Ricardo Muñiz (second from the right) with his family in Brooklyn

In 2009, Ricardo Muñiz was wrongly accused of assault and imprisoned in Rikers Correctional Facility for two years before being fully exonerated. Notwithstanding his innocence, Ricardo was imprisoned by the City in order to facilitate his deportation by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) -- one of thousands of undocumented New Yorkers trapped by the City's subsidy and support of unjust federal deportation policy.

Yesterday, following years of courageous work by Make the Road New York members, Mayor Bloomberg signed into law Intro 656 to limit the City's dangerous entanglement with ICE and end the practice of detaining New Yorkers for deportation who have no criminal records. The new law will not only prevent thousands of unjust deportations but will also save tens of millions of NYC taxpayer dollars. (WNYC, Huffington Post)

Thanks to our partners in the New Sanctuary Movement, the Cardozo Immigration Law Clinic, the New York City Council, and supporters like you,Intro 656 will keep thousands of families like Ricardo's together and promote trust between police and immigrant communities.   

Dear Friends:

Thank you for supporting Make the Road New York (MRNY). Right now, hundreds of other generous individuals like you are helping us to make real impact for hundreds of thousands of working class families.

Please join with us by making a contribution today: http://www.maketheroadny.org/donate

Despite being perhaps the toughest economic year since MRNY's founding, 2011 has also been our most successful. While faith in government is at an all-time low and political infighting is at an all-time high, Make the Road New York is proposing and winning concrete, meaningful reform and helping lawmakers come to agreement on good policies to support New York's working class and immigrants.

Make the Road New York is excited to announce that our 4^th Annual Democracy Day is fast approaching! On October 12, 1,500 MRNY members, allies and elected officials will march across the Brooklyn Bridge to bring our agenda to City Hall. Led by MRNY’s youth members, this year’s Democracy Day marks the launch of our comprehensive Campaign for Fair and Just Policing, to ensure justice for New York City’s immigrants, workers, seniors, youth and LGBTQ community.

Last year, police officers in New York City stopped, questioned and frisked more than 500,000 people, but only 4-6 percent of those stop-and-frisks resulted in arrest. Black and Latino New Yorkers were nine times more likely than whites to be stopped.

The Campaign for Fair and Just Policing confronts what we know to be a xenophobic and dangerous model of policing that fails to sufficiently address crime in our neighborhoods while destroying relations between community residents and police officers.