Miguel ran for ANC Commissioner on a promise to make Malcolm X Park as enjoyable and accessible as possible. Once elected, he immediately got to work by:

• Recruiting for monthly cleanups of the park, where he and his neighbors roll up their sleeves together to pick up trash, sand and refinish park benches, pull weeds, and otherwise beautify the historic public space.

• Advocating for a dedicated Capital Bikeshare station for Malcolm X Park, successfully having one installed at 15th and Chapin Streets. That was Miguel’s second bikeshare victory for his district, after having the station at 14th and Belmont Streets expanded and modernized.

• Starting a regular newsletter for the Meridian Hill neighborhood about cleanups and other goings-on in the community.

• Holding multiple events to bring neighbors together, such as Shakespeare in the Park, as well as the Celebration of International Service to honor laid-off federal workers.

• Quickly established collaborative relationships with other park stakeholders including Washington Parks & People and the National Park Service to mobilize resources and coordinate action for the betterment of the park.

In January 2025, Miguel was elected chairman of ANC 1B on a platform of transparency and inclusivity. As chairman, he has been focused on making the U Street corridor more vibrant by:

• Fighting to preserve funding for violence-interruption programs along the U Street corridor to prevent crime.

• Hosting a series of public dialogues around a proposed Business Improvement District (BID) for the U Street corridor.

• Convening a working group to resurface and recenter the heritage and history of U Street as Black Broadway.

• Leading oversight of the V Street building collapse to ensure that labor protections are upheld and, where necessary, updated in accordance with industry standards.

• Urging the placement of community composting bins along the busy U Street corridor, resulting in the installation of our first bin at 14th & U, outside the Reeves Center. (It’s there now — hope you’re using it!) Composting is a key way of combating the rats in our busy restaurant/nightlife zone: it keeps food waste out of the trash, which deprives rats of a food source.

• Organizing community safety walks with local MPD personnel to foster trust and collaboration among residents and businesses along U Street.

• Hiring two part-time staff to improve the reliability of the commission’s work, boost transparency of its operations, and expand the reach of its communications/outreach.

• Creating a community engagement committee to liaise more closely with residents and businesses, with a view to creating more responsive local government.

• Supporting a bill in Council to abolish junk fees on utilities in shared spaces in residential buildings, and calling for an OAG investigation into the practice.

• Objecting vociferously to the bureaucratic changes that effectively killed the District’s streatery program.

Miguel’s work has extended outside of Ward 1. Miguel has worked tirelessly to promote DC autonomy and push back against federal overreach by:

• Founding the ANC Home Rule Caucus to coordinate commissioners’ DC autonomy actions across the city.

• Representing DC in national convenings of municipal officials and advocacy organizations in response to increased federal overreach and militarization in our cities.

• Rallying leaders across the city to demand that ICE remove their masks and stop wearing deceptive “POLICE” uniforms. ICE agents are not our police. When they impersonate our police, they erode community trust in law enforcement altogether.

• Lobbying on Capitol Hill in partnership with Free DC to restore the $1 billion in funding that Congress stole from DC’s budget.

• Teaming up with Free DC to conduct weekly Know Your Rights (KYR) outreach to vulnerable populations in my district.

• Testifying at hearings and roundtables in Council on many topics, including human rights violations, the streatery program, the National Park Service, and the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development.

As a pro-democracy organizer, Miguel is always thinking about new ways to empower voters and increase transparency in our government. He has done so by:

• Bringing ranked choice voting to DC as the lead organizer and steering committee member for Initiative 83 — which passed with a whopping 73% of the vote, including a supermajority in every ward and a majority in every single precinct across the city. Key to the success of the initiative was its early and sustained educational efforts among historically marginalized groups to ensure that the importance of the reform for building and preserving power was heard in all communities.

• Rallying supporters and democracy advocates to testify in numerous Council hearings on Initiative 83, to defend the will of the voters from the stall tactics of establishment politicians.

• Following the success of Initiative 83, rolling up his sleeves to co-found and serve as the first executive director of the nonprofit organization Grow Democracy DC, dedicated to preparing voters to participate fully and confidently in the first ranked-choice elections in 2026. Miguel understands that implementation is indispensable to progressivism. Without successful implementation, progressive policies are only good ideas on paper.

• Leading a District-wide campaign to defeat the Initiative Amendment Act, a bill that would have drastically hamstrung the voters’ right to propose and pass ballot initiatives — a vital tool of people power in a city that already suffers from far too little democracy.