Aparna knows that there are two choices in a time of rising authoritarianism: collaboration or resistance. Donald Trump is sending masked federal agents into DC to tear immigrant families apart, snatching people who are on their way to work, brutalizing delivery drivers and construction workers, and making our neighbors afraid to drop their kids off at school. Meanwhile, the billionaires in his administration are throwing federal workers out of their jobs, slashing a billion-dollar hole in DC’s social services, and attacking queer and trans rights.
Ward 1 has been fighting back, and you deserve leaders who fight with you, rather than rolling over for Trump. Aparna will stand up to the federal occupation of DC, she will have federal workers’ backs, and she’ll fight for a city where everyone can live a safe, dignified life. Here’s how:
Ending the Federal Occupation of DC and Protecting DC’s Immigrants
Since Donald Trump announced a federal occupation of DC, we’ve seen federal forces patrolling our streets and reminding us that the people in the Capitol treat us like second-class citizens. Masked agents are dragging working people out of restaurants and construction worksites, brutally arresting working parents in front of their children, and sending people to faraway detention centers where human rights violations are pervasive. And Ward 1 businesses are struggling with the economic impact of the occupation. For Aparna, as a member of our community and a proud daughter of immigrants, this fight is personal.
We deserve elected officials who will join us in the fight, not sell us out. Aparna will fight to:
End DC and MPD Cooperation With ICE: Instead of standing up for us, Mayor Bowser is cooperating with the occupations and signing over control of the Metro Police Department (MPD) to Trump. MPD is supposed to be solving serious crimes. Instead, the Mayor and MPD are setting up check points to racially profile our residents and helping ICE separate immigrant families. As Ward 1 Councilmember, Aparna will fight to end MPD’s collaboration with ICE and guarantee that no DC resources are being used to support Trump’s mass deportation plans.
Enforce and Defend Our Sanctuary Law: Mayor Bowser is also attacking immigrants herself, including trying to repeal the Sanctuary Values Act, a local law which prevents our local police force from participating in immigration enforcement operations. Repealing the act would make all of us less safe by driving immigrants into the shadows and deepening distrust of the justice system. Aparna will never vote to roll back our sanctuary law– instead she’ll fight to enforce and strengthen it, including by making sure there are consequences that apply when local officials flagrantly break the law.
Bring Oversight and Accountability: Aparna will also fight to expose federal and public officials who are violating the law during the occupation. She will investigate the widespread and illegal police brutality, racial profiling, and civil rights abuses committed by federal agents. She’ll hold city officials accountable for blatantly breaking DC’s sanctuary city law. Every day, she’ll use her oversight powers to demand answers, like: how many resources local police are dedicating to the occupation; how many people local police are stopping on the street just because of their job or the color of their skin; how many families are being separated; and how many serious crimes have gone unsolved because local police is spending its time on federal checkpoints or ICE support.
Ban Law Enforcement from Wearing Masks: Aparna will fight to ban secret policing in DC by banning all law enforcement officials in the District from wearing masks, as well as requiring them to display names and badge numbers.
Organize With and For Our Community: While politicians abandon our community, we are keeping ourselves safe. As a Ward One resident, Aparna is joining community groups, teachers, labor groups, and parents to protect our neighbors. As the Councilmember, Aparna will dedicate her constituent services resources to bolster community organizing and aid, including by helping make sure that our kids can get to school and back safely, supporting teachers and school staff in helping immigrant children learn during this crisis, and working with religious centers and small businesses to ensure they have everything they need to protect their communities. She will also use her constituent services team to give regular trainings and information to all our neighbors about our rights when we see ICE.
Fund Public Immigration Defenders: Aparna will fight to fund public immigration legal services, to provide free, high-quality representation to DC residents and to prevent wrongful deportations. Immigrants who don’t have a lawyer to help navigate our broken immigration system are far more likely to lose their immigration cases than those who do. Aparna supports a program modeled after the New York Immigrant Family Unity Project, which has successfully kept families together by providing free legal services to immigrants facing deportation or in detention.
Protect Our Data: Aparna will also work with DC agencies to ensure the safety and security of data belonging to all of us, including noncitizens, in DC. That includes banning facial recognition surveillance technology, which ICE, CBP, and DHS have used in hundreds of arrests, and which has an extremely high error rate when used to identify people of color and women. It also includes regulating DC’s use of automated camera systems to prevent mass surveillance and reckless data sharing.
Fighting for Federal Workers
The Trump Administration has thrown tens of thousands of federal workers out of their jobs, and they are silencing and threatening tens of thousands more. Now, working families across our city are now missing mortgage payments or struggling to buy groceries, all while public services for the working class suffer.
Aparna is running to have federal workers’ backs. The Trump Administration’s mass layoffs are throwing thousands of federal workers into a broken unemployment insurance system. The maximum benefit for unemployment is just $444 a week, with many laid off federal workers receiving even less. And the system is so difficult to navigate that more than 80% of unemployed people in the District aren’t getting any benefits at all. Aparna is going to fight to raise benefits and fix our unemployment insurance system.
She’ll also work to make sure that District agencies are hiring former federal workers into good jobs, so DC can benefit from federal workers’ enormous talents and commitments to public service. And she’ll be at picket lines and protests fighting to make sure that federal workers get their jobs back.
Defending DC Autonomy, Democracy, and Civil Rights
While DC residents pay the highest taxes per capita, we are beholden to the national administration more than our neighboring states, and we face threats to what limited autonomy we have.
As the Ward One Councilmember, Aparna will defend DC’s democracy by:
Fighting back against Republicans in Congress who are trying to roll back the laws passed by our elected representatives and to install Trump’s handpicked lackeys in DC government.
Defending our sanctuary law from the Republicans in Congress—and from DC politicians who are too willing to roll over and abandon it.
Protecting and expanding LGBTQ+ rights, including by defending anti-discrimination protections and preserving access to gender-affirming care for trans youth and adults, including by holding private hospitals that deny trans health care accountable.
Defending abortion access in DC, including by fighting to support local clinics that are now serving people who need abortions both fro DC and from states that have banned it.
Investing in safe community services and health care resources, like Whitman Walker and HIPS, that serve communities that are in the Trump Administration’s crosshairs.
Funding vouchers and working to find temporary shelter for people who are homeless to provide them with relief from Trump and Mayor Bowser’s violent encampment evictions in the immediate term, while working to build and support more permanent affordable housing.
Aparna will also fight for DC statehood to grant District residents the long-awaited autonomy we deserve. Statehood would allow us to better protect our home by making sure that all working people can thrive here, including immigrant families and our LGBTQ+ neighbors. It would stop the federal government from taking control of our police department and give us control over our budget, so we can serve working families. And it would give us our fair share of votes on federal policy. And while she’s fighting for full statehood, she will never preemptively comply with the Trump administration.
Fighting Back Against Cuts to Critical Services
Trump is also threatening DC’s working class by slashing health care, housing, food assistance, and other critical social services—while blowing a hole in DC’s budget. On top of that, too many DC politicians have voted to balance our budget on the backs of the working class or the very same residents who are in Trump’s crosshairs. Aparna will fight to reverse funding cuts and to help make this city affordable for everyone, including by investing in:
Housing: Aparna has a plan to make sure that the people who live in Ward One can afford our homes--even while the Trump Administration is slashing desperately-needed housing funding during an affordability crisis. That includes stopping massive rent hikes, financing new tools to build affordable and social housing, and advocating for more housing for all.
Health care: Restoring the DC Health Alliance, which provides health insurance for more than 25,000 working class residents in DC, which was defunded under the Mayor’s last budget. Restoring this funding will help make sure that immigrant residents have access to health care and will keep more providers open across DC.
Free Childcare: The Trump Administration is threatening to slash childcare funding, and even illegally withheld billions of dollars of Head Start funding for early childhood education. Aparna will fight to make sure that the District guarantees free childcare for all, regardless of what the Trump Administration does.
Preventing homelessness: As the Trump administration and Mayor Bowser collaborate to evict people in encampments, Aparna will work to bring people out of homelessness and into affordable housing. Because of federal cuts, hundreds of DC residents are at risk of losing federal emergency housing vouchers in 2026. Aparna will fight to replace that funding with local dollars, which would prevent a significant increase in homelessness.
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