Tania Mattos

Tania Mattos is an Aymara descendent, Bolivian born, Queens-based organizer, activist, and strategist. Currently, she is the Northeast Policy and Monitoring Manager for Freedom For Immigrants (FFI). She focuses on assisting community-based visitation and human rights monitoring programs in detention centers and supports policy and advocacy efforts at the federal and state level throughout the northeast region. She joined FFI after 13 years of working as an immigrant and worker rights organizer and advocate at an international, national and local level. Prior to working for immigrant rights, she worked on environmental and Indigenous peoples rights within the United Nations. Tania was then the Legislative Coordinator for the New York State Youth Leadership Council, the first undocumented-led organization in New York State and helped organize the first Education Not Deportation program in New York that stopped the deportation of numerous undocumented youth people. She is also co-founder of Queens Neighborhoods United, a grassroots anti-gentrification collective that fights against undemocratic use of land, police abuse and ICE in the immigrant-welcoming borough of Queens. She has received several awards from the New York City Council for her work in the Latinx and immigrant community, and has been profiled in several national and New York City wide publications. Tania was a DACA recipient from 2012 to 2019. She credits her culture and upbringing in Queens for her fierce passion to organize, build leadership and works towards a vision of freedom for all immigrant and marginalized communities.