Media
Education
Events & News
Our Work
About
In May 2026, With Wings and Roots / Belonging Beyond Borders convened a cross-border conversation with organizers, funders, and activists from Europe and beyond to learn from movement leaders confronting migration enforcement and authoritarianism in the United States.
The discussion featured Silky Shah, Executive Director of Detention Watch Network, and Emilia Gonzáles Avalos, Executive Director of Unidos MN. Together, they shared lessons from decades of organizing around detention, community defense, narrative change, and broad-based solidarity.
A central insight from the conversation is that migration is not a side issue. Across different contexts, migration is often used as a wedge to test and expand authoritarian systems, divide communities, and normalize enforcement infrastructures that can later be turned against broader movements.
The conversation also points toward another possibility: organizing that contests these systems before they harden, builds relationships across difference, and distributes risk rather than placing it only on those most directly targeted.
Christina Antonakos-Wallace reflects on these lessons in a new piece for the Guerrilla Foundation, connecting the conversation to broader questions of democracy, belonging, and cross-border movement learning.
Watch the recording below and read the full article on the Guerrilla Foundation website here.
