TOI correspondent from Washington: Two prominent MAGA Republican lawmakers have formally demanded the US Department of Justice (DOJ) investigate putative New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, whose mother is the Indian filmmaker Mira Nair, with the explicit goal of revoking his American citizenship and triggering deportation proceedings.
Florida Congressman Randy Fine this week joined his GOP colleague Andy Ogles of Tennessee in seeking a Justice Department review into Mamdani’s 2018 naturalization, citing among other things, failure to disclose membership in the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), which they deem as a communist organization, on his citizenship application.
They also say Mamdani’s past public remarks and associations with radical groups raise questions about potential ties to entities that might have been viewed as “totalitarian” or “anti-American” under the laws governing naturalization.
Born in Uganda to Indian parents, Mamdani, now 31, arrived in the U.S. at age 7 and became a citizen in 2018. He is vying to become the first Muslim mayor of New York – a city with the biggest Jewish population outside Israel – in an election that has attracted both national and global attention. Polls show Mamdani leading the November 4 election by double-digit margins in a race even President Trump – who branded him a "100% Communist Lunatic" on Truth Social – has conceded.
While Mamdani’s meteoric rise had triggered MAGA Republicans, it has also split the Indian-American community, with some conservative groups accusing him of “victimhood politics,” hostility towards Prime Minister Modi, and making statements that they say are insensitive towards Hindu traditions, and progressive groups backing him.
In a separate development, the New York Post on Monday reported that "China-owned" TikTok allegedly manipulated its platform's algorithm to disproportionately feed New York residents pro-Mamdani videos, bringing into the election another “foreign hand” angle. More U.S lawmakers jumped into the fray with Texas Senator Ted Cruz snarkily asking on X, “Now why would the CCP want a commie jihadist as mayor of NYC?”
“Comrade Mamdani is the future of the Democrat Party. The Democrat Party is now explicitly and unapologetically communist and jihadist,” Cruz said in a separate post as MAGA Republicans fumed at the prospect of the crown jewel among American cities being governed by an Indian-origin Muslim immigrant who became a naturalized US citizen less than a decade ago.
While President Trump and administration mandarins have not entertained calls from MAGA hardliners to denaturalize Mamdani, legal experts say stripping a naturalized citizen of US citizenship, while possible if citizenship was obtained through "willful misrepresentation," is very rare given the high burden of proof. They also caution that targeting political speech and affiliations, such as the disputed interpretation of the DSA as a "communist organization" or rap lyrics as "material support" to terrorism – one of MAGA allegations against Mamdani – would face strong First Amendment protections in court.
Mamdani has dismissed the accusations as "racist bullshit," underscoring his nearly three decades in the US and his campaign’s focus on affordability and working-class issues that have electrified what is arguably the world’s most diverse city, with more than 35 per cent of its population foreign-born.
Rajghatta is author of Kamala Harris: Phenomenal Woman