As part of Documented’s new “Our City” interview series, we are speaking to prominent and influential New Yorkers who have deep connections to New York’s immigrant communities, some of whom are immigrants themselves. We ask them about how they made New York City their own, where they feel most connected to in the city, current projects, and more.
I DON’T KNOW MUCH about middle children, nor have I interacted with that many middle children who point out they are middle children. Not Murad Awawdeh, though. Awawdeh was born in New York City to Palestinian immigrant parents and is a proud middle child.
“I don’t know about other middle kids, but I’m beloved,” he tells me with much delight and emphasis on the last word. “My parents loved me the most and my siblings used to hate me for that. And now, my siblings love me the most. I’m the favorite sibling.”
Growing up with two brothers and four sisters, Awawdeh was right in the middle. Now 37, Awawdeh, the president of the New York Immigration Coalition, is a favorite of many in the immigration space. Since his teenage years, he has been a leading and constant voice in the fight for immigrant rights in New York. He grew up in Sunset Park, a waterfront neighborhood with a working-class population, and a highly politically organized community. In Sunset Park, he was a volunteer youth organizer for more than a decade with UPROSE, a pioneering environmental justice organization. He later became a lead organizer there and helped plant tens of thousands of trees across the Sunset Park neighborhood. He was also involved in the fight against a billion dollar energy company that wanted to build a floating power plant on the waterfront. Many prominent organizers and leaders — Marcela Mitaynes, Elizabeth Yeampierre, Alexa Aviles, and others — have emerged from Sunset Park, and now that includes Awawdeh.
He later left Sunset Park — or in his own words, was displaced from gentrification to Bay Ridge — and today he lives on Staten Island with his wife, Dina Morra, who owns a bridal boutique, their two children, and their mums.
Before our recent interview, I had seen Awawdeh a couple times at immigrant rights rallies in New York City where he’d spoken. What now stands out to me is how eloquent he can be. Ask him a question, and he’ll answer directly, with context. If unsure, he’ll admit it sincerely, with context. Ask him a question he thinks is irrelevant, he’ll redirect the focus. I noticed this in our conversation for this interview. But, I also noticed it in some of our old conversations.
One time back in January 2023, I asked Awawdeh about how Mayor Eric Adams was saying migrants and asylum seekers are given a false impression about what to expect in New York City when they arrive. “Is it really false when legally speaking, New York is actually giving refuge?” I said. To which he told me: “I don’t know what impression people are being given. What I do know is that we are in a moment where the city needs to define who it is, and what we do know is that the local economy has been running on the backs of our community forever.” He then delved into annual statistics about the monetary contributions of immigrants in New York State, and followed that train of thought with what he believed the focus should be in light of what Mayor Adams said. “There’s a lot of repair that needs to happen and problematic and dangerous language are not the solutions to the issues that we are seeing,” Awawdeh said.
Having been at the New York Immigration Coalition for over 10 years, he has seen the growth of not only the organization, but New York’s socio-political landscape in regards to immigration policies. This year, Awawdeh was one of 99 others on the New York City Power 100 list — a list of leaders who step up to lead amid ever present challenges in the city, curated by the media company City & State. Last year, his name was at the top of the inaugural list that City & State created to focus on Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) individuals who are making a difference in politics, business, nonprofits, and advocating for greater representation and recognition in government.
Little wonder why we chose to interview him for Documented’s “Our City” series in a year such as this where immigration policies and rhetoric are at the center of political campaigns toward the November 2024 elections.
When we had this interview a few weeks ago, Kamala Harris hadn’t become the presumptive Democratic Party nominee. That changed about two weeks after you and I spoke. I wonder if your thoughts have shifted since then.
A majority of voters in two key battleground congressional districts in New York acknowledge the critical role that immigrant workers have played in fueling our economic growth — and they think we need a more fair and orderly immigration system that manages the border and provides a path to citizenship for longtime residents who want to become citizens and already contribute to our communities. It is essential for Kamala Harris and Donald Trump to prioritize advancing meaningful immigration policies. Our expectations of both parties is that they can do better —not just for immigrants, but for all New Yorkers and those who call the U.S. home.
In what ways do you think having a Republican presidency could affect the state of affairs in New York City, if it happens?
I think we don’t need to think too far along the lines of, or guess, what Trump wants to do. He’s been very vocal about that. It’s unfortunate that we still find ourselves in this moment.
Look at what happened in the UK, look at what happened in France just recently, where they fought back authoritarianism and the far right. Actually saying ‘We’re a united country, we need a new way forward that is actually supporting our people.’ If you look at the platforms that won, it was making sure that people had their basic needs met. People here are also hurting and need their basic needs met. But the reality is that what we’ve seen elected officials do, those seeking to become elected officials, or when they’re in power, scapegoat communities. Because for you to actually acknowledge that you’re ‘not going to deliver’ or to say ‘I’m only going to do work for my friends who are billionaires, millionaires in the corporate class,’ and there are people who are hurting locally, is a bold move. That’s the reality. Isolation breeds radicalism. When people feel like they have not had an avenue to have their concerns heard or answered or resolved, it moves them further into the radicalized zone.
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I think that Trump does a really good job at helping radicalize people in thinking that they don’t have something for someone else to take from them. The reality is that no one has anything because we need to really invest deeply in our social safety nets that we have that have been getting gutted. And this is not a Republican or Democrat thing. Both parties do it.
We need to deeply invest in building avenues for people to not just survive, but to be able to literally thrive. So yeah, I’m not shocked about what Trump has been saying. He says what he wants to do, and he does it.
When Biden was speaking during the debate, he also didn’t come with sufficient defense or justification about policies that his administration has implemented. Neither did he speak indepthly about it.
Biden has been taking pages out of the Trump playbook on immigration, too. So it’s kind of hard to try to defend your record, even though he’s done some good stuff. TPS for Venezuela is huge. That was the largest TPS we have ever seen: 400,000 people. He just did Parole in Place for half a million spouses who are married to U.S. citizens. But does the bad outweigh the good? Depending on who you’re speaking to, they’re gonna say no, because he’s harming our community even with his rhetoric. Using Trumpian rhetoric on immigration is not going to help you.
“I’m not shocked about what Trump has been saying. He says what he wants to do, and he does it.”
Your role at NYIC has changed from executive director to president. That happened this year. Congratulations. In what ways would you say the two roles have been different? I know it’s only been, what, six months?
Thank you. They’re both the same. Literally.
It’s just a language change?
[Laughs] Yeah, language change. But it’s a lot more. Being a leader of any institution is an enormous amount of pressure and stress. We have a constituency, which is our membership, we have over 200 members across the state of New York and it’s sort of, like, 200 kids that you have and want to make sure you’re meeting everyone’s needs, help as much as you can to build their capacity, strengths, leadership, resources, and their ability to deliver the work they need to do.
Having spent 10 years at NYIC, how do you feel about the past 10 years, when you started, up until now?
When I first started, we were a much smaller organization. I give a lot of credit to our former executive director who came in with a very strong, ambitious, bold vision and we were just like we need to build power. Being able to work in partnership with him on doing that, and then continuously doing that. Now the organization, over 10 years later, is probably five times the size it was or more.
When we spoke in 2022, ‘Our City Our Vote’ law had just been passed. [Editor’s note: The law was enacted in January 2022 to allow permanent residents and those authorized to work in the U.S. who are living in New York City become eligible to participate in municipal elections starting 2023.] Then, Republicans opposed it, going as far as filing a lawsuit seeking to invalidate the law. It’s 2024, the law is still in limbo. Do you think it can actually finally be executed, especially as the only reason it became law was because it got pocket approval?
‘Our City Our Vote’ is a groundbreaking piece of legislation, which is really about expanding our democracy. That bill would enfranchise the largest population ever to actually be able to participate within our local elections. I think our opposition has been keen on limiting who participates within our democracy because it serves their needs of having an unengaged populace so they can make their austerity measures and to be honest with you, their discriminatory and racist measures, become more status quo within the city. Unfortunately, it is caught up in court. But fortunately, we’re hopeful that we’ll win as we go through the appeals process.
In another instance, this year, before the legislative session ended, you lent a voice to efforts to carve out a race or ethnicity checkbox category for Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) residents when filling forms, which has been in the making for a long time too. Decades, in fact. How do you manage not to get tired when advocating for policies?
I think patience is a virtue. Growing up, that’s one thing I did not have in my childhood and young adulthood. I’m older now, so I have a lot more patience, I feel.
That’s what experience does.
Yeah it wears you down. [Laughs] I didn’t have this much white hair when I first got this job. I think for us, we see this as a long game. We might have some hurdles in the way, but our goal is to continuously make pragmatic, practical and radical change. This is not a sprint, it’s a marathon. Over the past couple of years, we’ve had three significant wins. For instance, the state budget — from advocating for more resources for New York City, getting $1.9 billion last year, getting $2.8 billion this year, being able to fight for the quadrupling of immigration legal services at the state, which we did, and now it’s $65 million, which historically was not the case.
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We passed the Green Light Law in New York, fought for it to be implemented, and fought the attacks on that. If you recall, when we passed ‘Driver’s Licenses for All’ here in the state, it got challenged in court and we had to fight that. Then, Trump came after and said he’s going to disqualify New Yorkers from certain programs because we did it. But we kept pushing forward. Now, that program is wildly successful. When was the last time you heard there was a deficit in the DMV? There isn’t. Because our people are using the services.
We have so much more work ahead of us because our work is not linear. I think that’s the piece that people don’t quite understand. Things are changing constantly. Our solutions, regardless of the changing times are still solutions that would help create material conditional changes for people on the ground across the state.
The MENA bill is headed to Gov. Kathy Hochul, right? If there is a delay, what then would happen?
I’m not a fortune teller but what I could say is that signing the MENA bill is actually going to support the state of New York, and being able to have the data needed to make the decisions you need to and how you’re investing in communities.
“We have so much more work ahead of us because our work is not linear. I think that’s the piece that people don’t quite understand.”
I read a Gothamist article where an expert said that precise data collection about MENA communities could instead help to increase anti-terror surveillance and policing because the data is going to become more exact. What do you think about that?
We live in a hyper-surveilled era of life. We are being surveilled every which way we can. There are protections in the bill to not allow for the intent of the bill being used in a nefarious way. But we’re being surveilled constantly. Look outside, you see cameras on every lamppost. We are also big partners with STOP, which is an anti-surveillance organization, because we know that there’s surveillance measures that are constantly moving forward without any pushback because people think, ‘Oh, well, I have nothing to hide.’ It’s not about you having nothing to hide. It’s about how it’s going to be used to be weaponized against certain people.
One thing recently on surveillance that happened was in President Biden’s rulemaking order regarding shutting down the border. He has a slight caveat in there about using classified information during immigration processing periods, which is intended to hurt Middle Eastern, African, and Muslim immigrants coming into the United States. So, we are very cognizant of surveillance and the way it impacts our communities. We think that the MENA bill is actually going to be a massive benefit for our communities in the sense of actually being able to be counted in the eyes of the state government.
Why did you pause when I asked this particular question?
Experts tend to have good intentions. Sometimes, people don’t take the fuller picture into effect. You’re wearing a beige or taupe, green, and black or blue [striped] shirt. I’m only going to call out the blue line. I think that’s the problem that sometimes we get lost in. It is that we’re not looking at the full picture, or the full shirt.
“I think that’s the problem that sometimes we get lost in. It is that we’re not looking at the full picture.”
I was going through all the press releases that NYIC has put out this year. What’s been on your mind priority-wise amongst all the policies you all have been pushing for these days?
Over the past 30 years, there’s not been any real meaningful immigration reform, which has left millions of people across this country, undocumented, with no pathway for relief or legalization in sight. So, while we have had a stalemate in Congress for the past couple of decades, we’ve also seen over the past couple of years, the most extremist Congress come to light. Our goal is to continuously try to create new pathways or existing pathways and have them become more expansive. Our main focus is always how do we build more rights and more resources for our communities? So, Temporary Protected Status; making sure that countries that are in conflict or have faced natural disaster, or are in need — and meet the requirements of Temporary Protected Status, of which there are many — are actually getting it. That then provides people with some temporary relief and work authorization, the same with humanitarian parole and making sure that gets utilized as best as it can.
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Unfortunately, we’re in a situation where we only have the ability to fight for temporary statuses at the moment. But the goal is always at the federal level to fight for legalization for millions of people across this country.
At the state level, our membership decides what we’re fighting on. We go through a very intentional process with our members who break down the issues that they’re facing in every region in the state, and then, it’s our duty as a coalition to come together and figure out what the solutions are — be it in Buffalo, Rochester, Utica, Albany, Newburgh, Poughkeepsie, wherever it is. Locally, we have different local agendas across the state. So, New York City, there’s an agenda that our membership informs and tells us what we need to actually be advocating for. The same within other areas like Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse.
Since you stay on Staten Island now, do you still frequent the subway as often as you used to?
I ride the subway, I ride the bus, I drive, which I didn’t do very much of in the past.
Do you have any fun subway stories, good or bad, that you can recall?
I love the subway. It gets me where I need to go very fast. I like that I can always find something to eat. But I don’t always have cash.
How about favorite restaurants in the city? Is there any you love going to or somewhere in the city that offers you a slice of home?
I like Tanoreen in Bay Ridge. I also like Qanoon, which is in Chelsea. I love me a good ramen. That’s not like a taste of home. But I grew up in Sunset Park. And at the time of me growing up, it was largely a Puerto Rican and Dominican community and a growing Chinese community. And now to see the Chinese community have its massive Chinatown warms my heart because it’s not just folks from China, it’s like Malaysian and Vietnamese, and, it’s a mix. So I love Asian food. Very dear to my heart. I love soul food. I love West African food. I love Ethiopian food. I love food. The path to my heart is through food.
On days when you’re not going for breakfast with a donor or having an interview with me, what are your other day-to-day tasks like?
People who have recently arrived from the southern border, many of them came here as asylum seekers, and for them to apply for asylum, they need to have an immigration attorney, but we don’t have enough immigration attorneys. We’ve been thinking about what models we can lean into to support people in getting their applications done. Internally but externally as well. So over the past year, we’ve given out over $13 million to our member agencies to conduct immigration legal services across the state of New York. We’ve delivered over 10,000 units of legal service, helped thousands of people apply and there’s still a lot more to go.
Would you say anything has significantly changed between when you were growing up as the son of immigrants in the city and seeing how immigrant communities today are treated, the experiences that they go through today vs back then?
I think because of organizations like the New York Immigration Coalition, a lot of the issues that my family faced, like not having language access in healthcare settings, not having language access in schools, not having the services we needed in schools — like I found out down the road that I should have had support for a learning disability — things of that nature, are just not common right now. I think it’s because institutions like the New York Immigration Coalition have fought for those things. To right the wrongs of those issues.
“I think the hustle of New York will always be the hustle of New York.”
One difference that I’m seeing right now is I think the hustle of New York will always be the hustle of New York. People will always hustle to make it here. There has always been a sense of community, regardless of where you live, who your neighbors are, everyone’s always looking out for each other. I think that’s still the case.
I think that unfortunately, some of our own neighbors have fallen for this scapegoat mentality, which really just puts targets on our own people’s backs. We should not be falling for the game of division. We are always stronger when we’re united. And that’s the piece that we have to continue to vote on as being more united across issues. So that the folks who are most marginalized and most vulnerable have the support that they need and once they have it, everyone else gets it too because that’s how structures work.
This interview has been edited for concision and clarity.
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