti. That represents more than 6,000 people expelled in less than two weeks. For some perspective, over the previous 11 months, the United States had sent 37 deportation flights to Haiti. With the fiscal year ending September 30th, flights to Haiti from the United States will come to 95, making Haiti the country with the most removal flights this year other than Mexico.

Pages