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Jumaane Williams taps AOC-backed, anti-ICE ticket mate with no political experience
Democratic gubernatorial hopeful Jumaane Williams has tapped Ana Maria Archila, a left activist who supports the abolition of ICE to be his running mate for lieutenant governor.
nypost.com
Jumaane Williams taps AOC-backed, anti-ICE ticket mate with no political experience
By
Carl Campanile
February 28, 2022 6:38pm
Updated
Democratic gubernatorial hopeful Jumaane Williams has tapped a lefty activist who supports the abolition of ICE to be his running mate for lieutenant governor.
Ana Maria Archila, of Queens, is a co-founder of the immigrants advocacy group Make The Road NY and has worked at the left-of-center Center for Popular Democracy, directing campaigns for paid sick leave, raising the minimum wage and aiding immigrants, including those brought here illegally.
Organizers of both groups have close ties to the Working Families Party, which recently came under fierce criticism for querying candidates seeking its endorsement whether they would refuse to accept donations from unions representing police and corrections officers.
The Colombia-born Archila’s claim to fame was confronting former Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake in a Capitol elevator about supporting then-Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh in 2018.
Ana Maria Archila is a co-founder of the immigrants advocacy group Make The Road NY, and has worked at the left-of-center Center for Popular Democracy.Jacquelyn Martin 
Ana Maria Archila becomes emotional as protesters against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh tell their personal stories of sexual assault in 2018. Andrew Harnik 
“The demand to abolish ICE has existed almost since the beginning of ICE,” said Archila.Andrew Harnik“I have two children. I cannot imagine that for the next 50 years they will have to have someone in the Supreme Court who has been accused of violating a young girl,” she told the senator.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez then invited Archila to be her guest at
then-President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address in 2019.
She has supported the #Abolish ICE movement against the US. Immigrations and
Customs agency that enforces the nation’s immigration laws and detains and deports
illegal migrants.
AOC walks with her State of the Union guest Ana Maria Archila before President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address on Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2019. Bill Clark“The demand to abolish ICE has existed almost since the beginning of ICE,” Archila, then co-executive director of the Center for Popular Democracy, told Refinery29.
“Since its creation, there were organizations that were saying that the inclusion of ICE as an agency that is designed specifically to separate families, put people in detention, to deport them is a dangerous development in the way we as a country relate to migration.”
Williams, who along with Long Island Rep. Tom Suozzi is challenging sitting Gov. Kathy Hochul for the Democratic Party nomination, said Archila “has spent her entire career fighting the uphill battle to support and uplift everyday people—and she has won.”
“Together, we will make the change that is needed to make New York more affordable, livable, and equitable for every family,” he said.
Williams speaks during a New York Working Families Party GOTV Rally in Fort Greene Park on June 11, 2021.Michael M. SantiagoHochul’s running mate is Lt. Gov. Brian Benjamin, who served as the state senator representing Harlem. Hochul appointed Benjamin lieutenant governor after Hochul assumed the governorship when three-term Democrat Andrew Cuomo abruptly resigned in a sexual harassment scandal.
Suozzi named former Brooklyn Councilwoman Diana Reyna as his running mate.
Hochul is the heavy favorite to win the Democratic nomination, according to recent polls, with Williams running to her left and Suozzi from her right.