Mamdani’s Campaign ‘Taking Steps’ in Case He Gets Hassled Reentering U.S.
Zohran Mamdani is set to return from his post-primary vacation in Uganda on Wednesday, and his campaign is bracing for a possible confrontation at John F. Kennedy airport upon his arrival.
The Mamdani campaign has been in regular contact with both Governor Kathy Hochul’s office and the office of Attorney General Letitia James, who have pledged their support should Mamdani be detained by immigration or border officials after he lands. While such an encounter would ordinarily be unlikely — Mamdani has lived in the United States since he was 7 and has been a U.S. citizen since 2018 — allies of Donald Trump’s have increasingly called for the president to strip the New York City Democratic mayoral nominee’s citizenship and even expel him from the country.
“He needs to be DEPORTED,” wrote Tennessee Republican representative Andy Ogles on X the day after Mamdani won the Democratic primary. In a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi, Ogles cited rap lyrics Mamdani had written when he was younger that the Republican said glorified Hamas and other terrorist violence. That call was echoed by the New York Young Republicans, an influential political club in Mamdani’s hometown.
“He should absolutely be denied entry by immigration officials,” club president Stefano Forte told “Intelligencer.” “It is obvious that he is much more of a third-world socialist than he is an American. When you go and become a naturalized citizen, there is a box you have to tick off that says you are not a communist or part of any radical group or that you want to destabilize any part of the government of the United States. And if he said ‘no,’ it is a lie based on who he is, which is a communist. He should be deported and denaturalized.”
A spokesperson for Customs and Border Protection pointed out that the agency does not, in fact, perform denaturalizations of U.S. Citizens but added, “All travelers arriving in the United States are subject to screening and inspection. This routine process occurs daily for millions of travelers.”
Mamdani will be returning to the U.S. while border officials have been known to scour the devices of those entering the country, searching for what they deem “anti-American” content on social media. In the weeks before and after his primary win, opponents of Mamdani’s have dug up some of his more controversial pronouncements on social media, but immigration lawyers told “Intelligencer” that, as a citizen, Mamdani could refuse an inspection.
“He is a U.S. citizen, and U.S. citizens have a right to reenter the country,” said Noor Zafar, a senior staff attorney with the ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project. “They can ask him probing questions, and they can take him through secondary screening and detain him for a bit. But he has the right to not answer questions that are beyond the scope of what Customs and Border officials can ask.”
Elizabeth Taufa, a senior policy attorney at the Immigrant Legal Resource Center, noted that even at the height of the war on terror, there were little more than a dozen or so denaturalization cases in any given year and that any officials would have no real legal grounds to detain Mamdani. Taufa cautioned, “This is an administration that is constantly pushing limits. They could give him a hard time upon entry, but they are ultimately going to have to allow him to enter the country assuming that they are following the law.”
When City Comptroller Brad Lander was arrested by federal agents while linking arms with a person immigration officials were attempting to detain, Governor Hochul personally intervened and he was released soon after. Should Mamdani be detained or even questioned for a suspiciously long time, officials from both the governor’s office and the attorney general’s office have pledged to make themselves available, according to a person briefed on the conversations.
An official with the governor’s office said that they had been having conversations with the Port Authority and Homeland Security experts to map out how best to proceed should Mamdani run into issues during his return and that the governor’s office was preparing to be in real-time communication with the Mamdani team when the assemblymember lands. “We are prepared to provide any help that we can,” said Anthony Hogrebe, communications director for Hochul.
“Zohran is a United States citizen who is fully aware of his rights and expects to be admitted in the ordinary course,” said Zara Rahim, a senior adviser to the Mamdani campaign. “While we are hopeful for a smooth return, we are taking prudent and responsible steps to ensure his return proceeds without interference.”