Mary Rooke Commentary and Analysis Writer
Tuesday night’s Democratic primary for the New York City mayoral race exposed a serious flaw in our immigration system. America is a heartbeat away from a self-declared socialist controlling America’s largest city, despite several examples of his hatred for our country and the ideals on which it was founded.
Socialist Zohran Mamdani secured the top spot as the Democratic candidate for NYC mayor on Tuesday, which should prompt Americans to take a closer look at how we vet legal immigrants seeking entry into the country.
2. Mamdani’s base is young, college-educated, and overwhelmingly progressive.
Among 18–34-year-old college grads, 67% rank Mamdani first, compared to just 6% for Cuomo.
One in four of Mamdani’s support base comes from 18–34 year olds. pic.twitter.com/mX28hO0eR2
— Jesse Arm (@Jesse_Leg) June 17, 2025
The federal government does background checks on all immigrants seeking to enter our country. It’s common sense because having violent criminals or terrorists living in our communities is incredibly unsafe. So then why don’t we check for ties to ideological terrorism, like hating America or blaming our country for 9/11, that cause similar damage to our communities?
This is not to say that everyone who enters our country should have to agree with the current administration on every issue. However, at the base of it all, each immigrant should be able to answer “yes” to these questions:
- Do you respect the U.S. and the ideals that make this country great?
- Are you willing to promote American ideals and further the mission the Founding Fathers started?
- Do you promise to protect the U.S. from insidious ideologies that paint American history as barbaric and inherently evil?
The idea that all legal immigration is good is flawed and hurting our nation. It is not radical to want the people living in our country to love, respect, and care for it. It’s well past time that the federal government ensures that anyone knocking on our door isn’t trying to enter to burn the house down from the inside out. (Sign up for Mary Rooke’s weekly newsletter here!)
While there have been examples in the past of legal immigrants like Democrat Representatives Ilhan Omar, Shri Thanedar, and others, who espouse anti-American ideals while in office, there has never been someone who has openly run as a socialist with a clear path to gaining political power. Typically, they’ll wrap themselves in double-speak in an attempt to cloak their true motives, unlike Mamdani, who openly advocates for government-controlled grocery stores, free transportation, and government-enforced rent prices.
ALERT 🚨 NYC – Wake Up Before It’s Too Late
Zohran Mamdani just revealed the truth behind his political career – it’s not about public service.
It’s about Palestine (Islam) and socialism.
It’s about using Islamic grievance and Marxist ideology to seize power, not serve the… pic.twitter.com/SYMej8VVd2
— Amy Mek (@AmyMek) June 18, 2025
Sometimes it’s not always easy to determine whether a person holds certain views. However, with Mamdani’s family, the proof of their beliefs was evident long before they arrived in the United States in 2018.
Mamdani’s father, Mahmood Mamdani, was born in India but grew up in Uganda. He received a scholarship to study in the United States and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science from the University of Pittsburgh in 1967. He also holds degrees from Tufts University and Harvard University.
He is a professor of anthropology, political science, and history, currently affiliated with Columbia University. However, he has been a visiting professor in the U.S. for decades, including at the University of Michigan and Princeton University. While the average American likely doesn’t know who he is, academic elites and those who run in self-important Washington, D.C. circles would have known precisely what Mahmood Mamdani stands for.
The apple falls DIRECTLY under the tree! Zohran Mamdani’s father Mahmood Mamdani, one of the Columbia professors who supported the encampment, denies that there is antisemitism on campus – as if HE’S the authority on antisemitism! Zohran sounds EXACTLY like this on the campaign… pic.twitter.com/K2a8ZqPfdG
— Canary Mission (@canarymission) June 12, 2025
Mahmood infamously wrote “Good Muslim, Bad Muslim: A Political Perspective on Culture and Terrorism” just one year after the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York City. His piece claims that terrorism, particularly Islamic terrorism, is a modern political response to historical encounters with Western power, especially U.S. foreign policy. Simply, his theory seems to claim it’s the West’s fault that Islamic terrorists killed almost 3,000 people at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, that day. (ROOKE: Two-Pronged Approach Could Be Trump’s Deportation Silver Bullet)
He’s also written several books that hold anti-colonialist views, like “When Victims Become Killers: Colonialism, Nativism and Genocide in Rwanda,” which blamed the Rwandan genocide on European colonialism and not hatred between the groups.
MAMDANI in 2020: “Defunding the police is a feminist issue.” https://t.co/tsZoQOXRrX
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) June 25, 2025
The Mamdani family is the perfect example of the alarming rise of radical left-wing activism in our country. The ideals to which both men subscribe are, at their very nature, anti-American. And yet, our immigration system not only allows them into our country but also gives them a shot at governing power. This process needs to change if we want to have a chance at preserving our nation for future generations.
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