The Committee for the Defense of Migrants (Comité)
Through investment in leadership development in Mexico, CDM and the Comité are building a culture of informed migrants to promote justice in the U.S. workplace. CDM trains Comité members, comprised of former and current migrants, to be migrant rights’ advocates to provide labor and employment law education both at home in Mexico and at work in the U.S. The Comité uses a peer-to-peer training model to develop the confidence and power needed to confront and prevent workplaces abuses by linking migrant workers to each other and to advocates in the U.S. and Mexico.
Latest News
August 22, 2008 -
CDM welcomes Leticia Zavala to our team as Director of Outreach and Leadership Programs! Leticia has demonstrated a life-long dedication to defending and empowering migrant communities on both sides of the border. Leticia immigrated to the US when she was 8 years old. Her childhood was spent working in US labor camps. Through perseverance, she was the first in her family who earned a college degree. After, she returned to the fields with the Farm Labor Organizing Committee the union which she joined as a child in order to improve working and living conditions for her and her family. Leticia most recently served as International Vice President of the union. Leticia is excited to return to her home country to work with those workers with whom she identifies. Zavala's responsibilities will include leading CDM's current binational organizing efforts, including the coordination of the Migrant Defense Committee.
June 28, 2008 -
CDM held a successful regional training for Comité members from the state of Zacatecas.
CDM recently expanded the Comité's education and outreach committees in four Mexican states. Over the past few months, CDM recruited 14 new worker's committee leaders (4 women and 1 man in Ejido Palomas, Cd. Maiz, Tamazunchale and Rio Verde in San Luis Potosi; 3 women in Chapulhuacan, Hidalgo, 1 woman in Zacatecas, 2 men in Celaya and 2 men in Irapuato, Guanajuato and 1 man in Mexico City).
Philosophy and History of the Comité
The Committee for the Defense of Migrants (Comité), sponsored by CDM, is a unique project that is helping to build a network of leaders throughout migrant communities on both sides of the U.S.–Mexican border who can act as trainers and advocates.
Education and leadership development of migrants in Mexico is essential to counter the workplace abuses that dog so much of the migrant worker's experience in the U.S. Poor health and safety conditions, the common incidence of wage violations and the fear and isolation of so many guestworkers, let alone undocumented workers, is shocking.
In September of 2006, while attending a two-day CDM legal rights training, several worker leaders encouraged CDM to support them in the development of a committee of migrant workers. Their idea was based on the need for greater efforts to educate migrants in Mexico on labor and employment law in the U.S., and envisioned a "human chain” of migrant leaders trained by CDM in U.S. employment and labor rights, who would be based in migrant communities throughout Mexico actively holding meetings and teaching other migrants about their rights before they travel to work in the United States. In addition to identifying initial goals for themselves and CDM, they chose a name- the Comité de Defensa del Migrante (Comité).
Worker mobility may be seen as a significant organizing challenge (on both sides of the border). However, this challenge also presents a unique opportunity for Comité members to communicate with workers across Mexico, and as they travel and work across the U.S. Taking into account migration patterns we can begin to imagine the formation of transnational worker networks across states lines in Mexico and the United States, and across the border.
CDM's curriculum in training new Comité members includes:
- Historical Background of U.S. immigration and labor laws
- Comparison of differences between U.S./Mexican labor laws
- Overview of pertinent labor laws and rights
- Health and Safety Training
- Peer-to-peer education
- Case Studies: CDM cases, rights issues that arise
- Skills Training: education and outreach, organizing and facilitating a meeting, convincing others of the necessity to fight for their rights
- Identification of leaders
- Documentation of rights violations