Make the Road New York (MRNY) is the largest progressive grassroots immigrant-led organization in

New York state New York, officially the State of New York, is a state in the Northeastern United States. It is often called New York State to distinguish it from its largest city, New York City. With a total area of , New York is the 27th-largest U.S. stat ...

. The organization works on issues of workers' rights; immigrant and civil rights; environmental and housing justice; justice for transgender, gender nonconforming, intersex, and queer (TGNCIQ) people; and educational justice. It has over 23,000 members and five community centers in Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island, Long Island, and Westchester County. Since the 2017 inauguration of Donald Trump, Make the Road New York made national headlines for its work to end major banks’ financing of

private prisons A private prison, or for-profit prison, is a place where people are imprisoned by a third party that is contracted by a government agency. Private prison companies typically enter into contractual agreements with governments that commit p ...

and immigrant detention centers and for leading protests at JFK Airport following the Trump’s administration’s January 27, 2017, announcement of an

executive order In the United States, an executive order is a directive by the president of the United States that manages operations of the federal government. The legal or constitutional basis for executive orders has multiple sources. Article Two of t ...

suspending entry to refugees and to citizens of seven predominantly Muslim countries. At the state level, the organization has championed legislation for immigrant New Yorkers, such as the New York Dream Act, which provides undocumented students access to financial resources in higher education, and the State Driver's License Access and Privacy Act, restoring access to driver's licenses for all New Yorkers regardless of immigration status. There are now sister Make the Road organizations in

Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its capita ...

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

, and

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a state in the Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. Nevada is the 7th-most extensive, ...

History

Make the Road New York was created in the fall of 2007 through the merger of two New York City-based organizations, Make the Road by Walking and the Latin American Integration Center. Make the Road by Walking (MRBW) helped community members organize in order to change the public conversation about welfare and improving policy. The Latin American Integration Center (LAIC), founded in 1992 in Jackson Heights, Queens, provided support to Latin American immigrants in the form of community organizing, adult education, and citizenship assistance. Make the Road New York opened a Long Island office in Brentwood in 2012 to serve Nassau and Suffolk Counties’ growing immigrant communities. In 2018, through a merger with the Westchester Hispanic Coalition, they began working with immigrant and working class communities in

Westchester County Westchester County is located in the U.S. state of New York. It is the seventh most populous county in the State of New York and the most populous north of New York City. According to the 2020 United States Census, the county had a population ...

out of their White Plains Office. In April 2021, co-executive directors Deborah Axt and Javier Valdés stepped down, and Arlenis Morel, Jose Lopez, and Theo Oshiro became the new co-executive directors.

References

{{Reflist Advocacy groups in the United States 2007 establishments in New York City