Advocacy is crucial for breaking barriers

About the Director, Johannes Favi: Johannes is originally from Benin in West Africa and has been building community in the Midwest in the fight for state legislation to end immigrant detention in Illinois. Johannes is the inaugural Freedom Fellow with Detention Watch Network and also serves as board member for the Illinois Community for Displaced Immigrants in Chicago. He received the 2021 Jeanne and Joseph Sullivan Human Rights Award from the National Immigrant Justice Center.

Beatriz came to US in 2014. She was detained in the Artesia Family Detention Center along with her 6 year old son, seeking asylum at the border while fleeing violence in El Salvador. After episodes of violence, she found herself confronting more trauma inside detention and began organizing from inside. After being released she continues her work as an organizer and a poet voice of the abuses she lived through and witnessed in detention. In 2020 she joined the DWN Formerly Detained Leaders cohort as a member of La ColectiVA where she later became part of their organizing team. In 2023, after 9 years of struggle, she finally won her asylum case. Walking alongside each other in the journey of healing and liberation is critical for Beatriz.