After Samaria Archila died from cancer, Ana Maria Archila became the director of LAIC. She served in this role in 2003, where she spoke to the media about the Latino population in New York state. She worked as executive director of LAIC in 2003 working out of their offices in Port Richmond, Staten Island. Archila advocated on behalf of parents with limited English language skills in Staten Island and Queens, New York, to obtain more information about their children's education. She subsequently worked on immigration issues with the organization Make the Road New York. She took MRNY from its beginnings to become the biggest group in New York City supporting initiatives on behalf of local communities.
Center for Popular Democracy
In her role as co-executive director of the Center for Popular Democracy, Archila spoke out in 2018 against the immigration policies of US President Donald Trump. Archila told CNN that removing children from their parents and their family would cause damage that would be difficult to repair later in life. She supported a reformation of the immigration process in the United States. In June 2018, Archila lamented that the zero tolerance policy of the Trump Administration which separated immigrant children from their parents, was still in operation. Archila brought attention to Puerto Rico and problems of lack of power after Hurricane Maria. Archila warned that Puerto Rico was lacking in proper governmental organization in advance of the following hurricane season. She advocated for debt relief to alleviate economic problems in Puerto Rico. Archila pointed in particular to Bank of Santander as an example of economic debt pressures on Puerto Rico in the wake of Hurricane Maria. Archila said Puerto Rico was not getting responsive assistance from the US federal government, because the United States Congress did not view the locality as within their representation duties.
On September 28, 2018, US Senator Jeff Flake announced his intention to vote for Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. Kavanaugh had been accused of sexual assault by a number of women, including Christine Blasey Ford, who testified for several hours before the Senate Judiciary Committee the day before Flake's announcement. Kavanaugh subsequently testified and denied the allegations. Flake said that Ford's testimony was "compelling", but added that Kavanaugh's response was "persuasive" and left him "with as much doubt as certainty" regarding what had occurred. Following his announcement, Flake was confronted by Archila along with Maria Gallagher, two anti-Kavanaugh protestors, in a Senate office building elevator. On the same day, Flake voted not to subpoena Mark Judge to appear before the Judiciary Committee, who Ford said was present during her sexual assault. That afternoon, Flake voted to advance Kavanaugh's nomination out of the Senate Judiciary Committee, but said he was a "yes" vote "only if the final Senate vote delayed for one week, during which time the FBI investigate sexual harassment allegations against Kavanaugh"; Senate Republican leaders agreed to support the proposed investigation. Later that day, President Trump directed the FBI to undertake a one-week investigation of the allegations against Kavanaugh.
“I feel very trapped” is how Ms. Archila responded to her support for Joe Biden's presumptive candidacy for the Democratic party, in view of the allegations made against him by former congressional staffer Tara Reade in March 2020. She said further; "I feel like we’re in this situation where in order to protect ourselves, we have to do something that might feel morally incoherent — which is to vote for someone who was accused of sexual assault.”
