Al Otro Lado

Border rights project expprovides know-your-rights training and legal accompaniment to refugees at theus-mexico border, empowering refugees with information about their rights in the usasylum system and how policies like title 42, cbp one, and family separation mayimpact their ability to seek asylum. We submit requests for humanitarian parole formedically vulnerable asylum seekers, and conduct human rights monitoring,documentation and data analysis at us ports of entry. Our overall goal is to ensure thatall refugees, regardless of nationality, can pursue their legal right to seek asylum at theus-mexico border without the need for attorney accompaniment and that they are notsubject to family separation or imprisonment while they pursue their claims forinternational protection. In 2023, we provided legal orientation to over 12,600 migrants,aided 193 unaccompanied minors and assisted 1,259 families separated by borderpatrol at the us-mx border.

Family reunification project expworks with parents who were separated from their children during zero tolerance anddeported without them. We work to bring parents back to the united states to reunifywith their children and then provide robust case management and legal support until they obtain work authorization, employment, stable housing, food security, and accessto medical, mental health, and other social services. These reunified families arelocated throughout the continental united states and generally receive services from alotro Lado for at least 1 - 2 years post-reunification. In 2023 we reunited 74 familymembers separated by zero tolerance policies, 56 of whom were children.

Us based advocacy provides holistic, full-scale representation to particularly vulnerable immigrants,including unaccompanied children, lgbtqa+ individuals, indigenous migrants, blackmigrants, torture survivors, survivors of human trafficking, clients withdisabilities/medical vulnerabilities, and clients whose cases present family unityconcerns. We represent clients before us citizenship and immigration services, theimmigration court, the board of immigration appeals, and the ninth circuit. We alsoadminister the department of justice-funded legal orientation program at the imperialregional detention facility in calexico, ca. Our goal is to work with clients on allaspects of their cases, from their initial application for relief through naturalization. In2023 we secured 361 successful case outcomes including asylum wins, dacarenewals and releases from ice prison.

Binational deportee programempowers deportees and returnees, builds community, and educates individuals ontheir rights. We partner with multiple deportee-serving organizations to assistdeportees throughout mexico, including border line crisis center and otros dreamsen accion. We focus on providing social services, know-your-rights workshops,creative workshops, and legal clinics. We also aim to destigmatize deportation andcreate spaces where deportees, returnees, and their families can share their stories andtransform their shame into empowerment. In 2023 we provided 113 deportees withcritical support services.

Tijuana humanitarian aidmeets clients' acute and immediate needs, providing essentials such as food, clothing,shelter, transportation, and medical assistance, including paying for medications,medical equipment, and surgeries. We support shelters with food, cleaning, andhygiene supplies and help to improve their infrastructure. We provide workshops onpositive parenting, sexual and reproductive health, and art therapy to empower migrantpopulations. We also provide a safe and peaceful educational and creativeenvironment, nest norte, for migrant children to learn and heal. In 2023, we served1,079 children at the nest and referred 1,688 migrants to shelter and medical care.

Litigationengages in ongoing litigation in the form of individual and class-action lawsuits thatfight policies that restrict access to humanitarian protections at the us-mexico border,challenge slave labor practices, protect the rights of disabled and medically vulnerablemigrants, and challenges abuses in immigration and customs enforcement (ice)prisons. We also use the freedom of information act (foia) to expose and documentabuses at the border and in ice prisons, use the federal tort claims act (ftca) tochallenge abuses committed against immigrants by ice officers and private prisonguards, and challenge prolonged detention.