New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani slammed President Trump’s threat to investigate his immigration status and arrest him over his opposition to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s raids.
Trump said during a press conference on Tuesday, at a detention center in Florida called “Alligator Alcatraz,” that if Mamdani prevents ICE agents from conducting its operations to deport people, then “we’ll have to arrest him.” He also mentioned false claims that Mamdani entered the country illegally.
Mamdani legally moved to the United States as a young child with his family after initially growing up in Uganda.
“We’re going to be watching that very carefully, and a lot of people are saying he’s here illegally,” Trump said in response to a reporter’s question. “We’re going to look at everything.”
Trump’s comments come after Rep. Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.) suggested last week that Mamdani should be denaturalized and deported, requesting that Attorney General Pam Bondi take steps to do so.
Mamdani said in a statement responding to Trump that the president threatened him “not because I have broken any law but because I will refuse to let ICE terrorize our city.”
“His statements don’t just represent an attack on our democracy but an attempt to send a message to every New Yorker who refuses to hide in the shadows: if you speak up, they will come for you,” he said.
Trump also praised New York City Mayor Eric Adams, who chose to forgo the Democratic primary and run for a second term as an independent. He said Adams is a “very good person” and added that he “helped him out a little bit,” referencing the charges that Adams faced in his corruption case that the Justice Department dropped under the Trump administration.
“He had a problem. He was unfairly hurt over this question,” Trump said, referring to immigration. “He made a statement to the effect that this is terrible. New York City can’t have all these immigrants come in, and he was indicted the following day.”
Adams repeatedly claimed without evidence that he was politically targeted over his criticism of the Biden administration’s handling of immigration. The charges against Adams, accusing him of accepting bribes from wealthy foreign businesspeople and at least one Turkish government official, were dropped in April in a highly controversial decision.
Several federal prosecutors resigned over the DOJ’s move, with the former acting U.S. attorney overseeing the case accusing Adams and the administration of engaging in a “quid pro quo” in which the charges were dropped in exchange for Adams helping the administration with its priorities.
Adams has denied that any quid pro quo occurred and any wrongdoing.
Mamdani said Trump’s praise of Adams is “unsurprising” but shows the urgency of ending Adams’s time as mayor. He denounced Adams as echoing Trump’s “division, distraction and hate.”
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