MIGRANT

JUSTICE
PLATFORM

A U N ITY BLUE P RINT

FOR AC T I O N ON IM M IGRATIO N

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In June of 2019, a Blue Ribbon Commission comprised

of 20 individuals, from various grassroots organizations,

backgrounds, and communities, convened to launch the

development of a policy blueprint for use by the next

administration to immediately repair harms and reverse

failures caused by the current and previous administrations.

The result is the Migrant Justice Platform, a roadmap

of Executive and Legislative actions that come from

grassroots voices from across the United States and

abroad, and parts ways from the “single-bill” strategy that

has defined immigration politics for two decades. It is a

unity blueprint for a new conversation that must include

impacted communities, remedy past mistakes, and see

the whole of the global crisis. As such, this document is

intended as a launching point for an open-source project

that centers and elevates grassroots voices and experts on

various aspects of necessary action on immigration.

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About the Migrant Justice Platform

and Blue Ribbon Commission

BLUERIBBONCOMMISSION.COM

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TAB L E O F CO N TEN TS

A VISION TOWARD JUSTICE | 5

FUNDAMENTAL TRUTHS: 
OUR APPROACH TO THIS WORK AND BLUEPRINT | 8

AREAS OF FOCUS & REMEDIES | 13

EQUALITY AND INCLUSION FOR ALL PEOPLE (AT HOME) 

What does immigration and workplace enforcement mean for a country of many

nationalities, cultures, and languages, after Trump, after El Paso

BUILD BRIDGES, NOT WALLS (ON THE SOUTHERN BORDER):

A different vision of the borderlands, from border communities, to refugee families,

and communities on both sides of the southern border

WE ARE HERE BECAUSE YOU WERE THERE (ABROAD):

What does it mean that migration is a global human rights issue, and what does it

mean for the United States’ role abroad

CONCLUSION: 
WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE? | 32

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A VISION TOWARDS JUSTICE

5
A V I S I O N TOWA R DS J U ST IC E

There always has been and always will be migration, within national boundaries,

and across national borders. People migrate for a myriad of reasons, often by choice,

but more often outside of any individuals’ control. The question is how, as a global

community do we choose to understand, to manage it.

We know what we must defeat. We know what is unacceptable, unlawful, and immoral:

to concede to white supremacists; to create migrant prison camps to deter families

from seeking asylum; to militarize law enforcement and grant police extra-legal

authority to arrest; or to ban individuals based on their religion or country of origin.

But our vision must see beyond what is wrong. We must imagine policies that

celebrate, defend, and encourage the experiences and nationalities of those who

already exist in the United States. Policies that build the social and public institutions

to uphold the principles of equality and pluralism. Policies that ensure working people

from around the world can thrive together.

Such a vision would help us see that U.S. labor policy cannot conflict with immigration

policy, but rather that a unifying agenda is one that improves the lives of all working

people, across race, gender, class, and nationality. And more than that, it would finally

acknowledge how immigrant workers have subsidized key sectors of the U.S. economy,

just as they have in major economies worldwide.

A vision toward justice recognizes our shared planet, climate and histories – whether

you live in the United States or not. And whether you are an immigrant worker in

France, the United States, or Saudi Arabia, you have the same human rights, and the

same worth, as anyone else in any one of those countries. 6

Finally, it is a vision that sees the borderlands not as a threat, or as the separation

between two worlds, but as a place of encounter, where two worlds meet, trade,

interact, and embrace one another. It is a vision free of U.S. interventions, arms-

trafficking, and heavy-handed trade agreements.

Now is the time in history for a policy reset – a deliberate and thoughtful change of

course for U.S. policy on immigration, one rooted in the communities already living and

working across the United States, grounded in the principles of solidarity and self-

determination, and the values of compassion, creativity, and courage.

In such as vision, there is no room to exclude or discriminate people based on race,

class, religion, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, HIV/AIDS, national

origin, or political opinion. On the contrary, we imagine a bold commitment to the

social and public institutions that safeguard these principles, bring us together, and

keep us on the right path.

This blueprint is an exercise in political imagination, to take a collective step toward

building this vision of migrant justice. We must learn to co-exist and thrive together,

there is no other path. If you do not see it yet, it is because our job is to build the

force possible to make it happen.

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FUNDAMENTAL TRUTHS

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FUNDA M E N TA L T R U T H S

THIS ISN’T OUR FIRST RODEO, AND THERE ARE GIVENS

- FUNDAMENTAL TRUTHS - WITH WHICH WE APPROACH
THIS WORK AND THE POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS IN THIS
BLUEPRINT.

1 WE DON’T BELIEVE SOME MUST SUFFER FOR OTHERS TO ADVANCE. WE

ARE IN THIS TOGETHER.

2 WHITE SUPREMACISTS HAVE IMPLEMENTED THEIR PROGRAMME FROM

THE WHITE HOUSE. OUR AGENDA MUST RESPOND ACCORDINGLY.

3 MIGRANT WORKERS SUBSIDIZE THE GLOBAL ECONOMY. THAT’S NOT UP

FOR DEBATE.

4 IMMIGRATION IS NOT ONLY A DOMESTIC POLICY ISSUE. WE ARE HERE,

BECAUSE YOU ARE THERE.

1. We don’t believe some must suffer for others to

advance. We are in this together.

Donald Trump has bluntly made the case that protecting immigrant or refugees’ rights

implies taking from others. But the notion that advancing the civil rights of some

requires taking from others has been made for decades. In an effort to bring the GOP to

the negotiating table, President Obama through policy and rhetoric lent credibility to a

pernicious narrative that there are “good immigrants” and bad ones, targeting “felons,

not families.” But after 5 million criminalizing deportations in less than 10 years, it should

be clear that we cannot deport our way to the negotiating table in Congress. 9
Starting now, we cannot make this same mistake. Recent arrivals, individuals with prior

convictions, Black and Brown immigrants, and border communities, at some time, have

all been characterized as the expendable or “undeserving.” Going forward, our starting

point must be the recognition of humanity in every individual; the guarantee of human

rights and due process for all, with no carve outs or exceptions. We cannot compromise

a peoples’ humanity and we do not turn our backs on our family members, friends, and

neighbors. Never again.

2. White supremacists have implemented their

programme from the White House. Our agenda must
respond accordingly.

Donald Trump has gone far beyond advancing nativist rhetoric. Utilizing the power

and reach of the White House and Executive branch of the U.S. Government, he has

re-animated a white supremacist ideology and violence that terrorized communities

of color for hundreds of years in this country. The Trump administration itself has

committed and incited violence - carried out by state and non-state actors, that has

caused deaths, destroyed lives and traumatized thousands. It has “normalized” a

worldview that seeks to make non-white members of society disappear, promoting

and enabling white supremacist groups and allies.

As in post-conflict areas, the next administration should implement a process akin to

transitional justice: to understand the full extent of family separation policies, reaffirm

truths, reunite families and communities, recognize the trauma inflicted by previous

administration and their long-lasting effects, and reconcile our laws and policies with

aspirations of advancing civil and human rights.

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3. Migrant workers subsidize the global economy.
That’s not up for debate.

Immigrants did not structure the U.S. economy, or how capital flows across borders.

Neither did north African migrants in Paris, the Oaxacan workers in North Carolina, or

the South Asian workers in Saudia Arabia. Yet, the labor of immigrants is an integral

part of the world economy. We are already a part of it. Not just a little. Major U.S.

industries depend on and thrive with immigrant workers from around the world.

Anyone involved in U.S. agriculture, textile, or construction knows this.

Now is the time that the United States - both its people and institutions - publicly

acknowledge the realities in these industries and respect the humanity of all workers.

If a country benefits from immigrant labor, that country has a moral obligation to

recognize and co-exist with migrants as human beings, with full equality and civic

participation.

4. Immigration is not only a domestic policy issue. We

are here because you are there.

In the September #ClimateStrike, millions of young people around the world

awakened, and awakened others, to the reality that our survival is inter-connected.

Migrants know this and have lived it in very personal ways. Especially because our

histories are often rooted in indigenous, rural, and migrating peoples who grew with

their lands, who often fought to keep that land, and just as often lost that land and had

to migrate elsewhere.

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Our histories are shared - be they colonial, imperial, or interventionist histories. And

modern as the world may seem, it’s still the one we read about in history books - with

nuclear powers throwing their weight around, former colonies dealing with unfair trade

and foreign debt, and powerful companies willing to profit in human misery.

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AREAS OF FOCUS & REMEDIES

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EQUAL I T Y AN D IN C LU S ION AT H OME

THE MASSACRE IN EL PASO WAS A TURNING POINT THAT

CALLS FOR DRASTIC MEASURES TO PROTECT ALL PEOPLE
LIVING AND WORKING IN THE U.S.

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DIAGNOSIS For those communities targeted by Donald Trump and his

administration, the white supremacist worldview behind his immigration agenda was

clear even before the shooter in El Paso included it in his manifesto. With the full

weight of the Executive Branch, the complicity of Congress, and complicit media,

Donald Trump has re-invigorated a retrograde white supremacist political movement

with a history of legalized terrorism against indigenous, African American, Asian,

Mexican, Jewish, and other communities. President Trump did not invent the violence,

but today, he has been an instigator.

But the president is not alone, the Executive Branch of the federal government has

been weaponized to implement an nativist agenda framed by this white supremacist

worldview - establishing a massive regime of immigrant concentration centers

(counter to Congressional directives), blocking pathways to legalize or to adjust status

for millions of undocumented and documented immigrants, stripping millions of

individuals of legal status, including DACA, TPS, and DED beneficiaries and various visa

holders and applicants, and even stripping U.S. citizenship from naturalized citizens, all

of whom have been people of color.

President Trump has built on three decades of efforts by anti-immigrant hate groups,

facilitated by both political parties, to criminalize the act of migrating and of working,

making working people more vulnerable to exploitation, and utilizing local law

enforcement as force multipliers for immigration enforcement nationwide. Importantly,

these actions serve to exacerbate an already unjust system for migrant workers

across industries nationwide, undermining workplace protections for all workers, and

ensuring unscrupulous employers near-total control in the workplace, at times despite

despicable abuses.

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KEY TAKEAWAY The next administration must take immediate actions such as

issuing an immediate moratorium on all deportations, expanding relief and work

authorizations to as many people as legally permissible, launching a Workplace Relief

Order for immigrant workers, ending immigrant detention, and dismantling the most

problematic agencies at the Department of Homeland Security.

Remedies

SECTION A:
ADMINISTRATIVE ACTION NECESSARY TO UNDO THE HARM

1. Implement a Moratorium to

a) suspend all ICE field enforcement, including detentions and deportations,

checkpoints, raids, surveillance and use of facial recognition;

b) end the Muslim ban

c) establish end dates for federal contracts with municipalities and private

immigration detention camps and prisons; and

d) end all immigrant detention, including family detention and

e) establish a process, to the fullest extent permissible under the law, to release

people, including unaccompanied minors, held in DHS detention to their loved

ones.

2. Immediately provide reprieve to as many people permissible under the law

by eliminating family separation in all forms, including extending immigration

status and work authorization (through parole (212F) or other means) to all

undocumented immigrants currently in the country along with people unjustly

deported under policies found to be unconstitutional or later rejected.

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3. Establish a Coordinated Inter-governmental Specialized Taskforce to (a) carry

out an audit, investigation, and sanctions for white supremacist-related activity

within the White House, DHS, USCIS, U.S. Customs and Border Protection

(CBP) and ICE leadership; and (b) initiate the dismantling of the DHS agencies

responsible for family separations, millions of unlawful arrests, and exacerbating

the national crisis of racist profiling.

4. Immediately de-couple federal immigration enforcement from local law

enforcement, terminating all agreements that tap local and state resources

(including 287(g), WSO, BOA, and IGSA) and shut off the CAP and Secure

Communities deportation dragnet, ending the mining of local and state databases

and “click and arrest” enforcement tactics; simultaneously, review eligibility of law

enforcement funds for states with laws that encourage racist profiling and unlawful

arrests, such as SB4 in Texas and SB168 in Florida.

5. Establish an Access to Justice order to (a) ensure legal representation for all

immigrants; (b) rescind BIA decisions by any Trump Attorney General with ties

to hate groups or with demonstrated contempt for the rule of law; and (c) re-

establish an effective firewall between USCIS and any DHS enforcement agency.

Additionally, immigration enforcement must comply with basic due process

principles, including the right to fair hearings and prohibition on imprisonment

without trial; to implement that rule: (a) announce a moratorium on all removal

proceedings where the respondent is unrepresented; (b) release from immigration

detention everyone who: i) is held under discretionary detention authority (ie held

under 1226(a) or 1231(a)(6) for a bond that they cannot afford; ii) is eligible for

parole (ie held under 1225(b) after having passed a credible fear interview); or c)

has a substantial defense to the charges of removal or is eligible for any relief from

removal).
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6. Implement a Workplace Relief order to establish (a) comprehensive enforcement

of labor, employment, and anti-discrimination laws in consultation with trade

unions, workers’ centers, and groups with deep experience with immigrant and

other workers in precarious conditions; (b) withdrawal of anti-worker executive

actions by the USDOL, EEOC, and NLRB; (c) effective firewalls between labor

and immigration/border enforcement through existing MOU and new policies,

including updating the INS Operating Instruction 287.4a that prohibits immigration

and border enforcement in collective worker action and labor disputes; and

(d) allowing working people to self-petition for temporary status and work

authorization based on a labor dispute (including collective processes for

designating workplaces, sectors and supply chains that currently trap workers in

vulnerability).

SECTION B:
CONGRESSIONAL ACTION TO REPAIR THE DAMAGE

1. Restoring Institutional Integrity: Instead of focusing resources on criminalizing

and incarcerating the immigrant community, we must focus on enforcing

workplace rights across the United States - wage and hour enforcement, better

workplace protections for everyone in this country, and improved labor relations.

Implementation and oversight of all labor migration related programs shall be

transferred from DHS to U.S. Department of Labor (USDOL). After decades of

failure, addressing the rights of working people demands a wholesale scaling up

of labor enforcement agencies and doubling-down on the missions, funding, and

reach of the USDOL.

2. Re-establish and modernize the avenues for individuals to regularize their status: (a)

establish various opportunities to gain U.S. citizenship for 11 million undocumented

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 community members, and for DACA, TPS, and DED holders; (b) expand relief

options for Central Americans using NACARA’s framework; (c) reserve and

strengthen family reunification laws; and (d) increase the NVC visa cap.

3. Decriminalize working: Reaffirm the rights of all workers by (a) repealing the 1996

law that criminalized working without status (Sec. 1324(a) of IRCA) and adopting

a legislative fix to the Hoffman Plastics case to restore equality and the full right to

organize and reinstatement for immigrant workers; (b) enacting the POWER Act,

providing statutory protections for immigrant workers engaged in enforcing labor

and civil rights protections.

4. End programs using future workers as a wedge against current workers (utilized

to ensure more temporary, subcontracted, and low-wage workers), and instead

allow future workers to enter and work with full rights and dignity, including

Transnational Labor Citizenship: Access to join collective worker organizations in

both their home countries and the countries where they work.

5. Ensure due process and procedural fairness by making the suppression of

evidence standard in immigration equivalent to criminal law, and for example,

amending the statute for T/U visas to remove government certification and

cooperation requirements and ensuring requests for victims of abuse committed

by DHS enforcement agencies, such as ICE or CBP, are expedited.

6. Support the New Way Forward bill, which will rescind the 1996 Illegal Immigration

Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRIRA). IIRIRA was, signed into law

by then-President Clinton which made detention and deportation mandatory for

individuals with green cards and individuals who are undocumented for a long list

of criminal offenses, even if the offenses occurred decades prior or the individual
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has rehabilitated and has loved ones in the U.S. The 1996 law also dramatically

expanded the range of immigration offenses that could be prosecuted criminally

and ramped up criminal penalties for violations of immigration law. Repealing this

law would end expedited removal and the mandatory imprisonment of asylum

seekers. The Trump administration has taken full advantage of IIRIRA to separate

immigrant parents from their children at the border, and to inflict round after

round of raids on immigrant communities, including targeting the Southeast Asian

refugee community pursuant to old state criminal convictions.

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BU I L D BRI DG E S, N OT WA LLS

PROSPERITY REQUIRES A DIFFERENT VISION OF THE

BORDERLANDS, FROM BORDER COMMUNITIES, TO REFUGEE
FAMILIES, AND COMMUNITIES ON BOTH SIDES OF THE BORDER

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DIAGNOSIS  Today, the Trump administration has made the border a symbol of hatred

and a monument to his racist agenda. Even as thousands of children have been forcibly

separated from their parents, and parents from their babies. Thousands of families

traumatized, thousands still separated, and numerous lives lost because of a callous

and unlawful refusal to accept refugee and migrant families, and refusal to provide

due processing for asylum-seekers at the border, now exacerbated with over 50,000

people forced to stay in dangerous conditions in Mexico, under the new “Remain in

Mexico” program, or MPP.

For decades, the border has been used as a catch-all for both political parties to

advance their political agenda, not the needs of border communities - or those seeking

asylum at the border. In each round of comprehensive immigration reform debates,

border communities are consistently utilized as bargaining chips. Even when there

is no progress on other pieces of legislation, the border becomes more and more

militarized, as occurred excessively during the Bill Clinton administration.

The status quo at the border is the criminalization of immigrants and militarization

of the border region. As border communities see on a daily basis, CBP functions as a

paramilitary agency, viewing immigrants and asylum-seekers as an enemy, as opposed

to the humanitarian and social service agency that it should be.

KEY TAKEAWAY  This diagnosis demands deep change in Border agencies’

organizational culture, policy, and practices. Immediate actions must include

establishing a truth and reunification commission, immediately utilize discretion to

stop prosecuting entry and re-entry, de-militarize the border and rescind the national

emergency declaration at the border, re-launching U.S. asylum protections as

required by international law, ending MPP, and establishing Welcoming Centers with
22
appropriate staff.
Remedies

SECTION A:
IMMEDIATE ACTION NECESSARY TO UNDO THE HARM

1. Rescind the declaration of militarization of the border. Rescind the executive

action declaring the border as part of a national emergency including: (a)

Withdrawing national guard; (b) withdrawing active duty military; and (c)

disbanding Task Force North.

2. Establish a Truth, Reunification, and Reconciliation Commission that must

include: 

a) the immediate reunification of separated families;

b) national field hearings to expose and document the impacts of white supremacy

and its connections to the Trump administration’s border policies, document the

full impact of Trump administration practices have had on immigrant and refugee

families and on victims and survivors of white supremacist;

c) a group of experts to issue a report re-envisioning border economies in ways

beyond border enforcement investments, including a comparative study of

border regions with robust economies around the world and what can be

learned;

d) an audit on U.S. failures to abide by international law with respect to refugees

and asylum seekers and put in place measures to bring the U.S. into compliance

with our humanitarian obligations and to mitigate the harms caused by these

failures;

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 e) mandate public reporting on migrant deaths in detention and field/border

operations; and

f) a thorough investigation of the deaths in the desert and in immigration

detention during the Trump administration.

3. Eliminate obstacles to asylum enacted by the Trump administration. Withdraw

all third party safe country agreements, including those recently announced with

El Salvador and Honduras, and undo Trump’s executive orders and directives

related to the refugee and asylum process: (a) close the hieleras and perreras

(the temporary holding cages); (b) end MPP (remain in Mexico); (c) end the Zero

Tolerance Policy; (d) end Metering; (e) end the Muslim Ban; (f) limit Immigration

Judges’ Discretion; (g) end expedited removal; (h) end catch and release; and (i)

end temporary, expedited court hearings along the border.

4. Build Welcoming Centers at Ports of Entry with trained staff who possess

professional backgrounds and relevant languages to work with survivors of

trauma. Trump’s failed wall panels must be repurposed as a Historical Memory

Site, a memorial for all immigrants who died in ICE custody and while trying to

cross to the U.S. during the Trump administration, as a reminder of our national

responsibility and as an educational site.

5. Ensure due process and procedural fairness for refugees and asylum-seekers

by (a) streamlining and expediting refugee admissions process and allow

them to wait in the U.S. while their application is pending; (b) allowing refugee

applicants to file the I-590 from any U.S. consulate; (c) raise the number of refugee

admissions up to and beyond previous levels; (d) hire and place the necessary

trained staff to humanely conduct credible fear interviews as well as professional

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 staff in the respective fields to ensure the health, education, and well-being of

refugees; and importantly, (e) enact a policy to give unencumbered, immediate

access to attorneys, non-governmental organizations, community members,

elected officials and press at all immigration courts, detention centers, and places

of custody.

6. Immediately use discretion to stop charging unlawful entry/ re-entry as a crime.

Also direct U.S. Department of Justice attorneys to settle pending civil rights

lawsuits in a way that binds actors and allows court oversight. Reinstate BIA

decisions withdrawn by the Trump Administration including: (a) asylum eligibility

for victims of domestic violence; and (b) asylum eligibility for victims of gang

related violence.

SECTION B: 
CONGRESSIONAL ACTION TO REPAIR THE DAMAGE  

1. Restore the Integrity of Institutions: Restructure the border agency, currently

CBP, with a humanitarian and social service mission. Use appropriations to change

the priorities and culture of the agencies working in the region.

2. Enact a stand-alone border de-militarization bill to mitigate the harm of decades

of failed enforcement policy and militarization, made even more extreme and

harmful under the Trump administration. Such a bill should include accountability

and oversight, such as applying the 4th and 6th Amendments to ports of entry.

3. Entry and re-entry to the U.S. should never be criminalized. Decriminalize it by

repealing Sec. 1325 (criminal charge for entry), Sec. 1326 (criminal charge for re-
25
 entry), and Sec 212(a)9 (bars) of the INA (discussed in the NEW WAY FORWARD

bill above).

4. Additional legislative items, (a) add gender as a cognizable particular social

group under U.S. asylum law; and (b) create a humanitarian or family-based

immigration category of relief for separated family members who did not qualify

for relief under the asylum laws, (c) expand opportunities and avenues for family

reunification.

Additional legislative items, (a) add gender as a cognizable particular social group

under U.S. asylum law; and (b) create a humanitarian or family-based immigration

category of relief for separated family members who did not qualify for relief under the

asylum laws. 

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WE ARE HERE BECAUSE YOU WERE THERE

LEADERSHIP ON THE GLOBAL MIGRATION HUMAN RIGHTS

CRISIS REQUIRES THAT THE UNITED STATES RETHINK ITS ROLE
ABROAD

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DIAGNOSIS  In the United States, we often view immigration as a domestic policy

issue. However a view at other regions of the world would make clear that government

responses to migration today are creating a global human rights crisis. With

populations from North Africa in Italy and Spain, from Southeast Asia in the Middle

East, and from Central American across the United States, migration is not the fault of

the people that have to leave their homes.

Global migration will only increase with climate change. And the international

community of nations has shown little leadership to address the issue on a global

scale.

The United States has had an important role in establishing the status quo. In just one

instance, the role of the U.S. in creating instability in Honduras is important to review.

From funding the civil wars across Central America, to enabling the trafficking of

military-grade weapons to flow southbound, to the very recent coup in Honduras and

insertion of a government that waged an all-out war on its own population. It’s clear

there were many causes for the large-scale exodus from Honduras in recent years. U.S.

foreign policy was a major one.

U.S.-based corporations have designed very efficient mechanisms to dilute their

responsibilities regarding human and labor rights: from ensuring trade agreements that

benefit U.S. companies at the expense of rural communities abroad, or through the

temporary work programs that put workers in precarious situations with employers.

The example of U.S. foreign policy toward Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean,

and free trade agreements is notable. The US, through NAFTA, now being advanced

as the USMCA, set strong standards for investment and intellectual property rights to
28
protect US businesses investing in Mexico, while relegating worker and environmental

protections to mere side agreements.

Within this context, the Trump administration represents the worst, and most

unfeeling, element of global forces willing to destroy the environment, annihilate

ancient traditions, exploit families vulnerabilities, to profit from human misery. From

his actions to remove the U.S. from the Iran and the Paris Agreements, literally putting

the globe at risk, to his actions to extort concessions from Central American countries

to intercept refugees headed to the US. To be clear, a country with mass graves of

Central Americans is not a safe third country.

KEY TAKEAWAY  The next administration must take immediate actions such as

establishing a Transnational Labor Citizenship Initiative while re-engaging with

the international community by re-entering the Paris Agreement, committing and

supporting international human rights mechanisms, and making a new commitment

to the national sovereignty and self-determination of other countries, which must

include the end of “Deportation Diplomacy,”and guarantees for due process and

permanent residency for asylum-seekers, and all TPS and DED beneficiaries.

Remedies

SECTION A:
IMMEDIATE ACTION NECESSARY TO UNDO THE HARM

1. Establish a Transnational Labor Citizenship Initiative to provide resources and

create programs that enable workers to migrate or not migrate and emphasize
29
 decent work in home countries. A plan must include (a) collaboration to advance

the human and labor rights of migrants to the United States, and Central

American Migrants in Mexico; (b) create opportunities and remove barriers in

home countries and the United States for workers to exercise Transnational

Labor Citizenship; (c) reinstate and expand the agency guidance and strategic

enforcement of the joint liability provisions under the Fair Labor Standards act

to hold accountable the U.S. employers for the abuses of its recruiters in another

jurisdiction; and (d) set new executive policy with high standards for labor that

sets a floor for the United States Trade Representative negotiations.

2. We must make a commitment to respect foreign sovereignty, and to help build

strong local, public institutions in neighboring countries with a focus on

education, dignified working conditions, and living wages.

3. We must recognize that climate migration exists, give refugee status to those

affected by it, and re-enter the Paris agreement so people around the world are

no longer displaced and forced to migrate due to climate change.

4. Protect global human rights by (a) rejoining the United Nations Human Rights

Council and re-join other countries at the UN Global Compact Refugees and the

UN Global Compact on Safe and Orderly Migration to advocate for a human and

labor rights based framework on migration; (b) withdrawing from plan Merida. We

must commit publicly to cooperating with outside human rights investigations of

U.S. conduct including participating in hearings and providing information.

5. End Deportation Diplomacy, that imposes U.S. immigration and border

enforcement to neighboring countries, including foreign policy, programs and

30
 agreements which incentivize U.S. border enforcement in Mexico, Guatemala and

El Salvador.

6. Re-designate and extend Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for all countries to

which it had been denied during the Trump administration, including Honduras, El

Salvador, Nicaragua, Haiti, Sudan, and Nepal, Guatemala, Venezuela, the Bahamas,

Yemen, Somalia, and Syria; reinstate the Central American Minors Refugee

program; all up to and until resolving a permanent residency for all 13 TPS and

DED countries.

SECTION B:
CONGRESSIONAL ACTION TO REPAIR THE DAMAGE

1. We must enact New Migration Pathways between the U.S. and countries in the

region that avoid the well-known exploitation of existing foreign temporary worker

programs and protect the right to travel across the region.

2. We must recognize that some workers may want to fill jobs that are temporary,

like in agriculture, and return to their home country every season. Some may

want to stay. The law should provide a mechanism that allows for those options,

and guarantees workers full rights. Policy shouldn’t be driven by the desires

of employers to have “cheap labor.” Private labor recruiters should be banned

from the process, and employers should be legally responsible for workers’

transportation and other costs related to the labor from which the employers

profit.

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CONCLUSION

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W H ERE DO W E G O F R OM H ER E?

There are no givens. Donald Trump’s “election” in 2016 caught millions of people off

guard (in the U.S. and abroad). It was both a wakeup call about the white supremacist

backlash post-Obama and a jolt of urgency for too many who were content assuming

others would ward off the forces of hate, greed, and fear. It’s clear now, that’s not the

case.

It was never a given that communities would fight back, that individuals would storm

the airports to defend refugees, that border activists would face jail time to provide

water to people in the desert, that jewish communities would use their bodies to block

ICE vehicles. It wasn’t a given - people had to make it happen.

This blueprint is an exercise to expand our political imagination - to make clear

how much our political representatives have not done, and how much they can still

do. The federal government has the authority and capacity to do everything in this

document, and much more. But nothing is a given, unless we make it happen.

Like Greta Thunberg said recently, the social, political and cultural force that can turn

this ship around may not exist just yet. The seeds to change course are everywhere,

and they’ll bloom if given a chance.

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