I started this week by writing a full report for the outreach trip to the consulate in Monterrey over the past weekend. CDM often creates these types of reports to highlight recent activity outside of ongoing litigation to send out to its network of workers and supporters. With the second Trump administration's removal of federal support for organizations doing the work that CDM does, it has become much more important to find funding outside of the federal government. For example, a Biden era program that gave money to CDM for conducting workers' rights trainings at farms across the United States was canceled by the Trump administration less than two weeks before it was scheduled to conclude. Although CDM is a small group, its work makes it a target for the Trump administration and it has to rely on alternate forms of funding from its network. I not only sent my report out this week but also worked with a coworker investigating potential sources of cy pres funding from workers' rights class action settlements.

Along with continuing my work on the phone lines and with my assigned intakes, I began a project to create a comprehensive resource guide for small claims court cases. My coworker told me that recently a group of migrant workers in Maryland had successfully won the wages that their employer had stolen from them by presenting a series of small claims cases. Small claims court is a state level court that allows people to bring cases relating to damages below a certain monetary value without the need to hire a lawyer. They are an important tool especially for migrant workers who face more difficult barriers for bringing legal cases against their employers. However, the process can still be very overwhelming even though it is meant to be accessible to people without law degrees. I combed through various Maryland court resource pages and began calling different district court legal support offices to understand more about the process and what types of recommendations would be best for migrant workers. As I compiled the information, I worked with our attorneys to confirm what types of suggestions would not qualify as legal advice and incorporated their input. Finally, I wrote up a first draft that began with a brief overview of the steps for bringing a small claims case against an employer and what types of court fees there are and how they can be waived. Following the overview, I created an in depth breakdown with linked resources and free legal service centers that accommodate non-English speakers.