IMMIGRANT JUSTICE

Shahana’s parents immigrated from Bangladesh to Brooklyn over 30 years ago, making their home in Kensington, one of the largest working-class Bangladeshi communities in the city. Like many Muslim immigrant families living in NYC after 9/11, Shahana experienced targeting from the NYPD — including as a Brooklyn College student, when Muslim student organizations were surveilled by law enforcement. In the wake of this racist and xenophobic violence, Shahana co-founded the Muslim Writers Collective, organizing a powerful space for young Muslims to share their stories and strategies for resilience and joy. Shahana continues to center immigrant justice in her work, most recently serving as the Director of Organizing and Community Engagement for City Council Member Brad Lander, where she led legal clinics and political education workshops in Bangla. Shahana’s candidacy is bigger than just electing the first South Asian to the New York City Council: it is about protecting our neighbors from deportation, allowing everyone to access the healthcare they need, and building a truly participatory democracy that leaves no one behind.

As Council Member, Shahana will...

+ Create a true sanctuary city

  • Ensure that the City Council does not contract with companies or engage with businesses that have contracts with ICE.
  • Fight for “universal representation,” which provides publicly funded deportation legal defense for all New Yorkers, by increasing the City’s investment in legal aid such as Brooklyn Defenders Services, The Door, and Make the Road.
  • Host legal clinics and Know-Your-Rights workshops that inform immigrant community members on their legal rights to healthcare, housing, employment, and other issues.
    • Circulate information on ethnic media and other platforms commonly used by immigrant communities such as WhatsApp, WeChat, and Line.
  • Create an undocumented workers’ bill of rights that will protect workers from sexual harassment, retaliation, and threats of deportation.
  • Pass legislation that will prohibit biometrics data collection, prevent personal data and biometrics sharing with ICE, and work with State legislators to expand the New York Privacy Act.
  • Show up at rallies and demonstrations when ICE enters our community, schools, and places of worship.

+ Remove xenophobic barriers to healthcare

  • Expand NYC Care to include more community-based health care clinics. NYC Care is a city-run program that provides access to low-to-no cost health care for New Yorkers who are ineligible for health insurance, including those blocked due to their immigration status.
    • Further fund community based health clinics, which provide trusted, peer-led outreach and culturally responsive health education to communities underserved by our health care system.
  • Create a Citywide Interpretation Fund to train and retain interpreters and translators for health care clinics, prioritizing outpatient primary care and mental health services.
  • Fund community-led therapy models, like peer counseling and support groups, that destigmatize mental health and do not rely on insurance.
  • Ensure the City’s free mental health first aid training program is facilitated in more languages than its current offerings of English and Spanish, and rooted in trauma-informed care.
  • Prioritize City-funded mental health services in neighborhoods with high immigrant density.
  • Ensure that immigrant communities are aware of sexual and reproductive health care access through hosting language accessible and culturally informed workshops, providing reproductive health justice resources in the district office, and supporting an inclusive sex education curriculum that informs students of their reproductive rights.
  • Push for expanded immigrant access to health care by endorsing state legislation to expand New York’s Essential Plan to those currently excluded from insurance due to immigration status.
  • Organize with state-level allies to pass the New York Health Act, which will provide comprehensive healthcare services for all New Yorkers, regardless of immigration or class status.

+ Expand participatory democracy for all

  • Pass legislation to allow all New Yorkers to vote in municipal elections regardless of immigration status (Int. 1867).
  • Use Shahana’s City Council office in District 39 as a resource hub for our community, and partner with existing immigrant community spaces to host mobile office hours in different neighborhoods in the district.
  • Hire a culturally-competent and multilingual constituent services staff for the district office that understands the cultural needs of immigrant communities in the district, such as the large South Asian population in Kensington and Sudanese population in Windsor Terrace.
  • Increase citywide funding to adult literacy programs that do not just provide workforce development, but also political education, Know-Your-Rights campaigns and training, and community building.
  • Commit to the Literacy Assistance Center's call for increasing adult education funding sixfold over the next five years.
  • Fund adult literacy workshops about technological literacy and digital security hosted by community-based organizations.
  • Increase broader attendance at Community Board meetings and open public sessions, with greater attention to multilingual outreach around meeting times and better advertising at LinkNYC kiosks.
  • Increase the number of immigrants and non-citizens on Community Boards by building long-term relationships between immigrant and ethnic communities and Community Boards, training constituents how to apply, and pressuring the Borough President to appoint more immigrants.
  • Partner with the Civic Engagement Commission to cover programmatic costs for Participatory Budgeting, including payment for volunteers, training for staffers in facilitation and organizing, and food at meetings.