In addition to direct legal services and consultations, the Northern Manhattan Coalition for Immigrants Rights (NMCIR) engages in the following advocacy and community organizing initiatives to promote systemic immigration reform:

Community Organizing and Advocacy

Through our active participation with the New York Immigration Coalition and other national and local immigrant groups, NMCIR addresses different immigration policies which adversely impact the immigrant community including extensive immigration reform which gives immigrants an opportunity to gain legal status. This work is done through community forums, and media outreach. NMCIR will also be working on issues around civic participation, voting and domestic violence.

Anti-Deportation Campaign

Since the 1996 Immigration Laws which heightened enforcement against immigrants, there has been a steady increase of Dominicans who are detained without legal representation and deported back to the Dominican Republic. Between 2000 and 2002, an estimated 10,500 Dominicans have been deported for both non-criminal and criminal activities. 

Our approach to anti-deportation work is two-fold.  In collaboration with Columbia Law School and Legal Aid Society, we connect individuals and families experiencing deportation to legal counsel and access to social services.  In addition, the Coalition runs the “Families” program, in which families directly impacted by deportation share their experiences and support to new families, encountering the political and legal challenges of deportation for the first time.  These monthly meetings foster solidarity between families, so they are not isolated through the process, and provides an opportunity for leadership building among affected individuals to speak about their experiences.  We also work closely with our allies, Families for Freedom and Detention Watch, to collaborate on various anti-deportation organizing activities, including retreats for family members, Know-Your-Rights trainings, media campaigns, and mobilizations. 

The meetings have resulted in the following recommendations: writing letters of support on behalf of nationals who will suffer hardship if deported, preventing the transfer of detainees to far locations where they cannot be visited by family or their advocates, informing detainees and their families of the immigration consequences of a criminal conviction, offering legal resources to those detained and their families, verifying that a detainee’s rights were not violated in prison, and ensuring that the detainee has exhausted all of her or his legal remedies.

Civic Participation

The Coalitions works to build political power through citizenship drives and voter registration throughout Northern Manhattan and the Bronx, in conjunction with the Hispanic Federation, NYIC, CUNY and the Daily News.  In addition, NMCIR offers citizenship and ESL classes to teach potential new citizen about the government and the importance of our involvement on issues that impact our day to day lives.

In 2004, the Coalition was active in Voter Education and Voter Registration Campaigns, supporting neighborhood residents to demonstrate their political choices through voting.  From January 2005 through December 2006, 938 individuals applied for citizenship though the Coalition, increasing the voter turnout in the community by 17%.  In 2006, NMCIR worked on the Democracy in Action campaign of the New York Immigration Coalition.  Through this campaign, over 15,000 registered voters were contacted in Northern Manhattan and the Bronx to vote in the New York State Gubernatorial elections.  As a result, the voter participation in these areas increased by more than 15%.

In the 2008 electoral season, the Coalition plans to appear to represent the immigrant voice on GOTV.

Changing Policy, Changing Lives.

To advocate for long-term change, the Coalition, in conjunction with immigrant justice groups citywide, including Families for Freedom and the New York Immigration Coalition, mobilizes its members to testify before City Hall, in Albany, and Washington D.C., before public officials and the community at large.  This serves to put a human face on the immigration struggle, and fosters leadership and outreach capacities among our base population.

At a Bronx Town Hall meeting, for example, the testimony of a US-born child Julio Beltre regarding the deportation of his father, garnered support from Congressman Jose Serrano, who endorsed the Child Citizenship Protection Act, which provides protection for the American-born children of immigrant parents.

In February, we coordinated a bus trip to Albany to garner support for

In 2007, the Coalition assisted 5,000 individuals and families through the immigration process, including 600 new citizens and voters, 500 families reunited, and 100 families experiencing deportation.