Q&A: How Mamdani’s New Head of Immigrant Affairs Plans to Meet the Moment

In some ways, Faiza Ali has been preparing her whole life for the role of Commissioner of the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs (MOIA).

A lifelong New Yorker and child of Pakistani immigrants, Ali and her four siblings were raised by her father, who worked a union job as an elevator operator, and her mother, a seamstress. The family regularly opened up their home, sharing their small Brooklyn apartment with new immigrants to the United States.

She spent years as an organizer, and successfully campaigned to add two Muslim holidays to the New York City academic calendar. Most recently, she served as the first deputy chief of staff of community engagement for the City Council before her appointment six weeks ago.

But Ali comes into her role at MOIA, a 25-year-old office, during an especially tumultuous — and high stakes — moment for immigrant New Yorkers.

Donald Trump’s relentless campaign of mass deportation has led to neighborhood-wide crackdowns by federal officers, militarized raids, and mass, violent arrests of immigrant New Yorkers attending immigration court hearings. Street and courthouse arrests rose 212% in the first six months of the second Trump administration, compared to the final six months under Democrat Joe Biden, according to reporting by Documented. 

Ali also takes on the role following an administration and predecessor — former Mayor Eric Adams and former MOIA head Manuel Castro — who have been criticized for backtracking on commitments to immigrant New Yorkers during a critical time of need. 

In an interview with Documented, Ali was clear-eyed about the urgency and the challenges ahead for her office: the need to uphold the city’s sanctuary laws, and provide rapid, trustworthy support for immigrant communities under threat. 

“What’s really important to me is making sure that other immigrant families have that same access to stability and opportunity that made my family story possible,” she said.

This interview has been edited and condensed:

Eileen Grench: Can you explain to an immigrant New Yorker who has never heard of MOIA, what role it should be playing in their everyday life?

Faiza Ali: MOIA is an office that is is dedicated to protecting and empowering immigrant New Yorkers, and the way we do that is we ensure that immigrants across the city, regardless of their status, regardless of how long they’ve been here or where they’re from, have access to information that we know protects them, like know your rights information and how to access basic services across the city. You know, being an immigrant in New York shouldn’t bar you from accessing the city services that reinforce and uphold their individual dignity, and also, just enforce stability in their lives. And so, you know, MOIA is really set, in my mind, to both protect and empower immigrants across New York City.

Tell us a bit about yourself.

I come to this work as an organizer. I still consider myself an organizer all these years working inside government, because I feel really strongly that if we want to make change, create change that starts with the basics of organizing, you know? And one organizing principle that I’ve held on to that has actually both kept me alive in government, is that power rests in relationships. And for me, relationships are the building blocks of community, and those are the values that I’ve come to government with, and that have kept me doing this work.

I am the daughter of immigrants. My family is from Azad Kashmir in Pakistan. I am also a Brooklynite, a proud Brooklynite. You know, my family really helped shape and form my identity as both an activist and someone who cares about public service. My father came here in the late 60’s. And my mom came here in the early 70’s after she married my dad. When my dad got here, he started off his career as a dishwasher. It was short lived. He then moved into working at a Knitting Factory. My family, where they’re from in Pakistan, they’re in the textile industry. And so, fabric and clothing is a big part of who we are in our work. And so he worked briefly at a knitting factory, but he ultimately landed a good union job as an elevator operator, and that was a job that he actually retired with. I share this very proudly. 

People like my father, they powered the city. My mom — for most families and immigrant families our mothers are our superheroes — she raised five public school kids. She worked from home as a seamstress. She sold shalwar kameez in the community. 

I grew up in a two bedroom rent stabilized home, and my mom would often open up our apartment to other families who were coming into the country for the first time. People stayed with us anywhere from three days or like three weeks. We would all get sandwiched into one room, and then the family that was staying with us would sleep in the other and for me. I’m really proud of the values that my family instilled in us around community. That’s where I learned what community meant. I often say that my mom was the first organizer in my life, because, you know, she brought people together. She understood that we were going to change our conditions, that we had to do that in community and with one another. None of this would have been possible if it were anywhere but New York City. 

New York City really poured into our family. And so what’s really important to me is making sure that other immigrant families have that same access to stability and opportunity that made my family story possible. 

What do you hope to get accomplished in this role that you weren’t able to as an activist or as in your role in the City Council and under the Speaker’s office? What lessons in politics have you learned that you plan to bring to this role?

I started out doing organizing mostly in the Muslim community, on issues around police, surveillance and immigration reform. If we really want to change something, it’s going to take the masses, and it’s going to take organizing. And so I did that work, and did some work on the political lens as well. You know, a lot of the organizing I did was in nonprofit, civic engagement, nonpartisan sense — but there was a time that I thought, how do we really build on the power? And what does political organizing look like? So that took me into working with a few other activists who were also frustrated that we would hit a wall. How do we get past that?  

It brought me to government in 2014. I actually thought I would only be here for like, two or three years. I remember getting a call from an organizer friend of mine after the election, after there was a speaker elected who said that the Speaker of the City Council is looking to bring on organizers — like this is our moment to come in and organize inside government. 

It took me maybe two weeks in my role as a community liaison in government when I realized, like, “Oh no, you actually can’t organize government.” It started sinking in that that was [an] extremely challenging thing to do, but what I did learn is that no matter where you are, whether it’s inside government or outside government, that you can always organize people. And I think that that’s what really has kept me in the public service space, is finding individuals who share your values, who have the same outlook and vision that everyone in New York City, no matter who you are, deserves to be protected and treated with dignity and respect.

I think both the combination of my organizing story and my public service is what I think has set me up to really carry a lot of those values into my role now as Commissioner of MOIA. We have a mayor who’s not afraid to say that we’re a sanctuary city. I think that’s an upgrade from the previous administration. We have a mayor who, I think being an immigrant himself, understands the issues facing immigrant New Yorkers in a really intimate way. And so to have a Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs be supported in real ways by the mayor of New York City, feels like we have a tremendous opportunity to deliver services.

What can the administration do as a whole to better the life of immigrants that hasn’t already been done? 

I think what’s different now, what makes this moment a lot more urgent for MOIA, is given some of the challenges that we’re seeing right? We’re seeing increased enforcement. We’re seeing unprecedented levels of fear in communities. It’s not just a talking point that families are afraid to send their children to school or that they’re afraid to go to work, but these are real life experiences that I think really underscore the urgency now for us to be bolder. 

I talked a little bit in the past about New York City having some of the strongest sanctuary laws and protections in the country. But how are we enforcing them? How are we upholding those laws? Those are the kinds of things that are, I think, of utmost importance now, just given how high stakes the realities are for immigrant New Yorkers. What this moment calls for, is to breathe life and action into some of the promises that we’ve made in the past to protect New York City’s immigrant community.

And are you referring to the efforts to audit agencies and the efforts to reinforce data privacy laws?

I think that what Executive Order 13 did was it created an accountability measure. So yes, part of it is agencies who are required to conduct these audits, but they’re also required to make public their plans on how they’re going to train their staff, how are they actually holding themselves accountable, and I think that that is the step that went deeper that we haven’t seen in the past.

What is the greatest challenge that you’re facing right now in this new role?

I’ll say, for me, is ensuring that MOIA has both the vision and capacity to really meet this moment. A lot of that has required a little bit of a step back to evaluate our own internal infrastructure. A lot of our work is made possible because of the partnership we have with community based organizations and service providers. And making an assessment of that, there’s been a lot of just like, let’s take stock of what we currently have. And I think that has presented its own challenges, because we’re doing that while also being in the throes of what I think is really unprecedented times. I think it’s both stepping back making the assessment of like, are we being effective in providing services? Are we having impact? Because I think that that evaluation is critical, but also doing that while we are very much, you know, responding to needs on the ground. So like just balancing both of those things has been, you know, has been, it has been a challenge.

There are some neighborhoods in the city that have been more heavily impacted by ICE street arrests, such as Corona and Sunset Park. Is there a plan to offer specialized support, services and funding to these neighborhoods?

I think that what we’ve done, and what we’re really hoping to do are two things. 

One is we have legal service providers. We have MOIA legal support centers that are actually based in a lot of these communities. … They’re providing legal support, doing case management. They’re also doing other wraparound services, and I think that’s critical to uplift. 

And then the other thing is that we’re increasingly looking at [is] assessments to know where is there a greater need. And especially since the resources are so limited, should we be reevaluating where those resources are going? Do we need more in case management? Do we need more in rapid response? Do we need more in language access? I think one of the things that I’ve learned that’s been pretty remarkable is the network of support that exists in New York City, both from legal service providers, but also community based organizations. They are 100% at capacity and operating above capacity. But that network does exist. 

And I think the way I sort of see MOIA’s role, and like growing, is how are we a support to all of these networks? How are we connecting these networks to make sure that the limited capacity that we do in fact have, that we’re maximizing it. I see the role of MOIA as not just an advocate, but also a convener of all of these different aspects.

Is there any plan for MOIA to coordinate legal defense for New Yorkers who have been detained and transferred outside of the New York City area?

Right now we have the Rapid Response Legal Collaborative. They’re providers doing rapid response work, so we work really closely with them providing the support they need. We also have the MOIA legal support hotline that Catholic Charities operates. Recently, because of the rapid response needs and because we’re getting an influx of potential ICE operations happening in a street, or there might be someone who went to a check-in and was detained, we have a dedicated staff that is part of the legal support hotline that’s dedicated to rapid response. 

And so we’ve been working with Catholic Charities on beefing that up. There are a couple of different things that we’re currently exploring, but in terms of the capacity that we have right now, it’s the rapid response, legal collaborative and the immigration hotline.

I wanted to hear a little bit about the progress on the interagency response committee. One of the first things you said in this interview was that one of your roles is to hold agencies accountable for following sanctuary law. So I’m curious, what are your next steps in your role on that committee?

We are playing a leadership role in this committee, working closely with the first deputy mayor, with his senior advisor, with the chief counsel as well. We actually have started to do meetings with advocates, and so one of our first meetings was with the legal service provider community to sort of understand from them what their needs are, what they’re seeing on the ground, and how that’s going to impact our work on like the planning part of you know what to do if we have increased enforcement. 

We know that there were other important deadlines that agencies had to meet. They had to submit their designated privacy officer, those sort of needs have been met, and the agencies right now are still conducting their audits. They have until May 7 to produce those audits, and from that point, what we’ll do is evaluate the reports and, you know, make sure that we make the results of that public.

This is from a Chinese community member that one of our reporters chatted with. They were concerned about having their status exposed when they’re seeking help. Say they’re a victim of labor exploitation, or there’s been a housing discrimination issue. I’m wondering if you could speak to how MOIA is going to ensure that people seeking help are protected and are safe, and to what extent should New Yorkers who are seeking help in that capacity be concerned at this time?

We feel confident that individuals and members of the public can engage our agencies and that their information will be maintained and safe. I’ve said that we’ve had some of the strongest sanctuary protections that include protections on personal information. Information sharing will not occur with law enforcement and federal law enforcement agencies in most cases, so they should rest assured that their information will be safe. 

And I think one thing that we’re hoping to get out of these audits is also an understanding of how agencies are maintaining information. And so part of what will be made public is, you know, what those policies look like. Part of the work that we do is to encourage people to seek services, and we want to make sure that they know that their information is kept safely, and so that will be shared also through the audit itself.