NYC Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani sparked outrage by claiming an elderly, illegal alien Bangladeshi woman canvassed for his campaign despite living in constant fear of deportation, which in this case meant she was afraid to grocery shop. Mamdani cited this as evidence that the current city administration fails to protect sanctuary laws and argue for stronger such rejections of American immigration law.
In his tirade about the matter, the self-described socialist mayor-elect vowed to boost funding by over $100 million for legal defense services to fight deportations and warned ICE agents they would be “held accountable” if they violate the law. Conservatives accused him of admitting illegal immigrants influenced the election and branded his remarks as bragging about election interference by non-citizens.
Starting with his controversial comments, the mayor began his story. “Her aunt with a feeling like she couldn’t even leave their home. I heard from an older Bangladeshi woman who told me that she canvassed for me over the course of this campaign in fear of whether she would be picked up in the course of knocking on doors, because she was afraid to even go to the grocery store,” he dwelxcraed.
Building on this tenuous claim, the self-described “democratic socialist” went on the attack against Mayor Eric Adams, saying, “And I think what we’ve seen under this current administration here in New York City is an unwillingness to stand up for the laws we already have here. We have sanctuaries.”
When news of this post spread on social media, conservatives were irate. “ELECTION INTEGRITY: Zohran Mamdani says illegal aliens canvassed for him because they feared being deported, including an older Bangladeshi woman who told him she canvassed out of fear of being picked up,” a popular post read.
Similarly, in the comments, many users pointed out flaws with Mamdani’s statement. Poking a hole in his narrative, one comment noted, “So a lady who had a fear of being rounded up? Went around working in the city while being scared she was going to get picked up? In what context does this make sense?”
Justifiably annoyed, another chimed in saying, “You gotta be kidding me. He’s out here bragging about it like that’s totally normal. The fact he thinks this helps his case tells you everything about how upside-down our politics got.”
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This is far from Mamdani’s only controversy surrounding immigration. For examples, the former DSA members claimed, “A cornerstone of our campaign is a commitment to increase funding for those very legal defense services by more than $100 million so that we can ensure we’re taking every step we can to keep New Yorkers safe, to keep New Yorkers together and to show the world that they are welcome in this city.”
Madani also made comments to ICE members, which many have interpreted as threatening. “My message to ICE Agents… is that everyone will be held to the same standard of the law. If you violate the law, you must be held accountable,” he posted to social media after winning his campaign.
Featured image from embedded video