Mayor Zohran Mamdani will appoint Faiza Ali as commissioner of the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs (MOIA) on Tuesday, amNewYork has learned — bringing into his administration a long-time ally and a City Council veteran to lead the office at a critical moment for immigrant New Yorkers.
Ali, the daughter of Pakistani immigrants and raised in Brooklyn, most recently served on Mamdani’s transition committee on government operations. At the Council, she rose from community liaison in 2014 to director of the Community Engagement Division, before serving as first deputy chief of staff to former Council Speaker Adrienne Adams. She reportedly left that role voluntarily the day before the first stated meeting of the year, as Council Speaker Julie Menin took over and implemented staffing changes.
She also previously worked at the Arab American Association of New York, served as director of community affairs at CAIR-NY, and co-founded the Muslim Democratic Club of New York, where she organized alongside Mamdani. The mayor last month selected another co-founder of the progressive group, his longtime advisor and election attorney, Ali Najmi, to chair the Mayor’s Advisory Committee on the Judiciary.
Ali called her appointment to lead MOIA an honor and said she is committed to ensuring immigrants across the city can live and work with dignity.
“I am the proud daughter of immigrant parents from Pakistan who came to New York City with courage, an unshakable belief in possibility, and the determination to build a future here. This city gave us opportunity, stability, and the chance to put down roots, just as it has for generations of immigrants before us,” Ali said. “New York City is not just home to immigrants, it is powered by them.”
A 2012 profile of Ali in The New York Times highlighted her early work as a faith-based community organizer, trained through Bend the Arc, a progressive Jewish organization, and embedded with Brooklyn Congregations United, a coalition largely composed of Christian churches.
Ali’s leadership and advocacy have also earned recognition, including a spot on Crain’s New York Business “40 Under 40” list in 2022, which noted her as the first Muslim American woman to serve as the Council speaker’s first deputy chief of staff. Both publications recounted how an incident of harassment shortly after 9/11 shaped her commitment to civic engagement and described her approach to leadership as grounded in relationship-building and dialogue.
‘Escalating attacks and uncertainty’
Formed by voters in 2001, MOIA is a major hub for representing the city’s immigrant communities, helping shape policies that affect nearly two in five New Yorkers.
Ali succeeds Manuel Castro, who led MOIA throughout former Mayor Eric Adams’ single term and was the first formerly undocumented person to hold the post.
Castro’s final year in office unfolded amid political friction between Adams and President Donald Trump’s administration over sanctuary city policies. Castro appeared to be muted by City Hall during a March 2025 budget hearing, where council members pressed him to respond to elements of Trump’s deportation agenda.
Castro declined to directly criticize federal policy and said he was following orders. At the time, Adams was embroiled in disputes with the Trump administration over immigration, months before Trump’s Justice Department dropped federal corruption charges against him.
In December 2025, Castro testified in his personal capacity in support of a City Council bill that would allow individuals to sue the city for violations of its sanctuary laws. Although MOIA and other agencies were invited to testify, no City Hall officials appeared in their official capacities. Castro stated that the administration decides who speaks on its behalf.
Castro closed out the administration with a Dec. 31 op-ed in the New York Daily News reviewing MOIA’s expansion under his leadership and urging that the office eventually become a standalone city agency. In a notable omission, he did not mention Adams in the piece.
Ali assumes the role of MOIA commissioner at a time when immigrant advocacy groups and city officials are navigating federal enforcement pressures, challenges to sanctuary protections, and the need to ensure city services reach New Yorkers from diverse backgrounds. As commissioner, City Hall said Ali will first focus on making city programs and benefits more accessible to non-English-speaking residents and collaborating with other agencies to protect immigrants across all five boroughs.
“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,” said Ali.
Mayor Mamdani credited Ali’s background and experience as making her well-suited to lead the office amid the current climate, noting that she understands “firsthand the promise and the precarity that define the immigrant experience in New York.”
“At a time when immigrant New Yorkers face escalating attacks and uncertainty, this administration will not equivocate. 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,” Hizzoner said.
Mamdani has made immigrant protections a central early focus of his administration, signing an executive order earlier this month to reaffirm and strengthen New York City’s sanctuary city policies by limiting cooperation with federal immigration enforcement, barring ICE from city property without a judicial warrant, expanding privacy safeguards, and launching multilingual “Know Your Rights” outreach amid heightened federal enforcement efforts.
The same executive order also directs city agencies to audit their interactions with federal immigration authorities and establishes a new interagency response committee to coordinate city responses to major enforcement actions.
Politico first reported on Monday that Mayor Mamdani will name former Biden administration official Bitta Mostofi to lead audits of six municipal agencies, including the NYPD, for potential lapses in compliance with sanctuary protections. City Hall did not officially confirm choice of Mostofi, who served as MOIA commissioner under Bill de Blasio.
