Muktadesh Desk:
Republican leaders in Washington have threatened to block Zohran Mamdani, New York’s first Muslim mayor-elect, from assuming office. Some Republicans are even trying to revoke his U.S. citizenship. Mamdani was elected after challenging figures like President Donald Trump in the election. Yet many now wonder if he will be able to overcome these obstacles.
According to a detailed report published by Al Jazeera Online, President Donald Trump had previously threatened to cut off federal funding to New York City if Mamdani won. He joined in spreading confusion about Mamdani’s citizenship, falsely labeling him a “communist.” Some Republican lawmakers have called for an investigation into Mamdani’s naturalization process, demanding the revocation of his citizenship and his deportation. They allege that he supported “communist” and “terrorist activities,” though there is no evidence of this.
Republican Representative Andy Ogles said in a statement on October 29 that if Mamdani lied on his citizenship papers, he cannot be considered a citizen and is certainly unfit to be mayor of New York City. “A great American city is about to fall into the hands of someone who openly supports terrorist ideologies,” he said, urging U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi to investigate Mamdani.
Meanwhile, Florida Republican Representative Randy Fine said on Newsmax, “The barbarians are no longer at the gate—they’re inside the house.” Fine claimed Mamdani arrived in the U.S. only eight years ago and failed to meet the standards for citizenship. However, PolitiFact reported that there is no credible evidence Mamdani lied on his citizenship application.
Mamdani came to the U.S. from Uganda in 1998 at the age of seven and became a citizen in 2018. Under U.S. law, adults are generally eligible for citizenship after five years of lawful permanent residence. Revoking citizenship can only be done by a court order and is historically very rare—typically in cases involving Nazi war criminals after World War II or individuals linked to terrorism.
Immigration expert Jeremy McKinney said that denaturalization is an extreme and rare process that requires the government to present “clear, unequivocal, and convincing” evidence. The government must show that a false statement in the application directly affected the outcome of citizenship. There is no such evidence in Mamdani’s case.
Questions about Mamdani’s citizenship began over the summer when he became the Democratic nominee for mayor. In June, Ogles wrote to the Department of Justice urging them to begin denaturalization proceedings, accusing Mamdani of “concealing his support for terrorism” to obtain citizenship.
He cited a 2017 rap song by Mamdani in which he expressed solidarity with the “Holy Land Five”—five Muslim men convicted in 2008 of providing material support to Hamas through a charity called the Holy Land Foundation. Many legal experts have questioned the evidence in that case. Ogles and Fine also claimed Mamdani failed to disclose his membership in the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) on his citizenship application.
However, experts note that the DSA is not a communist party. Emory University professor Harvey Klehr said democratic socialists support representative democracy, which is the opposite of communism. Immigration attorney McKinney added that DSA membership is not a barrier to citizenship, and omitting it is not fraud unless it would have changed the outcome of the application.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) condemned the anti-Muslim rhetoric during the campaign, calling the attempt to revoke Mamdani’s citizenship “racist and Islamophobic.” In an interview with MSNBC in October, Mamdani said that Islamophobia has become a permanent feature of American politics. “Now, even talking about it seems to bother some people—as if we’re creating a new issue, when in reality, we’re simply naming the hate that’s always been there,” he said.