Justice in Motion is an immigration and refugee-oriented nonprofit organization, which mainly pairs U.S. based human rights lawyers with organizations in South and Central America to work on legal issues and outreach projects. Additionally, the organization engages in immigration- and refugee-related policy advocacy.

Background

Justice in Motion, originally named the Global Workers Justice Alliance, was founded in 2005 by Cathleen Caron, a human rights advocate and lawyer specializing in agricultural labor law, in New York City and acquired 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status in May 2006. ¹²³

The organization is primarily focused on coordinating, through its legal action program, nonprofit organizations in Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua (which Justice in Motion terms as a whole “The Defender Network”) with U.S. or Canadian lawyers, which the organization terms “Advocates,” to work at no cost on the legal cases of individuals who claim to have experienced some form of abuse, such as labor recruitment fraud, as well as individuals who claim to be fleeing violence or persecution, with their immigration and asylum cases. ⁴⁵

In addition to facilitating legal services, Justice in Motion advocates for legislation which regulates more strictly the temporary foreign worker visa systems in the U.S. and Canada. ⁶ In that vein, the organization also hosts resources pages that detail the various non-immigrant visas used by U.S. employers to hire foreign workers. ⁷

Activities

Beginning in April 2018, following news coverage of the federal government’s policy on family separation with regard to illegal immigrants, Justice in Motion mobilized its “Defender Network,” to facilitate the reconnection of family members that had been separated after illegally crossing the border. In March 2019, the organization, along with similarly aligned organizations including the ACLU, the Women’s Refugee Commission, and Kids In Need of Defense, facilitated the bringing of 29 deported individuals back to the U.S. to present their asylum cases in person. ⁸⁹

In February 2020, Justice in Motion, with grant funding from Together Rising, a children-oriented nonprofit based in Falls Church, Virginia, launched its Child Detention Crisis Initiative, which is focused on facilitating the transfer of illegal immigrant children housed in facilities operated by the U.S. Office of Refugee Resettlement. ¹⁰

People

Cathleen Caron

Cathleen Caron, Justice in Motion’s founder and executive director, is an attorney in the United States. Before launching the organization, Caron worked in East Timor for the Alola Foundation, a human trafficking oriented non-governmental organization based in East Timor, as a staff attorney with the Migrant Farmworker Justice Project, and as a consultant with Realizing Rights: The Ethical Globalization Initiative. ¹¹

Yadira Huerta

Before working with Justice in Motion, Yadira Huerta was a planning and development associate with the Havana Film Festival of New York, and the Director of Communications with the Latino International Theater Festival of New York. ¹²

Nan Schivone

Prior to joining Justice in Motion, Nan Schivone represented migrant farmworkers from Mexico, Haiti, Peru, Jamaica, Thailand, and the U.S. (including Puerto Rico) in state and federal civil litigation. ¹³¹⁴

Beth Baltimore

Before working with Justice in Motion, Beth Baltimore worked in the Bronx and Brooklyn offices of Legal Services NYC, a left-of-center nonprofit organization focused on providing legal services to low-income individuals in New York. In 2018, Baltimore was a fellow with the Shriver Center on Poverty Law’s Racial Justice Litigation and Advocacy Institute. ¹⁵

Jeremy McLean

Before working with Justice in Motion, Jeremy McLean was a staff attorney and outreach worker at the Worker Justice Center of New York, and a worker organizer with Rural Migrant Ministries. ¹⁶

1. “Our Story.” Justice in Motion. Accessed October 5, 2020. https://www.justiceinmotion.org/our-story
2. “Justice in Motion Inc.” ProPublica. Accessed October 5, 2020. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/721597864
3. Gonzalez-Ramirez, Andrea. “How You Can Help Migrant Children Detained At The Border.” Refinery29. July 1, 2019. Accessed October 7, 2020. https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/2019/07/236724/help-migrant-children-at-border-crisis
4. “Our Work: Legal Action.” Justice in Motion. Accessed October 5, 2020. https://www.justiceinmotion.org/legal-action
5. “Our Work: Defender Network.” Justice in Motion. Accessed October 5, 2020. https://www.justiceinmotion.org/defender-network
6. “Policy Advocacy.” Justice in Motion. Accessed October 5, 2020. https://www.justiceinmotion.org/policy-advocacy
7. “Visa Pages.” Justice in Motion. Accessed October 5, 2020. https://www.justiceinmotion.org/visa-pages
8. “How did Justice in Motion help the separated families?.” Justice in Motion. Accessed October 5, 2020.  https://www.justiceinmotion.org/family-separation-crisis-response
9. Mukpo, Ashoka. “Separated From Their Children By U.S. Immigration, Jubilation As These Parents Win Entry In Mexicali.” ACLU. March 8, 2019. Accessed October 5, 2020. https://www.aclu.org/issues/immigrants-rights/immigrants-rights-and-detention/separated-their-children-us-immigration
10. “Children belong with their loved ones, not in detention.” Justice in Motion. Accessed October 5, 2020. https://www.justiceinmotion.org/child-detention-crisis
11. “Our Staff.” Justice in Motion. Accessed October 5, 2020. https://www.justiceinmotion.org/team
12. “Our Staff.” Justice in Motion. Accessed October 5, 2020. https://www.justiceinmotion.org/team
13. “Our Staff.” Justice in Motion. Accessed October 5, 2020. https://www.justiceinmotion.org/team
14. “U.S. v. Garcia. United States District Court, W.D. New York.” Casetext. December 2, 2003. Accessed October 6, 2020. https://casetext.com/case/us-v-garcia-342
15. “Our Staff.” Justice in Motion. Accessed October 5, 2020. https://www.justiceinmotion.org/team
16. “Our Staff.” Justice in Motion. Accessed October 5, 2020. https://www.justiceinmotion.org/team