Past Campaigns
Look at what we have achieved in the past couple of years!
We learned that after 30 years of detaining migrants in inhumane conditions for profit, York County Prison - the detention center responsible for the largest ICE footprint in Pennsylvania - will cease its private contract with ICE after August 12.
York has a long history of human rights abuses that further affirm our mission to end all detention in Pennsylvania. Please see fact sheet below that highlights some of the major findings of the dire conditions detainees face at York County Prison based on interviews Juntos and other community partners conducted in 2019.
Report Detailing Detention Conditions at York County Prison
As the Biden-Harris administration falls short of its promise to address the criminalization of immigrants, Juntos sees shutting down detention centers as a top priority. We must demand every person detained at York County Prison is RELEASED, not TRANSFERRED. The contract negotiations between ICE and York County is a great opportunity to take our chance and shut down the largest civil detention facility in Pennsylvania.
Safety We Can Feel
We are LatinX for Black lives committed to fight fiercely to eliminate systems of violence that operate in Black and Afro-LatinX communities. Locally this means organizing around the upcoming contract negotiations between the City of Philadelphia and the Fraternal Order of Police, supporting black led organizations and working against anti-blackness in our communities.
Beginning in the fall of 2020, we worked with our allies in Amistad Project, Movement Alliance Project, Vietlead, Pennsylvania Working Families Party, Reclaim Philadelphia and Philadelphia Community Bail Fund to ask over 1,300 Philadelphia residents where Philly feels we can find real community safety.
Shut Down Devereux
Devereux Advanced Behavioral Health is planning on opening a children’s detention center in Devon, PA.
The practice of locking up migrants seeking a better life is a multi-million dollar industry in the U.S., and now Devereux Advanced Behavioral Health joins the list of companies intending to profit from that exploitation with a $14 million contract to open up multiple youth detention centers, including one in Devon, PA.
At Juntos we vehemently stand opposed to the expansion of immigrant detention in our state, and we echo the local community of Devon in demanding that Devereux abandon their plans to lock up immigrant youth immediately.
Community Resistance Zones
What is a “Community Resistance Zone”?
The idea of a Community Resistance Zone is to create an area where neighbors and community members know exactly what their rights are when it comes to ICE & police and to be able to defend their rights and their neighbors’ rights. Juntos’ Community Resistance Zone operates in the heart of South Philadelphia where a large portion of the city’s Latinx immigrant community lives.
Juntos’ first CRZ was launched in November of 2017 during a 2 day span. During this time over 200 volunteers came to South Philadelphia to learn their rights, to teach others, and to knock on doors to reach community and allies at their homes. In this 48 hour time period we:
Knocked on over 2,500 doors in South Philly
Trained over 1,300 people on their rights &
Signed up over 500 resistors
Every participant in our Community Resistance Zone made a personal commitment to stand up and defend their neighbors in South Philly against any and all abuses at the hands of police and/or ICE. They learned their rights. And we built history together by building a network of defenders.
We need each other more than ever now. Since the 2016 presidential election, we have seen a spike in deportations, police abuse, racial profiling, hate crimes, etc. This is not a coincidence. Our current power structure preaches violence and hate, and we must unite to fight back.
How to build your own Community Resistance Zone
This guide was written and designed by Juntos with the hope that other communities and allies will take our Resistance Zone Model and replicate it within their own neighborhoods.
Participants who use our Community Resistance Zone guide will learn how to facilitate their own series of workshops. The workshops are designed to teach individuals about their rights and about the history of immigration in this country, as well as how to recognize and utilize different levels of privilege that they may hold.
The workshops included in this guide are:
Criminalization History Workshop
How To Prepare a Workshop
Effective Group Listening
Building Power Through Storytelling
Community Resistance How-To’s
Understanding Our Rights & Privileges
How To Talk To People At The Door