Solidarity Travel

In 2022 we launched a solidarity travel program that brings advocates from the United States to visit with shelters and meal programs serving migrant populations in southern Mexico and in Panama. These periodic trips allow migrant justice professionals to witness the migratory path, meet with human rights defenders and the people migrating north or being deported south because of US border externalization policies. 

To see reports on previous trips, click HERE

Panama

The Quixote Center and the Franciscan Network on Migration's Panama team lead migrant solidarity trips throughout Panama, from the Darien jungle in the south, all the way to the northern border with Costa Rica. Participants experience community-based responses and welcoming, speak to migrants undertaking the journey, and examine how the United States is influencing the Panamanian government's response to the influx. 

The group visits the Panamanian government's "reception centers" in the Darien, where migrants who survive the perilous journey must choose between paying $100 per person for a bus northward or trek miles through mountainous highways. The group also visits the country's only non-profit- run migrant shelter, serving medically vulnerable people. 

Southern Mexico

The Quixote Center solidarity trips to Mexico's southern border connect people from the United States with partners at the migrant shelter La 72, one of the shelters of the Franciscan Network on Migration, as well as service providers and shelters in Villahermosa and Tapachula.  Trip participants will visit with migrants people staying at shelters, visit the border crossings with Guatemala, and hear from advocates in Mexico and migrants themselves about the impact that U.S. policy has in southern Mexico. You'll hear the many stories of why people have made the decision to risk so much and leave their country of origin. You will return to the United States with a fuller picture of the impact of U.S. and Mexican policies, and a fire inside to change it.