Al Otro Lado

My organization, Al Otro Lado, grew exponentially over the past few years and I would use the prize funding to develop more sustainable internal infrastructure in addition to directing resources to areas of work and programs that have previously been unfunded, including advocacy. The Elevate Prize funding would provide an opportunity to create something that I’ve long dreamt of: training and leadership pathways for staff, clients, and directly impacted community members to engage in media and advocacy so that affected individuals can speak for themselves. While I appreciate the platform and reach that I have been given through my work as an attorney and nonprofit leader, my ultimate goal is to ensure that people who are directly impacted are prepared to serve, and sought out, as experts and visionaries with lived experience of the real-life consequences of policies. Due to AOL’s rapid growth and presence in both the United States and Mexico, I’ve taken on multiple roles and wear many hats on any given day; this prize funding would afford us the time and resources to develop and potentially hire other staff to take on these efforts, including litigation, operations, and finances.

I have been working with asylum seekers and other immigrants for over 20 years. At the beginning of my career, I accepted existing structures and was motivated to ensure that people’s rights were respected within them. However, my worldview underwent a radical shift after living at the border during the Trump administration. The zero-tolerance policy and resulting mass family separations, being placed on a government watchlist myself and consequently separated from my infant son, and the constant threat of state surveillance and criminalization of human rights defenders has changed me. I have a media and advocacy platform that has reached millions, but working alongside migrants impacted by U.S. government policies has taught me that I cannot speak for them. I now firmly believe in an abolitionist framework and am devoted to creating a just system that bears no resemblance to what currently exists. I am drawn to the Elevate Prize network because my organization strives to change the narrative around the border “crisis” and advocate for humane solutions to address a situation that is often mischaracterized and poorly understood by the general public.

Al Otro Lado is a bi-national legal nonprofit serving migrants on both sides of the US-Mexico border.  We leverage vital partnerships and engage thousands of volunteers to increase our capacity and build a broad-based immigrant justice movement. Our staff and leadership include individuals impacted by immigration and criminal systems. Our approach is multidisciplinary, client-centered, and trauma-informed, combining fierce legal advocacy with holistic support. Our clients include medically vulnerable and disabled migrants, people in detention, and all families who have been separated by unjust U.S. immigration policies. We provide free legal and humanitarian services that reach thousands of migrants per year. Al Otro Lado conducts human rights monitoring in immigration prisons and at the border, informing our impact litigation and policy advocacy strategies with a focus on dismantling systems of oppression. Ultimately, our goal is to ensure that U.S. laws respect the inherent dignity of all human beings, including refugees, who continue to be dehumanized and criminalized. We engage in public education and media advocacy with our volunteers and in coalition with other organizations to inform about the realities faced by migrants in order to create a collective vision and movement that imagines an entirely new system.

As one of the only nonprofits operating both in ICE detention and south of the border, AOL is in a unique position to document the impacts of immigration policies and hold the government accountable. Our impact litigation and advocacy are data-driven; we collect detailed data from thousands of migrants to measure policy impacts on the most vulnerable, and systematically track rights violations at the border and in ICE prisons. Our data has been cited in multiple reports regarding the impact of immigration policies on refugees at the border and in ICE detention and has led to key wins in our class-action lawsuits. We recently collaborated with Human Rights First and Haitian Bridge Alliance to highlight the U.S. government’s misuse of its public health authority through Title 42 expulsions. Since January, we have forged new coalitions with policy organizations nationwide to develop recommendations for the Biden White House and Congress based on our human rights monitoring and legal data. We frequently engage these and other policymakers to amplify border realities when decisions are being made. We work from an abolitionist perspective, providing harm reduction in the form of legal and humanitarian support, while simultaneously working to dismantle systems of oppression. 

We are proud that our litigation and programmatic efforts were able to keep some of the worst anti-asylum policies of the last administration at bay. Over the past four years, we engaged in harm reduction strategies which included providing legal representation and information to thousands of immigrants in both the United States and Mexico along with humanitarian aid for hundreds of people stuck at the Southern border under the Migrant Protection Protocols and COVID-related border closure. Under the prior administration, our systems change endeavors were limited to attempts to preserve and maintain the flawed system and structure that existed. The Biden administration has signaled a desire to implement real change but from what we have seen so far, is not including directly impacted individuals in those plans and decisions. Similar to our practice of listening to and incorporating the desires of affected people in our litigation, advocacy, and program planning, we will push for the administration to do the same.