Meet Mamdani's International Affairs Commissioner, a Defund Police Activist Who Endorsed Free Health Care for Illegal Aliens

The official representing New York City on the international stage under Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D.) is a defund-the-police radical who campaigned for lieutenant governor on a platform that included billions of dollars in giveaways to illegal aliens, including free health care.

Ana María Archila, Mamdani's pick to serve as commissioner of the Mayor's Office of International Affairs for New York City, pledged to support the "Coverage4All" effort to provide health insurance for illegal aliens, the website from her failed 2022 campaign states. The program would offer a taxpayer-funded health plan for illegal aliens in New York at up to 200 percent of the federal poverty level, running up a projected annual cost of $345 million, according to the city comptroller's office.

Archila also ran on expanding the Excluded Workers Fund, a pot of taxpayer money meant for illegal aliens in New York who do not qualify for welfare programs because of their immigration status. The fund initially had a $2.1 billion budget that ran dry within a matter of months. Payouts ran as high as $15,600 per applicant, and the state deemed 99 percent of applicants as eligible. Archila promised to funnel $3 billion into the fund, money that would likely also have been spent in just a few months.

Her platform included promises to support a bill that would bar local and state law enforcement agencies from cooperating with ICE as well.

Archila first came to prominence in 2018 when she burst into a Senate elevator to confront then-senator Jeff Flake (R., Ariz.) ahead of Supreme Court justice Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation vote.

"What you are doing is allowing someone who actually violated a woman to sit on the Supreme Court," Archila said in an outburst that led Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.) to invite her as a guest to the 2019 State of the Union. "This is not tolerable. You have children in your family. Think about them."

The international affairs official's support for illegal aliens is not out of step with Mamdani. During his campaign, the mayor vowed to prevent ICE agents from carrying out deportations in New York City, saying, "We will not accept this intimidation." A member of Mamdani's transition team included a man whose nonprofit is under congressional investigation for allegedly teaching illegal aliens how to evade ICE officers, the Washington Free Beacon reported in December, leading then-assistant secretary of homeland security for public affairs Tricia McLaughlin to say, "DHS will enforce the law, including in New York City."

Taxpayer-funded programs for illegal immigrants were not the only far-left policy on Archila's platform. She also included promises to create universal mail-in voting and end prosecutions for fare evasion.

A passionate supporter of the defund-the-police movement, Archila wrote, "We are going to dismantle the Minneapolis Police Department," in a since-deleted 2020 post on X.

"Only When We Divest from Policing and Invest in Communities Will Black People Find Real Liberation," she wrote in another deleted X post that month.

"It's when the police arrives, in riot gear and batons, that the violence begins," Archila said in a third since-deleted missive that also included the words "#DefundNYPD."

Archila's support for defunding the police may come from her own checkered past with the law. She has been arrested at least three times at various protests over the years, public records show. One arrest in 2022 came with notorious anti-Semite Linda Sarsour, a Palestinian activist in New York City who has compared Zionism to white supremacy, supported Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan and convicted terrorist Rasmea Odeh, and helped foster a culture of anti-Semitism within the Women's March organization. Archila's appointment is a win for Sarsour, who has allies across City Hall, the Free Beacon reported last week. Archila has described Sarsour as part of her "sisterhood of women warriors."

Sarsour kicked in $500 to Archila's campaign for lieutenant governor of New York, while Tamika Mallory—who was also booted from the Women's March organization for anti-Semitism before joining Mamdani's transition team—also gave $500. Archila took $250 from Dhabah "Debbie" Almontaser, a former New York City principal who lost her job after defending a T-shirt with the words "Intifada NYC" printed across the front.

Archila, who describes herself as "queer and proud," was a co-director of the New York Working Families Party chapter—a position she landed just days after Hamas's Oct. 7, 2023, attack against Israel. Her time as head of the party coincided with a sharp turn against Israel and increasing support for Hamas. The party called for a "ceasefire" on October 20 and by November demanded that the United States cut off military assistance for the Jewish state as it battled terrorists in Gaza.

"Passing this unconditional military funding package would give Israel a green light and a blank check for further military actions that are killing thousands of Palestinians," the group said.

The party's questionnaire for federal candidates demands that they state whether they support a bill from Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D., Mich.) falsely classifying Israel's war against Hamas as a "genocide" and whether they pledge to end weapons shipments to the Jewish state.

For her part, Archila promoted false claims that Israel bombed the Al-Ahli Arab Hospital during the war in an explosion revealed soon after to have been caused by a misfired Palestinian Islamic Jihad rocket.

Neither Archila nor a representative for Mamdani responded to requests for comment.

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