Ready to Stay: A national initiative to defend the rights of migrants

The Democratic government has been working hard together with non-governmental organizations to carry out a survey on the situation of migrants to help carry out the promised and necessary immigration reform. However, the obstacles are not few, which is why the help and work of non-governmental and non-profit organizations are absolutely vital to guarantee the rights of migrants.

Ready to Stay (“Aqui nos quedamos” in Spanish), is an initiative that seeks to centralize reliable legal services at no or low cost for migrants and their families. It is a national coalition that works to build better access to that migrants' resources need, and that seeks to effectuate large-scale coordination between pro-immigration organizations to guarantee the expected implementation of an immigration reform at the national level.

These are dozens of non-governmental organizations that work for the rights of migrants and have extensive experience in legal advice and humanitarian aid. The objective of this group of activists and professional lawyers is to build an effective platform to implement all the changes that future immigration reform will bring to migrants, as well as train and educate those who wish to be part of the change.

Ready to Stay is an organization dedicated to helping families of undocumented immigrants. The group has succeeded in its mission by using a unique and creative strategy: mobilizing the power of social media for advocacy purposes, such as sharing information on the progress of immigration reform through Facebook or sending messages demanding action from elected officials via Twitter.

A major concern among Ready To Stay supporters are those who have immigrated illegally but want citizenship so they can become more active members of their communities with protections like legal workers' rights, something that doesn't exist when living without documentation.

"So immigrants can have access to reliable legal services at low cost and more than anything to be part of our communities. So that they can create records that they live in the United States, for example by filing taxes, requesting documents, they can obtain medical documents or go to their consulates to make sure they have some identification to make sure they are living in the United States. "

Daniela Aleluma, the spokeswoman for the Center for Immigrant Studies, explained.

With the recent invalidation of the DACA program by Texas District Court Judge Andrew Hanen, it became clear that the path to immigration reform requires the joint work and effort of both the federal government and pro-immigration activists outside. of the state. In Ready to Stay they stated that it is essential that Congress enact definitive solutions for recipients of the DACA program and other migrants with temporary status or who are at risk of deportation.

In the meantime, they will continue to provide aid to all migrants in need, regardless of their situation. The coalition's website features instructional videos and other migrant advisory documents ranging from guides to the DACA program, educational pamphlets on the rights of migrants in the United States, to tips for responding to an ICE intervention.

In addition, Ready to Stay seeks to combat the abundant scams that target the most vulnerable migrant sectors. These scammers speculate on the hopes and dreams of many families to get money and jobs out of them.

“We know that there is a lot of news from people who think that there is already a reform and this leads to cases of fraud. This initiative tries to disprove that and helps them connect them to free legal services across the country."

Our organization always highly values the work done by activists who, from outside the government, fight for a better world for all migrants. We continue to believe that the only way to get to an immigration reform is by working together to overcome all obstacles.