Julie Schwietert Collazo is the co-founder and director of Immigrant Families Together (IFT). Immigrant Families Together is a grassroots collective founded in response to the zero tolerance immigration policy begun by the Trump administration in 2018 that has resulted in the separation of thousands of immigrant parents and their children at the U.S./Mexico border. Since June 2018, Immigrant Families together has posted bond for 73 individuals and offered ongoing support— in the form of legal counsel, groceries, healthcare, transportation and more— to many of these individuals and a dozen additional families.

We talked about the need for women to share their proud moments and stories of achievement; about the harm and lasting impact of family separation and detention of asylum seekers on the U.S./ Mexico Border; about the origin and daily work of Immigrant Families Together; and about the need for everyone to find ways to plug into an issue that matters to them so we can work for collective change.