Our Work
Deportation Response Initiative
Office of Inspector General
Protecting rights and advancing accountability after deportation and return.
The Deportation Response Initiative ensures that leaving the United States – whether through deportation or compelled return – does not erase legal rights, family integrity, or access to justice.
As deportations increase, many people are removed from the U.S. with little visibility into what happens next. Parents may be separated from their children. Individuals who experienced rights violations may lose contact with legal advocates. Critical information about arrest, detention, deportation, and return can disappear from public view.
Justice in Motion launched the Deportation Response Initiative in 2025 to ensure that deportation does not end access to justice or accountability for rights violations that may occur during arrest, detention, deportation, or return.
Need support for an impacted individual or family?
What We Do
Advance Accountability
Deportation should not prevent someone from seeking justice for rights violations experienced during arrest, detention, deportation, or return. Through interviews and legal screenings, we help identify potential legal claims, preserve critical information, and connect deported individuals with attorneys and legal pathways that may help pursue accountability and remedy after deportation.
Protect Families Through the Parental Rights Project
The Parental Rights Project helps safeguard the rights of deported parents and caregivers whose children remain in the United States. We connect deported parents to legal and social service support, help families navigate cross-border reunification challenges, and work with child welfare agencies to ensure that deportation does not become a pathway to unnecessary family separation.
Drive
Change
Through interviews conducted by members of the Defender Network, we document patterns emerging from arrest, detention, deportation, and coerced departure and elevate those findings to policymakers, advocates, and oversight bodies.
What We're Learning
Through ongoing interviews conducted by our Defender Network, we are building a deeper understanding of what happens as a result of deportation and return. While every experience is different, several themes are emerging:
Abuse During Arrest
When a man was arrested in an immigration raid, the officer used so much force against him that they broke his arm, but failed to provide adequate medical care.
These experiences help illuminate what deportation looks like in practice and why accountability matters.
Portable Justice in Action
For more than 20 years, Justice in Motion has helped migrants pursue justice across borders.
Through our Defender Network – a partnership of more than 70 human rights advocates and organizations across Mexico and Central America – we help migrants stay connected to legal rights, legal proceedings, and critical services even after they leave the U.S.
The Deportation Response Initiative builds on our theory of portable justice and this proven cross-border infrastructure. Through the Defender Network, we conduct ongoing interviews with deported and returned migrants, support legal screenings, connect families to services, and help ensure that deportation does not sever access to justice.
Unlike one-time studies or programs limited to a single location, the Deportation Response Initiative draws on insights gathered over time and across borders. This sustained approach helps us identify emerging patterns, respond to urgent needs, and better understand how migrants experience arrest, detention, deportation, and return as policies and practices evolve over time.
Request Support
Justice in Motion works with attorneys, community leaders, and impacted individuals and families seeking support after deportation or return.
Whether you are seeking assistance for a deported individual, a parent facing family separation, or a cross-border legal matter, we may be able to help.