Migrant Justice

Burlington, VT

This is the 2025 fellowship description for this mentor organization.

Migrant Justice builds the voice, capacity, and power of the farmworker community to organize for economic justice and human rights. Migrant Justice organizes within a community of immigrant dairy workers - primarily undocumented workers from southern Mexico and Guatemala - in Vermont and surrounding areas. Its principal campaign, Milk with Dignity, is a worker-led supply chain program winning rights for workers and economic justice in the dairy industry.

Through Migrant Justice, farmworkers gather together in regional community assemblies to discuss common problems and create collective solutions, guided by a shared vision of human rights and economic justice. Leaders from each assembly form the Farmworker Coordinating Committee, Migrant Justice's governing body. Over the past fifteen years, Migrant Justice has grown into a powerful organization, winning national acclaim for its blend of popular education, worker organizing, and policy advocacy.

Peggy Browning Fellows will increase Migrant Justice's capacity to carry out its mission by providing additional capacity and facilitating access to legal tools. The Fellow will be integrated into all aspects of Migrant Justice's popular education and organizing work.

Projects will be tailored to fit the interests and experiences of the Fellow; they may include:

Advance asylum and Special Immigrant Juvenile Status visa cases of organization members
Consult with workers engaged in labor disputes and aid in the submission of labor-based deferred action petitions
Research and guidance on the application of the Milk with Dignity Code of Conduct in farm labor complaints
Intakes, referrals, and casework for individual labor, violence and immigration issues through the Migrant Justice "Teleayuda" hotline
Legal research and policy guidance on state and municipal policies and practices regarding immigration enforcement
Writing, submitting, and reviewing FOIA and Vermont Public Records Act requests

The Fellow will receive legal supervision from, and work in close collaboration with, attorneys at the Vermont Asylum Assistance Project.

Candidates must have a demonstrated commitment to grassroots community organizing and be comfortable in an informal and non-hierarchical work environment. Spanish language fluency and experience working with immigrant communities a plus. Women, gender non-conforming, immigrant, working class, and candidates of color strongly encouraged to apply.

Migrant Justice anticipates that the 2025 Fellows will work in Vermont, both at the organization's office in Burlington and in the field on farms throughout the state. Access to a reliable vehicle is strongly encouraged.

Address cover letter to:

Will Lambek
Migrant Justice
179 S. Winooski Avenue, Unite #202
Burlington, VT 05401