Migrant Justice

Description: IRTF organizes for humane and welcoming immigration policies that promote the right to migrate, family re-unification, and uphold the internationally-recognized right to seek political asylum. IRTF organizes against anti-migrant sentiment and actions, especially the criminalization of migration and incarceration of migrants. Even those who have obtained citizenship status in the US face extreme legal and prejudicial challenges.Multiple agencies of the US government use their influence and power to suppress migrant rights by inflicting fear, deporting asylum seekers, and causing unnecessary harm to families and communities of immigrants across the country. Immigration enforcement agencies have over-inflated budgets. Immigration "courts" are not independent courts but an adminstrative arm of the Department of Justice and beholden to the directives of the current Attorney General.   

Vision: IRTF envisions a world where US relations with Central America and Colombia have embraced fair and just immigration policies that support and protect all immigrants, especially the most vulnerable.  By shifting money and human resources away from agencies that enforce anti-migrant policies (particularly the militarization of the borders of Central America and Mexico, as well as migration through Mexico), more resources can be used in to promote the welfare of migrants. 

Goals:

• To support migrants from Central America and Colombia throughout their process to live and work in the US
• To dissuade the use of racially discriminatory language against migrants from Central America and Colombia 
• To create opportunities for immigrants to find economic and emotional well-being in NE Ohio 

Objectives:

• Respond to calls for solidarity actions from migrant communities
• Organize actions to pressure government agencies to respect and protect migrant rights and counteract anti-migrant prejudice and policies
• Call on governments to financially and programmatically aid migrant communities
• Organize toward abolishing the US government's military enforcement of immigration and the decrease of all immigration enforcement, particulary ICE, DHS, and CBP (Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Department of Homeland Security, Customs and Border Patrol)