UnidosUS

U.S. center-left (Latino advocacy)

Background

UnidosUS traces its origins to 1968, when Herman Gallegos, Julian Samora, and Ernesto Galarza—backed by the Ford Foundation, the National Council of Churches, and the United Auto Workers—founded the Southwest Council of La Raza in Phoenix, Arizona. In 1973 the organization went national, renamed itself the National Council of La Raza (NCLR), and relocated its headquarters to Washington, D.C. Over subsequent decades it built a network of hundreds of affiliated community-based organizations across the country and became the leading institutional voice for Latino policy concerns in Washington. In 2017, NCLR rebranded as UnidosUS to signal a broader, more inclusive identity. A companion 501(c)(4) lobbying arm, the UnidosUS Action Fund, handles electoral and direct advocacy work. The organization's positions on immigration, voting rights, education, and health care have consistently aligned with the Democratic Party's priorities, though it formally operates as nonpartisan. Federal grants that reached into the tens of millions during the Obama era were cut off entirely during the first Trump administration, reflecting the political tensions around its work. Since January 2025, UnidosUS has published polling and policy critiques framing the second Trump administration's mass-deportation strategy as contrary to Latino voters' preferences and harmful to Latino communities.

Sources

1. UnidosUS – Wikipedia
2. UnidosUS (formerly National Council of La Raza) – InfluenceWatch
3. About UnidosUS – UnidosUS.org
4. Trump Administration Immigration Policies at Odds with Latino Voters – UnidosUS
5. Honor Roll of Corporate Donors – UnidosUS
6. HouseUS Fund Launch with Ford and Robert Wood Johnson Foundations – Ford Foundation

Profile compiled 2026-08-01; refreshed when ownership, funding, or the administration changes.

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