Immigration Justice

Nobody Leaves Mid-Hudson’s Immigration Justice Campaign fights for justice for immigrants in the Mid-Hudson Valley and statewide. The Campaign organizes immigrants and allies to win demands such as statewide driver’s license accessibility, municipal IDs, and other meaningful protections for all 11 million undocumented immigrants.

Immigrants, especially undocumented immigrants, are facing perilous conditions. Deportation is a massive and growing threat. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is targeting all undocumented immigrants, and the rescinding of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) is putting 800,000 young immigrants at risk.

Undocumented immigrants lack forms of official identification, which leaves them unable to access essential social services; vulnerable to exploitation by employers, landlords, and the police; and unable to legally drive in areas without adequate public transportation. Lacking a form of official identification is one of the primary reasons undocumented immigrants end up being deported.

Our Immigration Justice Campaign works to address these conditions by organizing and winning concrete gains for immigrants, undocumented immigrants in particular. There are several areas of work in the campaign.

First, we are a leader within the “Green Light New York Driving Together” coalition fighting for statewide legislation to allow all New Yorkers to access driver’s licenses regardless of documentation status. In June 2019, we won this milestone legislation and have worked to ensure smooth implementation of the law with the coalition since then. 

Second, we are fighting to win the creation of municipal IDs that would be accessible to undocumented immigrants in cities throughout the Hudson Valley. We have won FIVE municipal programs in all of New York State — in Poughkeepsie, Middletown, Kingston, Beacon, and Newburgh. So far, over 3,000 residents have made use of these programs to get their own municipal IDs!

Third, we are fighting to win protections at the federal level as a member of the New York Immigration Coalition (NYIC) and as a part of the national movement. We’ve fought to protect DACA by meeting with our Congressmen and Senators, mobilizing to Washington, DC, and more.