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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New York State Is Planning on Secretly Flooding Subways With Parole Officers to ‘Stop and Frisk’ Parolees

A new pilot program targeting prison parolees who ride public transit may be rolling out, with the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision working hand in hand with the NYPD. The goal? Reducing crime on the subway. A source within DOCCS is criticizing the program, saying it’s a waste of resources and calling it “Stop and Frisk 2.0” because parolees in New York City are not barred from mass transit. Instead of helping the formally incarcerated reenter society, a policy...
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After False ICE Raid Reports, New York Sikhs Mobilize Against Misinformation

“US agents’ visit to gurdwaras sparks concern among Sikh[s],” reported several Indian news outlets like the Hindustan Times and the Economic Times on Jan. 27. They published reports that numerous gurdwaras, Sikh houses of worship, throughout the tri-state area were raided by Homeland Security and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The stories sent Sikh community leaders in Richmond Hill, Queens, home to one of the largest Sikh enclaves in the country, into a frenzy as they tried to...
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Homeless, Jobless and Afraid: New York's Day Laborers Struggle to Survive

Sidewalks and street corners at popular day labor spots in Brooklyn, Queens, and Long Island were once teeming with immigrant men looking for work. But lately, fewer jornaleros, Spanish for day laborers, are on the corners, and work has become scarce. An undocumented immigrant from Guatemala, Manuel, 36, is one of the estimated 8,000 to 10,000 day laborers who call New York home, most of whom are recent arrivals. Since 2012, Manuel, who asked asked to be identified by first name only, has held...
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Trump's Attack on DEI Initiatives Could Put the Kibosh on Immigrant Worker Safety Programs - Documented

Two days after President Trump took office, recipients of the Susan Harwood Training Grants Program received an email from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) asking them to cease all activities related to “diversity, equity, and inclusion.” The email came in response to President Trump’s executive orders calling for federal agencies to dismantle DEI initiatives. The orders not only call for the federal government to end DEI programs internally, but also for recipients of f...
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Labor Unions Ready Immigrant Workers for Trump Deportations 2.0

Don’t answer any questions without a lawyer. Don’t open the door to ICE if they don’t have a judicial warrant. Make a plan with your family in case you are suddenly arrested and detained. This is just some of the advice immigrant workers have been getting at workers’ centers and labor unions this past week. The organizations have begun preparing their members for the possibility of being deported following President Trump’s promise to deport 11 million undocumented migrants in the United Stat...
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Trump’s Death Penalty Executive Order Could Violate Immigrants' Human Rights - Documented

President Donald Trump has signed 11 executive orders related to immigration, which combined with his inaugural speech, send a clear message about heavy immigration enforcement to come. Documented has been going through the details of each executive order from the White House, and talked to experts to understand what these may mean for our communities. Of the 11 executive orders, one is headlined “restoring the death penalty.” The steady decline in executions in the United States could see a r...
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New York Attorney General Is Suing to Block President Trump’s Executive Order Ending Birthright Citizenship - Documented

Yesterday, within hours of taking office, President Trump signed ten executive orders directly pertaining to immigration. Among them was his order to end birthright citizenship for children born to non-citizen parents. In response, New York Attorney General Letitia James announced today that she and a multistate coalition of 18 states, as well as the City of San Francisco, are suing the administration for violating the constitutional right given to all children born in the United States. The l...
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Immigrant Youth Vow to Lead the Next Generation of Anti-Trump Organizing  - Documented

As Donald J. Trump was being sworn into office as the 47th president of the United States, hundreds of protesters gathered in Washington Square Park, braving single-digit freezing temperatures, to express their outrage at the incoming administration’s anti-immigrant agenda. Despite the low turnout, among the crowd was a new generation of activists who were determined to keep the opposition to Trump alive. At the park was Lizeth, an 18-year-old Ecuadorian student, who felt compelled to particip...
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Manhattan D.A. Indicts KEP Construction for Stealing Immigrant Wages

On Thursday, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin L. Bragg Jr. announced the indictment of Kendis Paul, 45, and his company KEP Construction LLC for stealing approximately $67,000 from 10 former immigrant workers. The indictment comes after the Worker’s Justice Project (WJP) first brought the case to light early last year. Since then, the WJP has assisted the workers in filing wage theft cases with the New York State Department of Labor (DOL) and has supported them in speaking up publicly against...
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Millions Unclaimed in NY Rideshare Wage Settlement

With the start of the new year, New York Attorney General Letitia James gave Uber and Lyft drivers a bit of good news. On Tuesday, James announced she would extend the time frame in which New York Uber and Lyft drivers could receive wage theft settlement funds to January 31, 2025. Originally, the deadline to file a claim was July 29, 2024, but with a substantial amount of settlement money still unclaimed, according to the Attorney General’s office, the office decided to give drivers more time....
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Meet the Immigrant Workers Leading the Fight to Unionize Amazon This Holiday Season - Documented

On Thursday, amid peak holiday shopping season, thousands of unionized Amazon workers at seven logistics warehouses across the country walked off the job. Organized by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters union, the strike is the largest coordinated labor action against the company in U.S. history. Nearly 10,000 Amazon delivery workers took to the picket line after Amazon failed to sit down at the negotiation table by the December 15 deadline set by the union. “If your package is delayed...
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Drizly, an Uber-Owned Alcohol Delivery App, Owes Millions in Tips

New York Attorney General Letitia James announced today the recovery of $4 million in withheld tips for over 8,000 delivery workers for Drizly, a now-defunct alcohol delivery platform owned by Uber, for failing to ensure delivery workers received their rightfully earned tips. At least 8,385 delivery workers, many of whom are immigrants of color, stand to receive settlement funds. The AG investigation, which began in June last year, found that Drizly actively encouraged customers to leave tips...
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Lawsuit Alleges an Auto Parts National Chain Paid Immigrant Workers Subminimum Wages - Documented

Newly arrived from Guyana and with a pregnant wife at home, Jermaine Cranmore, 34, was looking for a job. Sipping on a drink at a local cafe in Richmond Hill, Queens, Cranmore struck up a conversation with a fellow countryman. As it turned out, his new acquaintance happened to be a recruiter for a temp agency called Workforce that supplied workers for Parts Authority, one of the nation’s largest auto parts retailers, and had a job for him he could start immediately The catch? The job paid $13...
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Unsafe at Any Speed: Delivery Workers Deaths Are on the Rise in 2024 - Documented

10 immigrant delivery workers died on the streets of New York this year, marking a stark increase from the last two years, according to data collected by the Workers Justice Project (WJP) exclusively shared with Documented. In 2023, seven delivery workers died, and in 2022, WJP counted five deaths. During the height of the pandemic in 2021, when online food ordering was much higher, the number of fatalities was 14. Victor Hidalgo is the most recent delivery worker killed this year. On Oct. 30...
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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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