Shahana is the proud daughter of two Bangladeshi immigrants who built a new home in Brooklyn. Growing up in District 39, she saw the barriers that immigrant communities face to thriving in New York City. Now as a legislator, she is breaking down those very barriers. In the face of growing xenophobia, she’s been one of the Council’s fiercest champions of immigrant rights. She’s earned a reputation for fighting and winning tough battles for language justice, sanctuary protections, and the right to shelter.
Shahana’s Accomplishments:
As Chair of the Immigration Committee, Shahana held the Adams administration accountable during the surge of new arrivals, spearheading hearings, legislation, and actions to ensure asylum seekers are treated with dignity and given the opportunity to succeed in New York City.
Shahana successfully pushed the City to establish its first Community Interpreter Bank to provide free interpreter services at government offices, while employing immigrants in the process.
She also helped create the City’s first worker-owned language services cooperatives that serve New Yorkers who speak lesser-spoken African, Asian, and Indigenous languages.
Shahana has opposed ICE’s cruelty by visiting detention centers to shine a light on inhumane conditions and passing her Res. 66 urging localities to stop entering detention contracts with ICE.
Shahana’s Vision:
While Mayor Adams enables Trump’s mass deportation agenda, Shahana will continue being the Council’s champion for our sanctuary city laws. She is working tirelessly with immigrant justice leaders to pass her bill, Intro. 214, which would make the Administration enforce existing sanctuary protections by empowering immigrants to sue under city law if their rights are violated.
Shahana has spearheaded a coalition of faith leaders, school communities, and housing advocates to end the Mayor’s evictions of immigrants from our city shelters. Her bill, Intro. 210 would ban this cruel and counterproductive practice.
Shahana believes in making proactive investments that will help asylum seekers thrive in New York City instead of languishing in shelters or on the streets indefinitely. She’ll keep fighting for streamlined access to lawyers, work permits, and housing so that this generation of new arrivals can become self-sufficient and strengthen our economy.
Shahana is a strong proponent of the IDNYC program, which provides municipal identification cards to New Yorkers of all immigration statuses. She wrote and is working to pass the Access to IDNYC Act, which would make it dramatically easier for New Yorkers to obtain cards.
Shahana is fighting growing immigrant legal services fraud through her bill, Intro. 205.
At the district level, her office will continue the weekly immigration legal clinic in Kensington, which she started as a staffer. Shahana will continue collaborating with local immigrant rights organizations to host Know Your Rights workshops and provide funding for services such as adult digital literacy and English classes, as she did during her first term.
