The Organizing Team works on education and outreach, as well as skill building and relationship building, to create systemic change.
We work on local, regional and state campaigns with various community partners and coalitions. Learn more about some of our active campaigns below.
Some of our community partners and allies:
Some of our community partners and allies:
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The New York Immigration Coalition (NYIC) is an umbrella policy & advocacy organization that represents over 200 immigrant and refugee rights groups throughout New York.
The NYIC serves one of the largest and most diverse newcomer populations in the United States. The multi-racial and multi-sector NYIC membership base includes grassroots and nonprofit community organizations, religious and academic institutions, labor unions, as well as legal and socioeconomic justice organizations. The NYIC not only establishes a forum for immigrant groups to voice their concerns, but also provides a platform for collective action to drive positive social change.
Since its founding in 1987, the NYIC has evolved into a powerful voice of advocacy by spearheading innovative policies, promoting and protecting the rights of immigrant communities, improving newcomer access to services, developing leadership and capacity, expanding civic participation, and mobilizing member groups to respond to the fluctuating needs of immigrant communities.
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The fight for the Excluded Workers Fund showed that our social safety net is riddled with gaps that shut out our state’s most vulnerable workers, especially Black and brown working families. In 2023, we will fight to close these loopholes so workers can access the support they need when they lose their jobs and update our safety net for the 21st century.
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The Worker Justice Center of NY
The Worker Justice Center of New York's mission is to pursue justice for those denied human rights with a focus on agricultural and other low wage workers, through legal representation, community empowerment and advocacy for institutional change.
Originally founded in 1981 as Farmworker Legal Services of New York, WJCNY was established in late 2011 through the merger of Farmworker Legal Services with the Hudson Valley-based Workers’ Rights Law Center. WJCNY is now widely recognized as the premier legal services organization serving farmworkers and other low-wage workers in Upstate New York. Among immigrant communities in our region, we are widely regarded as a trusted source of information and legal assistance, as well as grassroots advocacy.
WJCNY is currently staffed by 20 full-time employees. We work with 6 volunteer attorneys who support our legal work. WJCNYworks with 5,000 people each year, most of whom are migrant or immigrant individuals and families. Our programs support a largely rural, marginalized population with legal, human trafficking, survivor, outreach, advocacy programs through direct service, education, consultation, and referrals. With offices in Hawthorne, Rochester, and Kingston we are able to respond to the unique needs of low-wage and agricultural workers across the state.
WJCNY’s guiding vision is a world where every worker should be treated with dignity and respect, and free from coercion. We believe everyone should have access to high quality legal services and the education and tools needed to advocate for themselves. WJCNY works to assist the low-wage worker population in building power, advocating for their needs, and holding bad actors accountable.
Our Programs
Legal: We provide access to justice for exploited and abused workers, hold bad actors accountable for their actions, and engage in strategic litigation to advance workers’ rights.
Outreach & Education: We build trust and cultivate connections among vulnerable workers and their communities. We educate agricultural workers and workers in low-wage industries on their legal rights and empower them in exercising those rights.
Survivor Services: We work side-by-side with survivors of human trafficking and domestic and sexual violence to achieve safety and self-determination. We focus on providing trauma-informed services that are client centered from start to finish, ensuring access to culturally and linguistically appropriate support services and high-quality legal assistance.
Anti-Human Trafficking: We investigate and interrupt human trafficking schemes, while working to transform the culture of the anti-trafficking field by leading victim-centered training programs for service providers and law enforcement.
Advocacy: We partner with workers’ centers and organizations to build power for vulnerable workers, address the root causes of workplace injustice, and advance public policies that strengthen the legal rights and protections of workers.
New York For All
#NY4ALL
From our friends at the NY Immigration Coalition:
“All New Yorkers deserve to feel safe taking their kids to school, picking up groceries, or going to work—but for years, New York’s immigrant communities have been targeted and terrorized by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Between 2016-2018, the rate of ICE arrests in New York City increased by 53%, outpacing the nationwide rate increase of 44%—serving to intensify fear in immigrant communities and erode trust in local law enforcement.
ICE routinely solicits information from state and local officials and law enforcement in support of its xenophobic deportation machine. But we’re fighting to keep families together and to end ICE’s collusion with local law enforcement across the state by advocating for the New York for All Act (S.03076/A.02328).
The legislation prohibits New York’s state and local government agencies, including police and sheriffs, from colluding with ICE, disclosing sensitive information, and diverting personnel or other resources to further federal immigration enforcement. By passing the New York for All Act, we’ll be one step closer to cultivating safe and vibrant communities for all New Yorkers, regardless of status.”
Excluded No More: Unemployment Bridge Program
From our friends at the FEW Coalition:
“The fight for the Excluded Workers Fund revealed long-standing gaps in our safety net that shut out many of our state’s most vulnerable workers. This year, we’re fighting to fix our unemployment system - for good.
Our unemployment insurance system is nearly a century old and isn’t working for workers today. Hundreds of thousands of workers in New York are shut out, especially the most vulnerable workers in our state: Black, brown, and immigrant workers in low-wage industries.
The Unemployment Bridge Program seeks to correct these injustices by creating a new program to provide support for workers who are excluded from regular unemployment insurance because of their immigration status or because of the kind of work they do. Under the Unemployment Bridge Program, workers covered include: freelancers, immigrants, cash earners, de-carcerated workers and much more!
Investing in the safety net isn’t just good for the workers who are directly impacted. It’s good for all workers. When more New Yorkers know they have a lifeline when they lose their job, we can counter workplace exploitation, hold employers accountable to the law, and lift all working families.
That’s why unemployment insurance has always been an essential labor right. In 2024, we are calling on Governor Hochul and state legislators to make that right available to the workers who need it most by passing the Unemployment Bridge Program and preventing the most vulnerable workers in our state from being excluded again.
Read our Policy: Unemployment Bridge Program #ExcludedNoMore”
NY CARES ACT
“Access to Representation Act: (S.999/A.170)
New York State should pass the Access to Representation Act (S81B/A1961A) to guarantee access to immigration lawyers for immigrants at risk of deportation in New York by establishing a right in state law to have a lawyer in removal proceedings. The Access to Representation Act will mandate:
That the State appoint a lawyer to anyone in New York who has a case before an immigration judge or who has a basis to appeal or request to reopen an old deportation order, and meets income requirements.
Stable funding streams for immigration legal services, easing uncertainty on both the legal representatives and their clients.
Who it helps/ benefits:
People in removal proceedings cannot afford a private immigration attorney
Immigrants at risk of deportation
Immigrants with attorneys are 3.5 times more likely to be granted bond (enabling release from detention)
People in detention are 10.5 times more likely not to be deported than those without representation.
93% of New Yorkers support government-funded lawyers for people in immigration court. Over 100 organizations currently support the #ARA.
Access to representation for immigrants would increase stability and health for families, decrease financial poverty, and empower families to make the best decisions possible for themselves and their families.
The policy change would specifically have a high impact on children who currently either have to appear unrepresented or who are at risk of family separation because of immigration proceedings.
Specifically for Buffalo: Buffalo is the location for the immigration court for all of upstate New York, which creates an even greater strain on clinics and community-based organizations that support families in proceedings. We need this law.
Language Access Expansion Act
From our friends at the NY Immigration Coalition:
“Lack of language access is one of the most significant barriers New York Immigrant communities face to accessing critical state services. Language barriers can impact a person’s ability to effectively communicate their needs, understand critical information, and access vital resources.
New York took an important step in expanding language access by codifying Governor Cuomo’s Executive Order 26.1 in state law during the 2022 State Budget. The law increased the number of statewide languages by directing all state agencies to offer interpretation services to immigrants and translate vital agency documents into the 12 most commonly spoken non-English languages.
However, interpretation and translation services continue to be inconsistent at certain state agencies particularly in regional areas outside of New York City. Under the existing law, translation is only mandatory for the agencies under the jurisdiction of the Governor, instead of across all subdivisions of state and county government leaving out important agencies that many immigrants interact with. We must account for the population variances for major cities throughout the entire state.
We need to enact Language Access Expansion Act(S.3381-A/A.7235) to allow counties to include the top 3 languages spoken in that region on the statewide list of languages, include additional State agencies such as the Department of Motor Vehicles and Department of Education, and require biennial language assessment using both Census and Community Survey data.”