(The Center Square) — New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has tapped a former City Council staffer and activist to ensure that the city isn’t violating its sanctuary laws.
Mamdani announced Tuesday that he has appointed Faiza Ali, a long-time political ally, to serve as commissioner of the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs. He said Ali “brings more than a decade of experience in community engagement and city government, and a proven record of leadership in advancing immigrant rights and services.”
“At a time when immigrant New Yorkers face escalating attacks and uncertainty, this administration will not equivocate,” Mamdani said in a statement. “We will defend our neighbors. We will expand access to services. And we will ensure that New York City remains a place where immigrants are not merely welcomed in words, but protected in policy, supported in practice, and able to live and work with the dignity they deserve.”
Ali, a Brooklyn native, was hired by the City Council in 2014 as a community liaison to the director of the Community Engagement Division. She was later appointed as the first deputy chief of staff to former Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, who stepped down in January.
She has also previously worked at the Arab American Association of New York, as director of community affairs at CAIR-NY, and co-founded the Muslim Democratic Club of New York, according to the Mamdani administration. Most recently, she served on Mamdani’s mayoral transition committee on government operations.
In a statement, Ali stressed her roots as the daughter of Pakistani immigrants and vowed to protect New York City’s immigrant population from the Trump administration’s mass deportation efforts.
“Our neighborhoods, our economy, our culture, and our future are shaped by people who arrived here seeking safety and opportunity,” she said in a statement. “As Commissioner, I am committed to building a city that ensures every New Yorker, regardless of when they arrived or where they were born, can live, work, and raise families with dignity.”
Mamdani signed an executive order in January barring federal agents from entering city property — including schools, homeless shelters, hospitals, and public spaces — without a warrant. City agencies are also required to train employees on how to interact with federal immigration agents.
The mayor’s order also requires audits of the NYPD, Department of Correction, Department of Probation, Administration for Children’s Services and Department of Social Services to ensure that their interactions with federal authorities aren’t running afoul of the city sanctuary policies. Ali, as the city’s new Immigrant Affairs Commissioner, will likely oversee that process.
But the Department of Homeland Security said in a recent statement that Mamdani’s policy will make New York City “less safe” and urged his administration to “turn over” more than 7,000 “criminal illegal aliens” who it says have immigration detainers but are currently in custody in the city.
“When politicians bar local law enforcement from working with DHS, our law enforcement officers have to have a more visible presence so that we can find and apprehend the criminals let out of jails and back into communities,” a DHS spokesperson said.
New York City was sued by the U.S. Department of Justice in July over its “sanctuary” policies that restrict cooperation with federal immigration crackdowns, accusing the city of shielding wanted criminals from deportation proceedings. The outcome of that legal challenge is still pending.
