Amir Khafagy

Amir Khafagy is an award-winning New York City-based journalist. He is currently the Senior Labor Reporter with Documented NY. 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. 

Previously, Amir was a Report for America Corps member. 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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NYC’s First Farm Union is Fighting for a Fair Contract - Documented

Last year, urban farm workers at Brooklyn Grange made history when all  15 workers voted unanimously to join the United Farm Workers union. It was the first time an urban farm union was formed in New York City.  Now, a year later, the workers say contract negotiations have stalled. The company’s management, which operates four commercial rooftop farms across the city, refuses to meet the workers’ demands, including wage increases, stable work schedules, hazard pay, and healthcare benefits....
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New Report Reveals Uber and Lyft’s ‘Unfair’ Driver Deactivation Practices - Documented

For years, Uber and Lyft drivers have been honking their horns in distress over the growing crisis of account deactivations. Now, a new report reveals that the majority of drivers who were deactivated were given no prior notice and could not successfully appeal their deactivation.  The report, released Tuesday by the civil rights organization, Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund(AALDEF), independently analyzed data from nearly 350 surveys of deactivated drivers collected by the Ne...
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In Final Debate, NYC Mayoral Candidates Condemn ICE Raid on Street Vendors - Documented

Tuesday’s federal immigration raid on street vendors in Chinatown kicked off Wednesday night’s heated second and final mayoral debate. The action, which swept up many African immigrants, marks the first time that there’s been a major ICE crackdown in the city, outside of the arrests taking place at immigration court in lower Manhattan. Notably, however, immigration issues were only brought up in the first 1o minutes of the debate.  Asking the debate’s first question, moderator Errol Louis not...
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NY Attorney General Wins $1.4M Settlement for Nearly 700 Immigrant Workers - Documented

New York Attorney General Letitia James announced today a $1.4 million settlement with Alba Services, Inc., which repeatedly violated state workers’ compensation by failing to report workplace accidents for 675 largely immigrant construction workers.  Alba’s owner, Andrew Horan, and a network of related New York City construction and demolition companies, were found by the attorney general’s office to have not only repeatedly violated state workers’ compensation laws, but also retaliated agai...
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NYC Mayoral Debate: Cuomo, Mamdani, and Sliwa Clash at NBC Studios - Documented

In the first mayoral debate Thursday night, the three leading candidates sparred for two hours, each making their case for why they should hold the city’s highest seat — and why they would be strong enough to stand up to Trump and protect all New Yorkers.   On stage at NBC Studios were Democratic front-runner, State Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani; Independent candidate Andrew Cuomo, and Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa.  Right out of the gate, former Gov. Cuomo zeroed in on Mamdani’s lack...
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Where the Mayoral Contenders Stand on Sanctuary Protections

With less than a month to go until the mayoral race, tonight’s debates will pit the three top contenders against each other for the first time on the same stage.  While there are several issues the candidates don’t see eye to eye on, one notable exception is their take on New York’s status as a sanctuary city.  Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa, while not a supporter of sanctuary city policies, has a stance on immigration enforcement that’s a departure from the Trump administration. Howeve...
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Uber-Backed Group Opposes Bill to Protect Drivers From Unfair Deactivations - Documented

Two labor organizations are at odds over a bill that would protect ride-share app drivers from arbitrary deactivations.  On one side is the independent New York Taxi Workers Alliance (NYTWA), which helped draft the bill. On the other side, and in opposition to the bill, is the Independent Drivers Guild, a non-union association of drivers that has received significant funding from Uber since its inception.  Neither Uber nor IDG has disclosed how much funding the IDG has received from Uber.F...
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PPL’s E-Verify Use Adds to Growing CDPAP Controversy - Documented

Home care advocates say the use of the federal E-Verify program could push undocumented immigrant home care workers out of the industry. The new development continues to mount pressure on Gov. Kathy Hochul’s controversial revamp of the Consumer-Directed Personal Assistance Program, also known as CDPAP.  Beginning on April 1, the state consolidated the CDPAP program, which allows relatives or caregivers of disabled individuals on Medicaid to get paid for their care, under a single statewide fi...
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Scenes From a New York Protest - Documented

On a steamy, late summer afternoon in New York City, dozens of New Yorkers rallied together at 26 Federal Plaza to protest ICE and the poor living conditions that detained immigrants are enduring there. Inside the building, chaos unfolded on the 10th floor as armed Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officers arrested 12 elected officials attempting to gain entry into the detention facilities. The officials, who included City Comptroller Brad Lander and State Senator Julia Salazar, refused...
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'ICE Out of NY': Dozens Arrested at Federal Plaza as Fight Over ICE Escalates

Department of Homeland Security agents arrested 70 New Yorkers outside 26 Federal Plaza on Thursday afternoon, with an additional 12 elected officials arrested upstairs, after they had attempted to enter the building to assess the living conditions of immigrants detained there. Some of the electeds had made it past the doors, and came upstairs — only to be handcuffed moments later.  Among the officials arrested include New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, Public Advocate Jumaane D. Willi...
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Zohran Mamdani Joins Striking Workers on the Picket Line

Mayoral front-runner Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani was greeted by a wave of cheers Monday morning from striking pharmaceutical workers as he visited them in a show of solidarity at their Bronx picket line.  As first reported by THE CITY, over 200 workers, many of whom are immigrants, have been on strike since Sept. 2, when negotiations broke down between their union, Teamsters Local 210, and their employer, Perrigo Pharmaceutical.  “Often, a strike is seen as if it’s a decision by workers;...
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They Helped Rebuild After 9/11. Now They Live in Fear of Deportation.

It’s been 24 years since the September 11 attacks, but Rosa Duque, an undocumented ground zero worker, still vividly remembers the hours she spent trapped under a collapsed wall.  Duque was hired to work as an asbestos removal cleaner at the heavily damaged Verizon Building across from the World Trade Center site. While she was removing contaminated debris, a wall fell on her, pinning her down with her face toward the floor. Engulfed in near total darkness, Duque could barely see a thing. For...
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ICE Denies Random Raid, Claims Tip Led to Arrest of Farm Workers in New York - Documented

When U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raided Lynn-Ette & Sons Farms in Upstate New York, in the early morning of Aug. 14, the immigration enforcement agency arrested and detained four Mexican workers and three Guatemalan workers. But following Documented’s recent report of the arrests, the agency claimed they were acting on a tip, not carrying out a random raid.  “Rumors that ICE raids farms in New York are a false narrative,” said Christine Cuttita, ICE’s regional spokesperson. “I...
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Comptroller's 'Wall of Shame' Dashboard Reveals NYC's Top Labor Violators for 2024 - Documented

Workers can be fired by their employer for numerous workplace infractions, but the widespread violation of workers’ rights often goes underreported.  For the second year in a row, New York City Comptroller Brad Lander is hoping to bring those violations to light by announcing this year’s “Employer Wall of Shame,” a list of companies cited for a hefty number of labor violations in ten categories, including wrongful termination, prevailing wage violations, wage theft, and violations of workplac...
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Immigrant Labor is the Backbone of New York City Unions, New Report Shows - Documented

With New York City being renowned as both a union town as well as the gateway for millions of immigrants, a new study shows that immigrant New Yorkers make up an essential portion of the city’s unions. Researchers affiliated with the CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies discovered that immigrant New Yorkers make up the majority of union members in the five boroughs.  The report, titled The State of the Unions 2025: A Profile of Organized Labor in New York City, New York State, found that ov...
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Immigrant Farm Workers Arrested In Second ICE Raid at Upstate Farm - Documented

During the early hours of August 14, U.S. Immigration Enforcement Agents (ICE) launched a raid on the Lynn-Ette & Sons Farms, a sprawling 8,000-acre farm in Orleans County, New York, that specializes in growing snap beans, cabbage, and squash. ICE agents detained four Mexican workers and three Guatemalan workers. The recent arrests at Lynn-Ette are the upstate farm’s second ICE raid in the past three months. This May, federal agents detained 14 workers in a similar raid. At about 6:30 a.m....
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CDPAP Leadership Has Few Answers for Elected Officials - Documented

Amid ongoing claims of mismanagement and missed payments by CDPAP home care workers, state officials and the program’s new administrators continued to defend themselves and offered little new information about the New York State Medicaid program that allows eligible members to hire their loved ones as their caregivers.  On August 21, at a joint hearing of the Senate Committee on Health and the Senate Standing Committee on Investigations and Government Operations, lawmakers grilled representat...
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LaGuardia Airport Employer Failed to File Injury Data With Feds - Documented

LaGuardia Airport ground crew workers employed by Alliance Ground International are demanding access to the company’s workplace safety logs in the face of increased safety issues. The union 32BJ SEIU, which is organizing the workers to increase labor standards, says AGI has failed to share with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) injury and illness records as required by law.  Sometimes known as the “Log of Work-Related Injuries and Illnesses,” the OSHA 300 form includes...
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In a Move to Protect Grocery Delivery Workers, NYC Council Plans to Override Mayor's Vetoes - Documented

On Thursday, the New York City Council announced its plan to override Mayor Eric Adams’ vetoes on multiple pieces of legislation that would deliver worker protection and minimum wages for grocery app delivery workers, many of whom are immigrants. The first law, Intro. 1133-A, sponsored by Council Member Jennifer Gutiérrez, would provide grocery delivery workers with new protections under the law, including access to bathrooms, distribution of fire safety materials, and insulated delivery bags...
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Criticism Mounts Over CDPAP Overhaul as Immigrant Workers Go Unpaid

“Boondoggle” is the word some are using to describe the state’s controversial overhaul of the Consumer-Directed Personal Assistance Program, also known as CDPAP.   “I think it’s absolutely a boondoggle from many perspectives,” said Michael Kinnucan, senior health policy advisor at the Fiscal Policy Institute, who said the state’s CDPAP reform has been completely mismanaged. “The transition has been a real disaster for consumers and workers.” Established by the state in 1995, CDPAP gave fam...
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