LEGAL AID AND ADVOCACY

In Central Western Mexico, Jalisco remains one of the leading Mexican states most impacted by deportation. Yet no government entity takes responsibility for assisting deported migrants to resolve binational matters that implicate significant rights and claims of Jaliscienses removed from the United States.

In response to their needs, The Rhizome Center for Migrants partnered with Casa Scalabrini - Centro de Pastoral Migratoria in 2018 to provide direct U.S. legal aid services to deported migrants at their shelter in the state's capital, Guadalajara. As the first legal aid center south of the border devoted to supporting deported Jalisciense women, children, men, older persons, and U.S. veterans, The Rhizome Center for Migrants is the last resort for deported Jaliscienses with U.S. legal claims involving their rights to access to justice, access to family, and worker protections.

#familyreunification #legalreturn #parentalrights #humanitarianrelief #accesstowages #accesstoproperty #veteransbenefits #theftprotection #postconvictionrelief

In 2019, with the re-initiation of the Interior Repatriation Initiative (IRI), a binational program allowing for the deportation of migrants into the interior of Mexico instead of at designated repatriation points along the U.S.-Mexico border, the migratory landscape in Guadalajara changed drastically. Through interviews with migrants, The Rhizome Center for Migrants learned of civil rights and civil liberties abuses occurring at IRI-associated immigration detention centers and CBP holding facilities. As part of the organization's reporting project, The Rhizome Center for Migrants documents and files complaints on behalf of IRI migrants who are victims of sexual assault, systematic racism, excessive use of force, and other grave abuses while in U.S. custody.

In Mexico, we are seeing more and more U.S. citizens being forced to leave the United States to keep their families intact. As they reinvent their lives in Mexico, they experience a new set of hardships. The Rhizome Center for Migrants supports U.S. spouses and American children of deported migrants gain certainty over their futures by assisting them to understand and obtain the necessary legal permissions they require to remain indefinitely in Mexico as a family.

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