Make the Road New York

Make the Road New York (MRNY) is the largest progressive grassroots immigrant-led organization in New York state.^[2] 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.^[3] It has over 23,000 members^[4] and five community centers in Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island, Long Island, and Westchester County.^[5]

During the Donald Trump administration, Make the Road New York made national headlines for its work to end major banks’ financing of private prisons and immigrant detention centers^[6] and for leading protests at JFK Airport after the administration's January 27, 2017, announcement of an executive order suspending entry to refugees and to citizens of seven predominantly Muslim countries.^[7]

At the state level, the organization has championed legislation for immigrant New Yorkers, such as the New York Dream Act, which gives undocumented students access to financial resources in higher education,^[8] and the State Driver's License Access and Privacy Act, restoring access to driver's licenses for all New Yorkers regardless of immigration status.^[9]

There are sister Make the Road organizations^[10] in Connecticut,^[11] New Jersey,^[12] Pennsylvania,^[13] and Nevada.^[14]

Make the Road New York was created in 2007 through the merger of two New York City-based organizations, Make the Road by Walking and the Latin American Integration Center.^[3]

Make the Road by Walking (MRBW) was a Bushwick, Brooklyn-based community organization founded in 1997 by low-income community members of color motivated by the belief that "the center of leadership must be within the community."^[15] It helped community members organize in order to change the public conversation about welfare and improving policy.^[16]

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.^[17]

Make the Road New York opened a Long Island office in Brentwood in 2012 to serve Nassau and Suffolk Counties’ growing immigrant communities.^[18] In 2018, through a merger with the Westchester Hispanic Coalition, it began working with immigrant and working-class communities in Westchester County out of its White Plains Office.^[19]

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.^[20]