Amir Khafagy

Amir Khafagy is an award-winning New York City-based journalist. He is currently a Report for America Corps member with Documented. Much of Amir's beat explores the intersections of labor, race, class, immigration, and urban policy.


His writing has been featured in The Guardian, Vice, The New Republic, New York Mag, The City, Bloomberg, Prism, Documented, The Appeal, Dame, The American Prospect, Jacobin, and In These Times. Additionally, Amir has worked as a researcher for the critically acclaimed podcast Serial. 


He has been awarded the 2022 LION Local Journalism Accountability Award, Type Investigations 2021 Ida B. Wells Fellowship, The Sidney Hillman Foundation's Reporting the U.S. Workplace Program, The Newmark J-School 2021 Education Reporting Scholarship, The International Center for Journalists COVID-19 Reporting Award, The New Economics Reporting Fellowship, The Economic Hardship Reporting Grant, The Talk Poverty Writer Workshop Fellowship, The Asian American Writers Workshop Open City Fellowship, and The AARP Freelance Fellowship. 


Amir holds a BA in Urban Studies and an MA in Urban Affairs from Queens College. 


As a performer, Amir has appeared in Ping Chong & Company's Beyond Sacred: Voices of Muslim Identity. He has also appeared in Gun Country, a Houses on the Moon theatre company production.

A lifelong New Yorker, Amir was born and raised in Jackson Heights, Queens into a working-class, Muslim, immigrant family. His mother is Puerto Rican and his father is an immigrant from Egypt. Follow him on Twitter @AmirKhafagy91

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ConEd Contractor Accused of Retaliating Against Workers

Immigrant cleaners working at ConEd facilities across the city are being retaliated against in their fight for improved pay and working conditions, alleges a labor union 32BJ SEIU. The union is accusing Nelson Services Systems, the non-union subcontractor that employs 55 janitorial workers for ConEd, of failing to pay them prevailing wages. State law requires that all workers, at critical infrastructure facilities like ConEd, including subcontractors, be paid a prevailing wage that mirrors unio...
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Over 90 Delivery Workers Claim DoorDash Stole Their Wages

Beginning this year, the city implemented a historic minimum wage law for app-based delivery workers, raising wages from an average of  $5.39 per hour before tips to at least $17.96 per hour before tips. While the law has seen some success, workers are still sounding the alarm about ongoing patterns of wage theft. About 50 delivery workers organizing with the Workers Justice Project (WJP) protested Wednesday morning outside DoorDash’s Manhattan headquarters, demanding that the company pay worke...
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Advocates Say Proposition 2 Will Harm Immigrant Street Vendors

New Yorkers have voted for the passage of Proposition 2, a ballot measure that asked voters to amend the City Charter by “expanding the Department of Sanitation’s  power to clean streets and other City property and require disposal of waste in containers.” While the proposal seemed harmless enough, advocates are sounding the alarm on its alleged hidden agenda, saying it gives greater authority to the New York City Department of Sanitation (DSNY) in policing street vendors, especially those who...
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New York's Muslim Voters Rally Behind Jill Stein

Although Hesham El-Meligy is making a pilgrimage to Mecca, 6,400 miles from New York, he finds his mind shifting from spiritual to political matters. With Election Day upon us, El-Meligy, an Egyptian-American community organizer from Staten Island, has led the campaign in New York to push Muslims to vote for Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein. “Why am I voting for Stein? Because she is the only one speaking up for human rights in general and Palestinian rights in particular,” he sai...
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"I Love Trump" vs. "He's Racist": Immigrants Split Over Trump

As his 2024 campaign enters its final weeks, former President Donald Trump has intensified his anti-immigrant rhetoric while also growing his base of support within immigrant communities. Among the mostly white crowd of Trump supporters at Sunday’s rally outside Madison Square Garden, Documented spoke with a handful of immigrant supporters to understand their reasons for supporting the presidential candidate. Enjoying the carnival-like atmosphere and proudly waving a MAGA flag, Jacob and Reiko...
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NYC Comptroller Urges TLC to Share Rideshare Lockout Data

Despite Uber, Lyft, and Mayor Eric Adams’ promise to end the practice of arbitrary app lockouts by Labor Day, drivers have continued to face disruptions, prompting New York City Comptroller Brad Lander to step in. Lander sent a letter today to the New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC) formally requesting lockout data from the agency to determine if the apps are manipulating data to avoid paying drivers the city’s minimum pay rate for rideshare drivers. As Documented previously repo...
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Council Member Calls on NYC Hospitals to Cut Ties with Laundry Servicer Immediately

FDR Services Corp., based in Hempstead, Long Island, is among the largest clean linens and laundry providers for New York City hospitals and nursing homes. Yet since 2017, its mostly immigrant workforce has been forced to work under unsafe and unsanitary working conditions without a new union contract. However, last week, on Oct. 10, New York City Council Member Carmen De La Rosa introduced a resolution targeting FDR Services Corp., noting in particular how the company has failed to adhere to s...
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Fired Adams Staffer Offered Businessmen Connections to "Politics"

Ahsan Chughtai sat on a gilded chair, wearing a garland and clutching a small water bottle as a group of businessmen paid their respects to him. Prominent members of New York’s Pakistani community had gathered to celebrate his appointment as Mayor Eric Adams’ Senior Advisor on South Asia and Muslim Affairs in March of 2022, as well as two other people who had ascended to the highest echelons of New York City’s government. In attendance was Ayesha Ali, the consul general of Pakistan, as well as...
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One Woman's Home Becomes a Lifeline for Palestinians

Inside a Staten Island home with a manicured front lawn and a basketball hoop in the driveway, Najla Khass brings out several trays of strong Turkish coffee and fresh pastries. Above her, is a gold-plated map of Palestine, her homeland which she fled when she was just 8 years old. Her home is all at once a shrine to Palestine as well as a refuge from the ongoing destruction of Gaza. Since the war on Gaza began a year ago, Khass has opened the doors of her home to Palestinians who are fleeing th...
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The Rise and Fall of NYC's Driver-Owned Ride-Share - Documented

It began with a utopian vision. A small group of tech workers banded together with an ambitious goal of achieving what many had not done before. Erik Forman, Alissa Orlando, and Ken Lewis would compete with Uber and Lyft and create an equitable ride-share alternative in New York City. Forman was the natural pick for president. He had been a labor organizer turned “social(ist) entrepreneur.” Orlando was a former Uber operations manager for East Africa and Lewis was a driver. Together they launch...
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Did Mayor Adams Take Straw Donations From an Uzbek Construction Boss?

Within the historic 57-page federal indictment charging Mayor Eric Adams with several counts of bribery, campaign finance, and conspiracy offenses is one mention of an unnamed businessman referred to as “Businessman-4.” The indictment states that “Businessman-4” “operated a construction company in the New York City area,” and he “was not part of New York’s Turkish community” but was instead “a prominent member of a different ethnic community.” After reviewing donations made to Adams’ campaign...
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NYC Labor Complaints Surge 260% as Delivery Workers Lead Fight for Fair Wages - Documented

The NYC Department of Consumer and Worker Protection received a 260% increase in worker protection complaints, increasing from 439 complaints in fiscal year 2023 to 1,581 in 2024, according to recently released city data. The Mayor’s Management Report, released on Sept. 16, states that app-based delivery workers, in part, have fueled the surge of complaints that the DCWP has received. Since the rollout of the city’s minimum pay rate law for app-based delivery in December, which guaranteed deli...
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Queens Street Vendors Fight Back as NYPD Crushes Food Carts - Documented

This past week, the need for expanding vending permits came to a head when Blanca Alvarado, 44, witnessed her food cart crushed by a garbage truck. On Monday, dozens of street vendors in Queens joined her in protesting the NYPD’s destruction of their carts because they lack the proper permits. In response to the aggressive enforcement, vendors are calling for the city to increase the number of permits available so they can legally sell goods on city streets. Since 2020, Alvarado has sold tripa...
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Uber Still Locks Drivers Out Of The App Despite NYC Deal - Documented

On the Tuesday morning after Labor Day, 62-year-old Uber driver, Etykala Reddy, awoke in his home in Queens to find that he was once again locked out of his app. It was not the first time Reddy, an immigrant from India, had been locked out. For over a year he has been randomly locked out of the Uber app mid-shift. “It doesn’t tell me how long I’m going to be locked out or where I’m going to be locked out,” he said during a phone conversation in his car. “ It all surprises. Right now I’m on the...
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See Which Companies Landed on Comptroller Brad Lander’s Inaugural “Employer Wall of Shame” - Documented

This Labor Day, New York City Comptroller Brad Lander is launching a new tool to track the city’s unscrupulous employers. Unveiled on Monday, the Employer Violations Dashboard is a first-of-its-kind sweeping view of recent labor law enforcement across the five boroughs. The dashboard sources data from federal, state, and city agencies to track workers’ rights and protection violations by businesses between 2020 and 2023. This includes a breakdown of health and safety violations, wage theft, pre...
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A Crumbling Leadership: Investigation Uncovers 'Founders vs. Everyone Else' Mentality Within Amazon Labor Union - Documented

On Feb. 24, members of the Amazon Labor Union gathered inside the Hilton Garden Inn ballroom on Staten Island’s industrial North Shore. It had been two years since Christian Smalls, ALU’s first president and co-founder, led the movement of workers to defeat Amazon management and win the company’s first-ever union in 2022. Smalls, along with the union’s co-founders Derrick Palmer, Gerald Bryson, Jordan Flowers and Connor Spence, were catapulted to celebrity status among labor circles. Still, sin...
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Contractor Still Operates Despite Stealing Thousands in Wages From Immigrant Workers - Documented

On July 31, home contractor Artemio Fuerte, 38, appeared at the New Rochelle City Court in New York’s Westchester County. According to County District Attorney Miriam E. Rocah, Fuerte owned and operated Fuerte Construction LLC, a company that stole $31,500 from at least eight immigrant workers he employed between 2020 and 2023. As part of his plea agreement with prosecutors, Fuerte was sentenced to eight misdemeanor counts of wage theft. “Not paying workers for months on end is a crime and not...
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Unions Split Over Mayor's Deal to Ease Uber & Lyft Driver Lockouts - Documented

Facing a mounting movement by Uber and Lyft drivers demanding the city intervene on unfair deactivations, Mayor Eric Adams announced Wednesday that his administration had reached an agreement with Uber and Lyft to significantly reduce lockouts. Although the Independent Drivers Guild (IDG) celebrated the mayor’s plan, its rival union, the New York Taxi Workers Alliance (NYTWA), has called it a “corporate giveaway.” According to the mayor’s press release, under the agreement, Uber would immediat...
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Fake Safety Card Broker Convicted By Manhattan DA - Documented

On Monday evening, Uktam Tohirov, a low-ranking broker for the notorious employer Valor Security & Investigations, was convicted of multiple criminal counts for his alleged involvement in a scheme that distributed fraudulent work site safety certification cards to up to 20,000 workers across the city. Beginning last Tuesday, Tohirov’s trial took place at the New York State Supreme Court overlooking Foley Square and was preceded by Judge Michele Rodney. After the week-long trial, it took the jur...
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Former Workers Allege New York’s Largest Chinese Bakery Chain Stole Wages

Known for serving up traditional Chinese baked goods like pork buns, red bean rice cakes, and custard tarts, Fay Da Bakery has become a ubiquitous presence in New York’s culinary landscape. Founded in 1991 by Taiwanese baker Han Chou in Manhattan’s Chinatown, the chain has grown to 14 locations across Manhattan and Queens, with one shop in Connecticut’s Foxwoods Casino. Yet, as Fay Da grew, it also allegedly stole hundreds of thousands of dollars in wages from its employees. According to a clas
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