After Zoran Mamdani’s landslide victory in New York City’s mayoral election, making him the city’s first Muslim and first South Asian mayor, Republican critics in Washington say they are trying to block him from taking office.
President Donald Trump threatened to withhold federal funding from New York City if Mamdani wins, gave credence to misleading questions about Mamdani’s citizenship, and falsely accused the Uganda-born 34-year-old of being a communist.
Some Republican lawmakers have called for an investigation into Mamdani’s naturalization process and called for him to be stripped of his U.S. citizenship and deported, citing no evidence of his participation in communist or “terrorist” activities.
“If Mamdani lies on his naturalization papers, he cannot become a citizen and certainly cannot run for mayor of New York City. America’s great city is on the verge of being run by communists who espouse an openly terrorist ideology,” Republican U.S. Rep. Andy Ogles said in an Oct. 29 news release after asking U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi to investigate Mamdani.
“The American naturalization system requires him to disclose any affiliation with communism or terrorist activities. I doubt he has disclosed them. If this is confirmed, I would like him to be on the first flight back to Uganda.”
Florida Republican Rep. Randy Fine misrepresented Mamdani’s length of stay in the United States, saying on Newsmax on Oct. 27, “The savages are no longer outside the gates, they’re inside. … And Mamdani, who just moved here eight years ago, is a perfect example of someone who achieved citizenship. Look, from a lot of what I’ve read, it’s clear that he doesn’t meet the definition for citizenship.”
PolitiFact found no credible evidence that Mamdani lied on his citizenship application.
Born in Uganda, Mamdani immigrated to the United States in 1998 at the age of seven and became a U.S. citizen in 2018. To become a U.S. citizen, an adult must generally have resided in Uganda for five consecutive years as a lawful permanent resident, or three years if married to a U.S. citizen.
Denaturalization, the process of stripping a person of their citizenship, can only be done by judicial order. It has been used sparingly, including to exclude Nazi Party members who fled to the United States after World War II and people convicted of or involved in “terrorism.”
Immigration law experts said they found no evidence to support Ogles and Fine’s claims regarding Mamdani’s application.
Immigration lawyer Jeremy McKinney said: “Denaturalization is an extreme and rare remedy that requires the government to prove either illegal sourcing or intentional and material lies, or at least clear, unambiguous and convincing evidence that that fact would have changed the outcome at the time of naturalization.” “I have not seen any credible evidence that he was not qualified when he took the oath or that any omissions were material.”
Mr. Ogles and Mr. Fine did not respond to PolitiFact’s requests for comment in time for publication.
Immigration experts say Mamdani’s attack on naturalization process is weak
Questions about Mamdani’s citizenship began in the summer when he became the Democratic mayoral candidate.
In a letter to Bondi in June, Ogles asked the Justice Department to proceed with denaturalization proceedings against Mamdani “on the basis that he may have acquired U.S. citizenship through intentional misrepresentation or concealment of material support for terrorism.”
Ogles cited rap lyrics written by Mamdani in 2017 that supported “Holy Land Five.” This refers to five men from the Islamic charity Holy Land Foundation, who were convicted in 2008 of providing material support to the Palestinian organization Hamas. Some lawyers have criticized the case’s use of evidence and hearsay.
Ogles and Fine said Mamdani did not identify himself as a member of the Democratic Socialist Party of America on his citizenship application. Lawmakers say it is a communist organization and Mamdani could have been stripped of his citizenship had he been involved.
Applications for naturalization in the United States ask whether the applicant has ever been a member of, involved in, or associated with a communist or totalitarian political party. But Democratic Socialists of America is not a communist party.
Harvey Clare, an expert at Emory University who specializes in the history of communism in the United States, previously told PolitiFact that democratic socialism emerged as an alternative to communism. Democratic socialists generally “reject communist hostility to representative democracy and communist belief in state ownership of the means of production,” Clair said.
McKinney, the immigration attorney, said, “DSA membership is not a bar to citizenship. Failure to list a legitimate political organization[on a naturalization application]is not fraud unless disclosure would result in a denial. Lyrics that refer to the Holy Land Five are protected speech absent actual material support for a designated foreign terrorist organization.”
PolitiFact reached out to Mamdani for comment, but he did not respond.
His anti-Muslim comments during the campaign drew criticism from the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and Democrats. Muslim advocacy group CAIR claimed that demands for denaturalization proceedings against Mamdani were racist and Islamophobic.
Mamdani also spoke about anti-Muslim rhetoric during the campaign in an interview with MSNBC in October.
“I think Islamophobia is endemic to the politics of this country,” Mamdani told MSNBC.
“And we’ve seen it become normalized. We’ve seen it become accepted. And when you speak out about it, it’s seen as if you’re making it a problem, when in reality you’re just naming something that already exists. And a lot of that is driven by Muslims not wanting to acknowledge that they belong in this city.”
Pressure to prevent President Mamdani from becoming president
The New York Young Republicans Club is taking a different tactic, citing the 14th Amendment, the New York Post reported.
The proposed amendment would expel from public office anyone who has “engaged in rebellion or insurrection” in the country, or who “has given aid or comfort to the enemy.” The state Republican group said Mr. Mamdani provided “aid and comfort” to enemies of the United States by supporting “pro-Hamas” groups, and said he supported the gang by calling for resistance to Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.
This is the long-term goal of Congress declaring Mamdani ineligible to run for president, which would require a two-thirds majority in both houses of Congress. Even if it passes, it could be challenged all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Immigration experts told PolitiFact that calls to resist ICE agents do not invoke the 14th Amendment because the relevant clause targets insurrection and aid to wartime enemies, not criticism of domestic policy.
How degenerative events are formed
The Department of Justice can revoke a person’s U.S. citizenship by filing criminal charges or civil lawsuits for naturalization fraud.
In either case, the government must prove that the applicant made a false statement on the citizenship application and show that the statement may have influenced the application.
The government’s standard of innocence in criminal cases, which requires proving guilt “beyond a reasonable doubt,” is higher than the standard in civil cases, which requires providing “clear and convincing evidence.” Cassandra Burke Robertson, a law professor at Case Western Reserve University who studies denaturalization, said more common civil cases lack certain constitutional protections, such as the right to a public defender.
“It is very unlikely that the case against Mamdani will gain any attention,” Robertson said.
“The bigger risk, in my view, is the potential chilling effect on individuals with fewer resources who are afraid to speak out against their government,” Robertson said.
Irina Manta, a Hofstra University law professor who studies denaturalization, said denaturalization is generally rare in the United States, but it has become more common under the Trump administration.
In June, the Justice Department released a memo instructing lawyers to prioritize denaturalization cases. The memo’s list of priority categories includes the overarching categories of people the government says poses a national security concern, gang members, and “other cases referred to the Civil Affairs Division that the Civil Affairs Division deems sufficiently important to pursue.”
If Mamdani is stripped of his citizenship, his immigration status will revert to his previous legal permanent resident status. That would disqualify him from being mayor of New York.
PolitiFact researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this report.
