Mayor Zohran Mamdani has promised new funding and different priorities for the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs, and he’s entrusted a daughter of immigrants to lead the effort.
Faiza Ali, a longtime community organizer and former City Council staffer, is the office’s new commissioner. She is charged with advancing Mamdani’s agenda and serving the city’s immigrants amid what she calls the Trump administration’s “chaotic and aggressive” approach to immigration enforcement.
Ali said in an interview that new funding for immigrant services, including millions more dollars for legal services, is critical as the city faces a surge in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrests — and as immigrant New Yorkers report fears about ICE actions, accessing city services and even venturing outside.
Ali grew up in Brooklyn. Her Pakistani immigrant parents opened up their two-bedroom apartment to host other newly arrived immigrant families. She has been out front on public policy issues before, as part of the decadelong campaign to add two Muslim holidays to the city public school calendar. She joined the City Council staff in 2014…