Make the Road New York, and local groups like it, were laying the groundwork for what the country would see on the news out of JFK International Airport less than three months later in response to President Trump’s refugee and “Muslim ban.”

“This is man who actually won on a campaign of hate and xenophobia and sexism… We knew we had to respond rapidly,” Altschuler told The Daily Beast this week. “Folks on our organizing team and communications team were poised to respond rapidly because of what we do… We went out to the airport immediately on Saturday. I was en route to the airport around 11:30 a.m.… We were on the phone with other groups, saying, ‘Bring your people to JFK, bring your friends to JFK.’”

Altschuler and his colleagues spent the following days in near-constant contact with attorneys on the ground and lawyers’ associations, lawmakers, reporters, the New York Immigration Coalition, and immigrant and minority rights organizations, including progressive Jewish and Muslim groups.

And Make the Road New York was just one of many groups, virtually unknown and unheard of nationally, leading the anti-Trump mass resistance and airport demonstrations that erupted all across the United States over the weekend.