Alliance to Mobilize Our Resistance (AMOR)

Background

Alliance to Mobilize Our Resistance (AMOR) was created in 2017 in Rhode Island after the first election of President Donald Trump.  It advocates for immigrants and refugees in Rhode Island and claims that it is “unifying the forces of the African, Arab, Latinx, Southeast Asian, African American, LGBTQ, youth, and sex workers communities in Rhode Island.” ³

AMOR provides a support line for assistance with immigration legal support, court accompaniment, detention release, driver’s license applications, enrollment in benefits, immigrant detention bail funds, transportation, and interpretation. ⁴ Roughly 95 percent of the cases it handles support illegal immigrants. ⁵

It manages a fund to pay for the legal fees and bonds of illegal immigrants detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). It also actively advocates for legislation to support illegal immigrants in Rhode Island. ⁶

In 2021, AMOR was listed as a recommended policy organization to donate to by New York magazine online-shopping vertical The Strategist alongside the ACLU, the Black Lives Matter Global Network, the Color of Change Education Fund, and the Community Justice Action Fund. ⁷

Alliance Partners

Partner organizations in the alliance include Direct Action for Rights and Equality (DARE), Providence Youth Student Movement (PrYSM), the FANG Collective, Colectivo Sin Fronteras, and Ocean State Advocacy. ¹ DARE fights against “oppression based on race and nationality… gender and sexual orientation… oppression of the poor and working class by the rich and ruling class.” ⁸ PrYSM advocates for the elimination of policing, prisons, and borders. ⁹ Ocean State Advocacy supports sex workers in Rhode Island. ¹⁰

Initiatives

Shut Down Wyatt is an AMOR initiative that began with the 2019 Wyatt Detention Center contract with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. ⁶ It campaigns to ban ICE contracts with prisons and to ban private detention centers in Rhode Island. ¹¹ In May 2022, AMOR and FANG interrupted Invesco’s annual shareholders’ meeting demanding that Invesco end investments in the Wyatt Detention Center. AMOR’s statement claims that the center is dehumanizing and imprisons people for profit. ¹²

AMOR organizes to defund the police. It claims that the police, jails, and detention centers were built to criminalize the “poor, Black, Latino, Indigenous, marginalized genders and sexualities, and other marginalized communities.” ⁶

Drivers Licenses for All is an effort to pass state legislation allowing illegal immigrants to obtain driver’s licenses. ⁶ AMOR also organizes informational events for undocumented immigrants in Rhode Island on how to obtain a driver’s privilege card. ¹³

AMOR advocates for bail reform in support of probation violators. Bail on 32 is Rhode Island legislation that requires courts to set reasonable bail for probation violators rather than allowing them to hold them without bail. In May 2023, AMOR co-organized a rally along with DARE, Black Lives Matter, and Reclaim Rhode Island in support of Bail on 32. In February 2024, AMOR joined with a coalition of 30 advocacy groups in a rally to support Bail on 32. ^{14 15}

In 2024, AMOR organized a series of events in support of immigrants including informational events, networking opportunities, workshops, wellness, and distribution of warm clothing. ¹⁶

In November 2024, AMOR was one of 193 organizations that sent a letter to President Joe Biden and to U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas urging them to release illegal immigrants from detention, stop the expansion of the ICE detention system, and close detention facilities to “protect immigrant communities … before the next president follows through on his mass deportation plans.” Co-signers included Detention Watch Network, 18MillionRising, Defending Rights and Dissent, Freedom for Immigrants, Human Rights Watch, Migrant Justice, and Rising Majority. ^{17 18}

Memberships

AMOR is a member of the Immigrant Coalition of Rhode Island, the Multilingual Coalition of Rhode Island, Detention Watch Network, and National Bail Fund Network. ¹⁹

The Immigrant Coalition of Rhode Island is a coalition of 33 immigrant advocacy groups including the ACLU of Rhode Island, the Economic Progress Institute, the Latino Policy Institute, Planned Parenthood of Southern New England, the Refugee Dream Center, and 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East. ²⁰

AMOR is a member of the Rhode Island Coalition for Responsible Government, along with Planned Parenthood of Southern New England, the ACLU of Rhode Island, the AFL-CIO, the NAACP, and the Black Lives Matter PAC of Rhode Island. In July 2024, the coalition launched a campaign against a proposal for a constitutional convention, claiming that it would “let wealthy individuals and corporations buy our Constitution.” ²¹

Funding

According to its 2023 tax returns, AMOR reported revenues of $309,181 and expenses of $338,987. ²²

Haymarket People’s Fund donated $24,000 in 2023 ²³ and Point32 Health Foundation donated $25,000 in 2022. ²⁴ Other donors include the Rhode Island Foundation, the Unitarian Universalist Association Funding Program, Tufts Health Plan Foundation, and the Tides Foundation. ²

Leadership

Catarina Lorenzo is executive director. She was born in Guatemala, graduated from college, and worked for left-wing human rights and social justice organizations. She continued her activism when she moved to Rhode Island and became the director of AMOR in 2017. ²⁵

Sarath Suong is the board chair of AMOR as of 2024. He was born in a Thai refugee camp, immigrated to Massachusetts, then moved to Rhode Island. He graduated from Brown University with a major in ethnic studies. ^{26 25} Suong is co-founder and executive director of PrYSM and a co-chair of ARISE (Alliance of Rhode Island Southeast Asians for Education). ²⁷  He is on the advisory board of Immigrant Justice Network that advocates against policing, deportation, and imprisonment of illegal immigrants and is a national director of the Southeast Asian Freedom Network. ²⁸