Nisha Agarwal, the commissioner of the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs, says

September 29, 2025 admin 0 Comments

Nisha Agarwal, the commissioner of the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs, says she tries to convey two important messages to the 3 million foreign-born residents of New York City: “Your immigration status doesn’t matter” and “You should be able to communicate with government in a language that you understand.”

In a wide-ranging interview with former City Council member Ronnie Eldridge for the CUNY TV show Eldridge & Co., which aired on September 17, Agarwal talks about access to justice for immigrants, Central American migrants and the mechanics of how people will be able to sign up for the municipal ID in January. She hopes this “key to the city” will be issued to a million people by the end of five years. She also talked about making New York a friendly city for immigrants – and a safe one.

Agarwal, the daughter of Indian immigrants who grew up in upstate New York – has long believed in pursuing and promoting civil rights for immigrants, and went to law school to go into public service. Removing language barriers was an early concern of hers, and continues to be. Visitors of the website for the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs can click on one of 34 different languages to have a web page translated, and Agarwal notes “we could do a better job across the city,” she says.

Check out what Agarwal says would “change the national conversation on immigration,” and more, in this video of her interview on Eldridge & Co.