“I walked through the doors of Make the Road New York over twenty years ago and I knew I had found my second home,” says Nilda Baez, a 20+ year member of Make the Road New York. Baez continues: “Since then, I have learned about my rights as a worker and as a tenant. I have participated in several campaigns, including fighting against work exploitation in car washes, wage theft in restaurants, for better health benefits, and most recently in campaigns to fund excluded workers and pass good cause eviction protections. I’m proud to continue to see the organization grow, and alongside our community, envision a better future with many more victories.”

This week, Make the Road New York (MRNY), the largest grassroots immigrant-led organization in New York state, celebrates its 25th anniversary. Since its inception, MRNY has continuously advocated, organized, and served New York’s Latino, greater-immigrant, Black, and underserved communities.

In honor of Make the Road New York’s silver jubilee, we’ve been invited to delve into their archives and share a selection of images that speak to their history and shine light on their legacy as a key pillar in New York’s tireless fight for social justice and equity, and premiere this celebratory 25th anniversary video, directed, produced, and edited, by the team at Make the Road New York.

Members of the Latin American Integration Center (LAIC). Queens, c. 1990s. © Make The Road New York Archives.

In 1992, Colombian-born activist and advocate Saramaría Archila and a group of friends launched the Latin American Integration Center (LAIC) in Queens. Rooted in the concept of People Power, LAIC provided adult education classes to Queens’ immigrant constituents, connected community through numerous events, and encouraged generations of their members to advocate for their rights. Most notably, LAIC staged massive citizenship drives in Queens, ensuring that the tens of thousands of the borough’s green-card holders could find accessible pathways to citizenship, thus becoming U.S. citizens and, therefore, active voters. LAIC’s main objective was to ensure that immigrant communities would become more visible, powerful, and respected in this city and, by proxy, the nation.

Members of the Latin American Integration Center (LAIC). Queens, August 16, 1997. © Make The Road New York Archives.

A few years later in 1997, law students Andrew Friedman and Oona Chatterjee arrived in Bushwick, Brooklyn, committed to lending their skills as lawyers to a neighborhood ravaged by inhumane, racist, and xenophobic welfare reform of the mid-1990s. Taking the lead from and working alongside Bushwick’s immigrant communities and Black families, Friedman and Chatterjee built a movement that married love and action: where working class New York could find legal support, learn how to advocate for themselves and their neighbors, and build collective power. Their organization, Make the Road By Walking (MRBW), was motivated by the belief that "the center of leadership must be within the community."

10 years thereafter, Friedman and Chatterjee’s Make the Road by Walking, and Archila’s Latin American Integration Center, merged to become Make the Road New York (MRNY). Since then, MRNY has grown enormously to include more than 27,000 members, has continued providing legal, health, and educational services to tens of thousands of New Yorkers, and has aided in asserting major influence on New York’s public policy and political landscapes.

Oona Chatterjee and Andrew Friedman. Bushwick, Brooklyn, c. 1997. © Make The Road New York Archives.

Over the years, MRNY and its predecessors have helped enact much legislation at the local and state levels: in 2004, they catalyzed the passing of Local Law 1, which requires landlords to remove toxic lead paint from apartments, and in 2010, helped usher in the NYS Wage Theft Prevention Act, the strongest policy of its type in the U.S. In 2012, MRNY championed the New York Dream Act, which grants undocumented students access to financial resources in higher education, and the Green Light Law (State Driver's License Access and Privacy Act), allowing all New Yorkers to apply for a standard license or learner’s permit, regardless of their citizenship or lawful status.

The following year, MRNY helped pass the Community Safety Act, a groundbreaking law aimed at ending discriminatory policing, and launched offices in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. In 2015, Make The Road expanded to Connecticut, and won victories in healthcare access for trans and gender non-conforming New Yorkers. Two years after in 2017, Make The Road opened another office in Nevada, led airport protests that ultimately defeated the Trump Administration’s “Muslim Ban”, and prevented DACA from being dismantled.

Make The Road By Walking Equal Access to Languages action. Manhattan, c. 1990s. © Make The Road New York Archives.

In 2018, Make The Road found another home in New York state’s Westchester County, and pressured New York lawmakers to pass the Asthma-Free Housing Act, which mandates landlords to keep apartments free of pests and mold. Later in 2019, MRNY urged corporations to divest from private prisons, won driver’s licenses for all, and access to financial support for undocumented students in New York.

During 2020, MRNY raised and distributed $4.6M to 6,000 families impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, ensured that thousands had access to healthcare and other services, and increased police transparency and accountability.

Their impact would only continue to grow in 2021. After a historic 23-day Hunger Strike, members of MRNY and the Fund Excluded Workers Coalition (FEW Coalition) made New York State pass the groundbreaking $2.1B Excluded Workers Fund, $2.4B in Emergency Rental Assistance Program (ERAP), investments in culturally responsive education, repealed the “Walking While Trans” ban, and more. The Excluded Workers Fund represents the largest economic assistance program for essential immigrant workers, who were originally excluded from state and federal unemployment or pandemic relief. To honor their astonishing work in 2021, NuevaYorkinos partnered with Make the Road, Street Vendor Project (SVP), and the greater FEW Coalition in ‘Essential & Excluded’, a multimedia show and activation centering the Hunger Strike at MoMA PS1 in Long Island City, Queens.

Member of MRBY at a Living Wages action. Bushwick, Brooklyn, c. 1990s. © Make The Road New York Archives.

In 2022, MRNY’s advocacy work helped newly-arrived migrants have access to cash assistance, prepaid phones and services. Just this year, MRNY won New York City legislation to make it easier for low-income and homeless New Yorkers to get permanent housing, and played an instrumental role in urging the Biden administration to extend and redesignate Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Venezuelans. As a result of this policy, more than 470,000 Venezuelans residing in the U.S.–tens of thousands of whom reside in New York–can now receive work permits and immediately start contributing to the country's economy and local communities.

“We are proud of this monumental milestone and the community we have built over the last 25 years,” Theo Oshiro, Co-Executive Director of Make the Road New York, stated. “With a vision for racial equity and social justice, we have built collective power together with working class people, provided lifesaving services, and won major organizing victories locally and nationally.” For Oshiro, with thousands of members and offices throughout the city, state, and country, the legacy of MRNY continues full steam ahead: “Our members will continue to champion efforts to win workplace justice, truly affordable housing, an end to abusive policing, the decriminalization of sex work, and access to healthcare for all people regardless of immigration status. Our work fighting for dignity and respect continues.”

Make The Road New York Retrospective: A Glimpse into the 1990s and early 2000s