Our Work
Sur Legal Collaborative is a new legal non-profit in Atlanta, GA working at the intersection of labor and immigrant rights.
By collaborating directly with communities and grassroots groups, we seek to democratize legal knowledge and provide legal support to movements fighting for economic, racial, and social justice in the South.
Some examples of these efforts include ensuring workplace health and safety for all workers regardless of immigration status and supporting the movement to abolish the incarceration of immigrants in ICE prisons through creative legal strategies.
Programs
Labor Rights
Sur formed in October 2020 during a global pandemic that laid bare the lack of protections for immigrant workers in the South. There are no workers centers in Georgia, and very few organizations throughout the South with expertise in workplace health and safety. Sur aims to fill this gap by providing workers and organizers with information about their rights in the workplace and by equipping them with tools to hold employers accountable for labor violations. Sur further seeks to empower immigrant workers by identifying other labor abuses such as wage theft and labor trafficking, while also advocating for systemic change to end exploitation of all immigrant and low-wage workers.
Sur Legal’s start in October 2020 coincided with the most deadly incident at a poultry plant in Georgia in generations, a nitrogen leak that claimed the lives of six workers at the Foundation Food Group.
Learn more about Sur’s rapid response efforts in response to this tragedy.
Mass Decarceration
Sur strives to work alongside community groups and directly impacted individuals to advance the movement to abolish ICE and end mass incarceration. Thus far, Sur’s work has been focused primarily on mass release efforts at Irwin County Detention Center, the site of medical abuse and non-consensual gynecological surgeries against women. Sur has assisted with advocacy for release of multiple women who had been previously denied release due to their criminal histories through creative legal strategies. Sur further provides legal support to the movement through fact investigation via Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and Open Records Requests (ORA).
Immigrant Rights
The U.S. immigration system is complex and cruel by design. Sur seeks to demystify this system and empower those entangled in it, while simultaneously exposing the injustices it inflicts. Sur provides legal education, technical assistance, and direct representation to immigrant survivors of labor abuse. From infographics breaking down legal concepts, to questionnaires that help identify labor trafficking, Sur’s immigrant rights advocacy aims to educate and empower immigrant communities with the tools to challenge the immigration system as it currently standards, and ultimately to lead the movement towards long-term systemic change.