A community organizer and activist is entering the race for New York\u2019s 13th Congressional District, setting up a primary challenge against longtime Rep. Adriano Espaillat.<\/p>\n
Darializa Avila Chevalier, the child of Dominican immigrants and a self-described democratic socialist, announced her campaign, saying she wants to bring sweeping changes to the district, which includes parts of Manhattan and the Bronx.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am running for Congress,\u201d Avila Chevalier said.<\/p>\n
Avila Chevalier said one of her top priorities is securing \u201chousing for all,\u201d while also calling for the abolition of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are making sure that we are abolishing ICE because our immigrant neighbors and our entire community deserve to breathe,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
She also emphasized redirecting taxpayer money into local communities and schools.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe deserve to have our taxes come back to our communities, come back to our schools so that we can fund our kids\u2019 educations from cradle to college,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Avila Chevalier criticized Espaillat\u2019s record, accusing him of supporting federal funding for ICE and taking donations from corporations tied to the immigration enforcement system.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we\u2019ve seen is that he\u2019s voted to fund ICE by almost $8 billion \u2026 that he has ignored the families of folks who\u2019ve been kidnapped by ICE in his very district,\u201d she said. \u201cI think we need leadership that not only has personal experience and success in getting folks out of ICE detention, but also a vision for how we actually protect our neighbors here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Espaillat has represented the district since 2017.<\/p>\n
Avila Chevalier said her message to Bronx voters is rooted in community advocacy and direct action.<\/p>\n
\u201cDemocrats who show up for our neighbors on their darkest days,\u201d she said. \u201cThat is the type of leadership that I have been part of as an organizer \u2026 and that\u2019s the type of leadership that I would show in Congress as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Avila Chevalier said she believes the district deserves stronger representation and vowed to continue organizing throughout the campaign.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A community organizer and activist is entering the race for New York\u2019s 13th Congressional District, setting up a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":256892,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[128,9,24,63,129,131,130],"class_list":["post-256891","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-the-bronx","tag-bronx","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-the-bronx","tag-the-bronx-headlines","tag-the-bronx-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256891","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=256891"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256891\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/256892"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=256891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=256891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=256891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}