Avila Chevalier makes case to abolish ICE in Telemundo interview
Noticias Telemundo published on Oct. 22 an interview with Darializa Ávila Chevalier, the Democratic nominee for Congress in New York's 13th district, in which she argued for abolishing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and linked the cost-of-living squeeze on working families to federal spending on wars abroad.
Ávila Chevalier, a 32-year-old Dominican American community organizer, defeated Rep. Adriano Espaillat, who has held the seat since 2017, in the June Democratic primary. Telemundo reported that if elected in the district, which covers Upper Manhattan and the northwest Bronx, she would be the first woman to represent it and the first woman of Dominican origin in Congress. She is one of the progressive candidates backed by Mayor Zohran Mamdani, and she described herself in the interview as a democratic socialist.
On immigration, Ávila Chevalier said: "I am older than the agency. I was born in 1993 and this agency was created in 2003," adding that immigration enforcement "is a civil process, not a criminal one." She argued that ICE creates insecurity, referring to a recent shooting days earlier in the Bronx, in which, she said, a man was shot seven times inside his car with his 5-year-old child. "The only solution is to abolish this agency, because as long as it exists it will keep doing this type of violence in our communities," she said.
Asked about President Donald Trump's remark that "we are at war" and cannot deal with childcare, Medicaid and Medicare, Ávila Chevalier said that money could instead go to schools and universal childcare, "instead of spending that money on this war against Iran, on the genocide that is happening in Palestine, on bombing fishermen in the Caribbean." She also voiced support for "Medicare for All," a higher minimum wage and a proposal she said would give every tenant the right to organize.
Ávila Chevalier said the sudden loss of immigration status by many immigrants, as with Temporary Protected Status, shows current policies "are unstable" and "do not guarantee security to our communities," and called for "paths to citizenship." She said she believes a "new era" is beginning for the Democratic Party with Mamdani and other community organizers running across the country. Telemundo said it contacted her Republican rival, Manual Williams, who did not respond to its interview request.