After Zohran Mamdani’s decisive victory in the New York City mayoral race (making him the city’s first Muslim and first South Asian mayor-elect) several Republican lawmakers in Washington, D.C. are now pushing to prevent him from taking office.
The 34-year-old Democrat, who was born in Uganda and became a U.S. citizen in 2018, has faced a wave of false claims and inflammatory rhetoric questioning his citizenship and political beliefs.
Trump and GOP Lawmakers Target Mamdani’s Citizenship
President Donald Trump, who had threatened to withhold federal funds from New York City if Mamdani won, amplified unfounded suggestions about the mayor-elect’s background, calling him a communist, a claim for which no evidence exists.
Republican Representatives Andy Ogles and Randy Fine have gone further, calling for federal investigations into Mamdani’s naturalization process. Ogles, in a public statement on October 29, said if Mamdani “lied on his naturalisation documents,” his citizenship should be revoked and he should be deported. Fine echoed the sentiment, falsely claiming on Newsmax that Mamdani “just moved here eight years ago” and didn’t meet citizenship requirements.
However, PolitiFact and multiple immigration law experts have confirmed there is no credible evidence that Mamdani falsified information on his application.
Experts Dismiss Denaturalization Threats as Baseless
Legal experts say the GOP’s push to strip Mamdani of citizenship is legally implausible. “Denaturalisation is an extreme, rare remedy that requires clear and convincing evidence,” immigration attorney Jeremy McKinney told PolitiFact, adding that there’s no indication Mamdani was ineligible when he took the oath of citizenship.
Denaturalization typically applies to serious criminal cases (such as war crimes or terrorism) and must be ordered by a federal court. Experts note that even initiating such a case against Mamdani would be “extraordinarily unlikely” to succeed.
Mischaracterizations of Mamdani’s Political Views
Much of the Republican criticism has focused on Mamdani’s Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) membership and a 2017 rap lyric referencing the “Holy Land Five,” a group convicted of providing funds to Hamas.
Ogles and Fine have argued that these connections amount to communist or terrorist sympathies, which would disqualify Mamdani from citizenship. But experts counter that DSA is not a communist organization and that artistic expression is protected under the First Amendment.
“DSA membership isn’t a bar to citizenship,” McKinney said. “Failing to list a lawful political group on a form doesn’t become fraud unless it would have led to a denial.”
Muslim Advocacy Groups Condemn Political Attacks
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) denounced the attacks as Islamophobic and racist, calling them an attempt to delegitimize a Muslim public official through fearmongering. Even members of the Democratic Party have criticized the rhetoric as a dangerous escalation of anti-Muslim sentiment in U.S. politics.
Mamdani, speaking with MSNBC in October, said Islamophobia has become “endemic” in American political life. “It has come to a point where to speak up about it is seen as making it an issue,” he said. “In reality, we are simply naming what already exists.”
Long-Shot Push to Declare Mamdani Ineligible
The New York Young Republican Club has proposed another approach – invoking the 14th Amendment, which bars anyone who has “engaged in insurrection or given aid or comfort to the enemies” of the U.S. from holding office.
They allege Mamdani supported “pro-Hamas” groups and “gang activity” by encouraging resistance to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations. But immigration experts say this argument has no legal basis, noting that criticism of ICE does not equate to aiding an enemy of the state.
Even if Congress attempted such a measure, it would require a two-thirds vote in both chambers and would likely be struck down by the Supreme Court.
Legal Experts Warn of Broader Chilling Effect
Though experts dismiss the case’s prospects, some fear the political weaponization of denaturalization threats could intimidate immigrant communities.
Case Western Reserve law professor Cassandra Burke Robertson said such efforts "could create a chilling effect on individuals with fewer resources who might be afraid to speak out," according to Al Jazeera.
While the Justice Department has historically used denaturalization only in rare cases, its use increased under Trump’s administration, especially for alleged national security concerns.
Still, most legal scholars agree: attempts to strip Mamdani of citizenship are politically motivated and legally baseless, unlikely to move beyond rhetoric.