Educator, Founder, Facilitator
Laura immigrated to the US from Mexico with her family at the age of eight. She is a DACA recipient living in Newburgh, New York, working towards social and racial justice in the Hudson Valley. As an alumnus of the Migrant Education Program, she educates current bilingual immigrant students of the Hudson Valley about their opportunities and how to navigate systems as undocumented students. She has been a long-time participant and a board member of the Rural and Migrant Ministry Inc. She coordinated a Teaching Tough Topics training for teachers to discuss civil discourse in the classroom. She has been the treasurer for the Newburgh Housing Authority for eight years and serves as a commissioner for the Human Rights Commission in the city of Newburgh. She has spoken at many rallies in Albany and Washington D.C. around issues such as: immigration, DACA, farmworkers, reproductive rights, driver's licenses for undocumented people, funding for libraries, Black Lives Matter, the Liberty Defense Project and the Women’s March. She participated in the ten-year push to make the NY Dream Act a reality. Laura was the founder of Dreamers With No Borders, a group of young adults whose mission is to educate and empower the Latino, undocumented and migrant community in the Hudson Valley. She also opened Latinas of the Hudson Valley, a space where women can meet every month.