Darializa Avila Chevalier, a candidate for New York's 13th Congressional District backed by Mayor Zohran Mamdani and the Democratic Socialists of America, has faced scrutiny over an academic paper she authored arguing that U.S. border enforcement is deeply rooted in "anti-Blackness and Islamophobia."
The 2023 paper, titled "The securitisation of immigration through the Tactical Terrorism Response Team," focuses on the case of Abdikadir Mohamed, a Somali man with U.S. permanent residency who was detained upon arrival at JFK Airport in 2017. Chevalier's analysis, which she wrote while a student at the City University of New York, posits that the practices of Customs and Border Protection's Tactical Terrorism Response Team (TTRT) constituted "border violence constitutive of a praxis of anti-Blackness and Islamophobia, ideologies central to the logic of American counterterrorism policy."
Chevalier contends that counterterrorism measures at the U.S. border are employed not only to regulate migration but also to surveil and control social movements within the country, describing U.S. border enforcement as an extension of racialized state violence. She frames counterterrorism as a mechanism for controlling Black Muslim refugees rather than protecting national security, accusing the TTRT of engaging in what she terms "social homicide."
The paper highlights Mohamed's questioning by the TTRT at the airport, citing a press release from the Ogaden National Liberation Front found on his phone as a principal piece of evidence for his detention, according to Chevalier's account. However, the paper does not offer alternative security measures, and the government agency has not publicly explained its reasons for detaining Mohamed, in accordance with U.S. counterterrorism laws.
Mohamed was transferred to ICE custody, where he remained for 17 months, contracted tuberculosis, and was subsequently released without being charged. His case has drawn criticism, and he submitted a statement to Congress in 2019 accusing ICE and other entities of protocol violations that worsened his condition.
Critics have pointed to what they describe as sweeping conclusions drawn from a single case study, suggesting the paper overlooks that many Customs and Border Protection officers are themselves Black or Muslim. The paper also reportedly fails to mention that Mohamed's name is similar to that of Abdikadir Mohamed Abdukadir, a wanted Somali terrorist affiliated with Al-Shabaab, which may have been a factor in his questioning.
Chevalier, who has reportedly deleted past social media posts expressing a desire to abolish police, prisons, and borders, also previously held a leadership role in Columbia University’s Students for Justice in Palestine chapter. This group has been associated with statements demanding the "total eradication of Western civilization" and celebrating the Oct. 7 Hamas attack as a "moral, military and political victory."
Further context provided by the New York Post indicates Chevalier's past engagement with controversial figures and organizations. She expressed public support for Rasmea Odeh, who was convicted by an Israeli military court for her role in 1969 bombings that killed two students and injured others. Odeh was later convicted of immigration fraud in the U.S. for failing to disclose her terrorism conviction, leading to her deportation.
Chevalier, a sociology PhD candidate, also wrote a letter in 2014 as a Columbia undergraduate accusing unnamed Israelis of subjecting her to violence during a visit to Jerusalem, attributing the experience to her Afro-Latina identity. She defended her university group's decision to invoke Odeh during a campus rally about sexual assault, arguing it aligned with notions of intersectionality and a "colonialist power structure."
Chevalier and Customs and Border Protection did not respond to requests for comment. The government agency has also sought to keep the methods used by the TTRT confidential in legal proceedings.