❓WHAT HAPPENED: A resurfaced interview revealed the Democrats’ candidate for New York City mayor, Uganda-born Zohran Mamdani, touting taxpayer-funded unemployment benefits for illegal immigrants as one of his “greatest victories.”
👤WHO WAS INVOLVED: Zohran Mamdani, New Yorkers, and illegal immigrants.
📍WHEN & WHERE: The comments were made in a June 2021 interview with SAAG Interactive in Mamdani’s capacity as an assemblyman.
💬KEY QUOTE: “What this fund would do is provide some modicum of relief [to illegals]. And this fund was won in many ways because of the pressure brought by [illegals] that the state doesn’t even recognize, the state does not even see,” Mamdani said.
🎯IMPACT: Mamdani’s pro-illegal immigrant stance has drawn criticism from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials and highlights his broader platform of supporting illegal immigrants, including expanding sanctuary city policies.
Democratic candidate for New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani described securing taxpayer funding for unemployment benefits for illegal immigrants as one of his “greatest victories” during a 2021 interview with SAAG Interactive. The fund, known as the Excluded Workers Fund, was created for illegal alien workers who were ineligible for federal and state unemployment benefits.
“When I think of the greatest victories in Albany this year, I think the excluded workers fund,” the Uganda-born assemblyman said. He continued, “And what this fund would do is provide some modicum of relief. And this fund was won in many ways because of the pressure brought by those that the state doesn’t even recognize, the state does not even see.”
“Without the pressure from those individuals, members of the state would never have taken this action because nothing happens because of benevolence, it happens because of pressure,” he added.
Mamdani’s campaign website outlines his commitment to expanding protections for illegal immigrants in New York City. The avowed socialist and Muslim extremist‘s platform includes measures to strengthen the city’s sanctuary policies, eliminate cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and increase legal support for undocumented residents.
Meanwhile, acting ICE Director Todd Lyons has criticized Mamdani for his silence following the recent shooting of a Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officer in New York City. “His silence in the face of this brutal attack speaks volumes about where his priorities lie, and it’s not with public safety and the American people,” Lyons said of Mamdani, who only became a U.S. citizen in 2018.
Mamdani has also faced scrutiny for his support of the anti-Semitic Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel, which he discussed in the same 2021 interview. Other past comments include anti-NYPD posts accusing police of controlling minorities and the poor, and calls for the defunding of the NYPD and the abolition of prisons.
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