Republicans Push to Strip U.S. Citizenship of NYC Mayor-Elect Zohran Mamdani
After his decisive victory in the New York City mayoral election, a faction of Republican lawmakers has launched efforts to strip mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani of his U.S. citizenship and bar him from taking office. The initiative is based on unsubstantiated claims that Mamdani concealed affiliations with the Democratic Socialists of America or other organisations when he became naturalised in 2018. Supporters of the campaign argue that if these allegations prove true, he should face denaturalisation and be disqualified from serving as mayor.
Legal experts, however, caution that revoking citizenship is an extremely rare and difficult process. Under current law the government must show that the individual obtained citizenship by willful misrepresentation or concealed a material fact that, if known, would have made them ineligible at the time of naturalisation. No credible evidence has been publicly presented to suggest Mamdani met these criteria.
Mamdani, born in Uganda and naturalised in 2018 after moving to the U.S. as a child, has characterised the accusations as evidence of religious and racial bias. He has emphasised his commitment to the democratic process and the right of all naturalised citizens to serve in public office.
