The Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs (MOIA) Commissioner Faiza N. Ali on Monday, March 16, released a report on the city’s immigrant population and initiatives of the office.
Ali said the report highlights the impact of MOIA and outlines new office priorities under the Economic Justice portfolio under Mayor Zohran K. Mamdani.
“More than 3 million immigrants call New York City home.” Mamdani said. “This report reflects the ongoing work necessary to support our immigrant communities: the city’s neighborhood-based legal support network, multilingual outreach, worker protection efforts, anti-fraud education, English language learning, and pathways to services that help New Yorkers build security and exercise their rights.”
Deputy Mayor for Economic Justice Julie Su said that immigrant New Yorkers are “essential to our city’s economy and the strength of our neighborhoods.
“They should feel valued, safe, and able to participate in the full life of our city,” she said. “We are underway across our administration to protect immigrant workers, support immigrant-owned businesses, expand opportunity, and ensure every New Yorker can access the resources they need to thrive.”
Ali said that, as the daughter of immigrants from Azad Kashmir, Pakistan, she was “proud to continue my career in public service to New Yorkers as the new Commissioner of the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs under Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani.
“I look forward to working alongside our community partners, and all stakeholders across our city to build real pathways to stability for New York City’s diverse immigrant communities,” she added.
Ali said MOIA remains “steadfast in its commitment to empower immigrant New Yorkers and protect and strengthen our sanctuary city laws.”
She said the report outlines “the challenges that immigrant New Yorkers face, demonstrates through data the demographics of the immigrant population in New York City, and presents MOIA’s reach through our programs, robust communications and outreach to immigrant communities and interagency work that the NYC Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs (MOIA) has led in 2025 to improve the wellbeing of immigrant New Yorkers.”
Under Ali, MOIA said it “seeks to address the many challenges, new and existing, facing immigrants by focusing on four areas: Protect immigrants, due process, and uphold sanctuary law and policies; Build durable and coordinated systems; Advance affordability, worker protection and empowerment, and economic inclusion; and reduce fear and increase public trust.”
In 2025, MOIA said its team engaged with nearly 37,000 immigrant New Yorkers through outreach efforts, and fielded more than 10,000 telephonic interpretation calls across 64 different languages.
Through MOIA’s Immigrant hotline, it fielded over 25,000 calls, conducted nearly 11,000 comprehensive legal screenings through MOIA Immigration Legal Support Centers.
MOIA said its English Language Learning team hosted 239 classes, reaching nearly 5,000 English language learners.
While the report presents a snapshot of the city’s work in this area, it does not cover the totality of work that MOIA and other New York City agencies do to serve immigrants.
