Congressional candidate wrote 2023 paper criticizing border counterterrorism policies

Darializa Avila-Chevalier wrote a 2023 academic paper that examined the detention of Abdikadir Mohamed at JFK Airport and concluded that Customs and Border Protection’s Tactical Terrorism Response Team practices reflect anti-Blackness and Islamophobia.

The paper used Mohamed’s questioning by the TTRT as its sole case study. It argued that the team’s actions constituted border violence and part of a broader system of racialized state control.

Background on the case Mohamed, a Somali permanent resident, was detained in 2017. He was later transferred to ICE custody, held for 17 months, and released without charges after contracting tuberculosis. The paper did not mention that Mohamed’s name closely matches that of a wanted Al-Shabaab operative. It also did not propose alternative methods for identifying security threats.

Candidate’s prior statements Chevalier previously called for abolishing police, prisons, and borders in now-deleted social media posts, according to CNN reporting cited by the New York Post. She has held leadership roles in Columbia University’s Students for Justice in Palestine chapter and wrote in 2014 that criticism of the group amounted to silencing survivors of color.

Chevalier and CBP did not respond to the New York Post’s request for comment.