Q: Can you tell us where you come from?
A: My parents came to this country as working-class immigrants from India. We bought a convenience store when I was a kid. They worked twelve hours a day, seven days a week, for decades. I stocked shelves, made sandwiches, and ran the register. That store was our family’s life.
Q: How did you decide to become an attorney?
A: My parents overcame immense obstacles while running our store, and yet they never ceased to look out for their neighbors. The experience taught me that we as individuals have a responsibility to care for one another. I realized at a young age that I wanted to become a lawyer and help those who could not defend themselves. I went to Hofstra Law at night while working during the day. While my classmates went to big law firms, I decided to go to The Bronx Defenders. I have been a public defender ever since.
For more than twenty years, I have helped families: tenants, immigrants, and workers across New York City. I built the Civil Defense Practice at Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem, and as Managing Director at Partners for Justice, I scaled that holistic-defense model nationally, including in states such as Texas and Missouri.
I also have had the privilege of serving as the past President of the South Asian Bar Association of North America and the South Asian Bar Association of New York.
Q: You mentioned you have a plan to help small businesses, an important issue for the South Asian community in Queens. What is it?
A: My parents’ store would not survive in today’s New York. Corporate conglomerates have captured the supply chain. Apps take a third of every order. Commercial rent is unbearable.
There are almost 185,000 small businesses across the five boroughs, and nearly half are immigrant-owned, generating $250 billion a year in economic impact. Yet small businesses are facing major challenges.
I am running on a small business plan built around three things: starting, surviving, and passing the business on.
- On starting businesses: I support no-interest federal startup loans for first-generation entrepreneurs and immigrant communities, banking reform that recognizes ITINs so immigrant founders can actually get a loan, and federal childcare investment so working parents can run a business.
- On surviving: We need to block the proposed $29 billion Sysco-Restaurant Depot merger, which would crush 725,000 small foodservice businesses across 35 states, cap what delivery apps can take from each order, and tie federal small business funding to anti-displacement protections because 77 percent of immigrant small business owners in this city are rent-burdened.
- On passing it on: Extend Section 1042 of the tax code so every retiring small business owner can sell to their workers, and provide federal retirement security for the self-employed, and Medicare buy-in for older owners.
Rep. Nydia Velázquez helped build the federal small business agenda in this district. I am running to deepen and continue that work.
Q: The immigration enforcement landscape has changed dramatically. Where do you stand?
A: My position on ICE is clear: dismantle it. Not reform it. Not retrain it. Dismantle it. The agency has been operating outside the rule of law and separating families for years. I will also push to end the federal 287(g) program nationwide. When local police become ICE, immigrant families stop calling 911 and reporting crimes. Every community becomes less safe, and every immigrant small business loses customers, employees, and revenue.
Immigration policy is not only about enforcement. South Asians have helped build American science, medicine, technology, small business, and so many facets of our culture. What is happening at the federal level now puts that story at risk. The current administration’s push to cap H-1B visas, the family-based visa backlogs that have separated families for decades, and the green card backlogs that punish South Asians because of outdated per-country caps are hurting families and innovation in our country. I will fight for comprehensive immigration reform that stops unjustly penalizing South Asians and creates a real pathway to citizenship.
Q: Healthcare is a major concern for first-generation small business owners and seniors. What is your position?
A: I grew up in a household without health insurance. Every time someone got sick, we asked ourselves: “are we sick enough to go to the doctor?” No family in the richest country in the world should be asking that question. I support Medicare for All. In the meantime, I will fight to expand ACA subsidies, eliminate pre-existing condition exclusions, cap prescription drug costs, and create a public option that small business owners and the self-employed can buy into.
Q: Why are you running for Congress now?
A: I am running for Congress because of the values my parents instilled in me: hard work, service to others, and looking out for your community. These are the values our country needs right now.
Our community in New York has built businesses, raised families, and contributed to this country without seeing itself and its needs reflected in Washington. I want to change that.
Q: What is your message to South Asian voters in NY-7 as the June 23 primary approaches?
A: Show up. The Democratic primary is the election that matters in this district, and South Asian voters have the numbers to be decisive in a four-way race. If you have never voted in a primary before, this is the one. Learn more at HYPERLINK “http://kumar4ny.com/”kumar4ny.com.
(Editorial Board, The Indian Panorama)
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