Hitting the ground running… 🏃

We hope you’re settling into 2019 — we think it’s going to be one of our most important years yet at NobodyLeaves Mid–Hudson. So let’s get you caught up on the busy end to 2018, the first few weeks of the new year, and our plans for the upcoming month so we can get to work together!

We wrapped up 2018 with four municipal ID victories — two of which came in December. More than victories to list on our website, these gains will actively change how people move through the cities in which they live. They have proven how powerful collective action is and galvanized our members to fight even harder for what is theirs: the right to live full and dignified lives outside of the shadows.

Our Kingston municipal legislation was passed unanimously and signed into law by Mayor Steve Noble with our members right beside him. We started our campaign in Kingston with a Families Belong Together rally of more than 500 people over the summer. Since then, Kingston has become a critical place in our struggle for immigration justice.

Two weeks later, we won a Beacon Municipal ID with our fourth unanimous vote. You can read more in press coverage by The Daily Freeman, The Poughkeepsie Journal, and the Highland Current.

We are now working to ensure that cities implement their municipal ID programs in an effective, timely, and most importantly, accessible manner. 

Within the past month, we have given the City of Poughkeepsie the ID-making equipment they’ll need to start printing their cards; translated the application materials for Poughkeepsie, Beacon, and Middletown’s municipal IDs; and coordinated with the Mexican consulate to train Middletown officials on certifying Mexican documents.

We will continue to work closely with each city to develop their program, securing benefits and discounts for the cards, mobilizing residents to get cards, and monitoring their impact. If you want to support the municipal ID effort by offering a discount or benefit at a local business, institution, or non-profit — fill out this form!

Up Next: Newburgh and Warwick

We still have our eyes set on a few more targets!

We hope to soon win a municipal ID in the City of Newburgh. The City Council has publicly expressed support for the legislation. Mayor Torrance Harvey recently commented: “I am supporting this municipal ID thing like you wouldn’t believe… I can taste it. We’re going to make that happen.” Read more from the Times-Herald Record and the Mid–Hudson News.

Our Warwick members have demonstrated incredible determination over the past few months – building up a powerful and dedicated base, establishing biweekly meetings, strengthening coalitions, and starting their own municipal ID campaign. The Village of Warwick has since created a focus group including our members and representatives from other local community organizations and businesses to determine next steps.

Winning Driver’s Licenses For All

We want to win driver’s licenses for all New Yorkers in 2019.

With each drive home, ride to work, grocery store run, and school dropoff our undocumented brothers and sisters are filled with fear. Their families, regardless of status, live in fear too. Without a driver’s license, traffic stops can – and too many times do — turn into periods of incarceration and deportations.

We’re hungry for this legislation because we know that our members, and undocumented people across New York State, can’t afford to wait.

We’ve hit the ground running this year. We’ve already traveled to Albany twice — testifying in front of the joint budget hearing on transportation and supporting the vote for the New York DREAM Act. We’ve met with our State Senators and Assemblymembers. We’re planning local public forums on driver’s licenses. Best of all, we’ve just been getting started.

Want to support our campaign to expand access to driver’s licenses? Sign our statewide petition!

Moving Money, Building Power — Across the Country! 

We raised over $117,000 from 2,046 donors in just one week in December. We wrapped up the year with individual donations making up close to 40% of our budget — a testament to the power we have built over the past five years and the priority we have placed on grassroots fundraising.

A week after our Winter Fundraiser, we traveled to Philadelphia to discuss our grassroots fundraising program with foundations and social justice organizations. This is part of a larger shift we’ve made in sharing our knowledge, experience, and resources with our allies in the struggle for liberation.

Over the past year, we’ve provided free grassroots fundraising consulting to Rise Up Kingston, the Worker Justice Center of New York, the Real Food Challenge, the Sanctuary for Independent Media, ICE-Free Capital District, Brandworkers, the Latino Union of Chicago, and the Columbia County Sanctuary Movement.

We are proud to play a role in building capacity and collective power in the Hudson Valley and across the country — and we’re so grateful for the role you play in making that possible. Thank you for your support.

Caitlin & the rest of the team