New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani delivered a speech Friday ahead of the July 4th holiday, criticizing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, billionaire Elon Musk, and what he described as an "arena of supremacy" in the United States. Mamdani's remarks, made during an immigration-themed address marking America's 250th anniversary, were delivered alongside eight recently naturalized U.S. citizens.
Invoking the Statue of Liberty and the nation's history of immigration, Mamdani focused on contemporary issues. He criticized the concentration of wealth, stating, "We see the wealthiest country in the history of the world, one where children go to sleep hungry while the world's first trillionaire hungers for more." He also spoke of "monopolies that dominate every industry, and oligarchs who buy elections," and described masked agents as "terrorizing our streets, eating food cooked by our undocumented neighbors before spiriting them away in unmarked vans." Mamdani drew a contrast between the nation's wealth and the laborers who built it, noting, "We see a nation whose immense wealth has been built by those with calloused, dirt-streaked hands... And we see a nation that has allowed so much of that wealth to be held instead in the soft hands of a precious few."
He highlighted the historical contributions of immigrants, referencing their struggles against discriminatory laws and violence. "Over the years that followed, despite laws enacted by the federal government to bar their entry, despite sweatshop fires that killed hundreds of women, despite riots aimed at their very existence, immigrants made homes here in New York City, and they helped to make New York City," he said. Mamdani also shared his personal experience of immigrating to New York with his family at age seven, noting, "My family did not arrive by boat, although we saw the Statue of Liberty from the window of the plane. Even from the air, we could make out the promise of America..."
Mamdani challenged the concept of "American exceptionalism," suggesting it has often been defined by those in power. "For generation after generation, we have been told that when the world has sent its people to our shores, it has not sent its best," he stated. "The truth, my friends, is that America is exceptional because here nothing is fixed into place."
The mayor, who became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 2018, addressed the newly naturalized citizens present. "The powerful have always known their answer. America, in their view, is an arena of supremacy where only a select few are allowed freedom," Mamdani asserted. "Where not all are created equal. America, if you ask them, becomes less the more people it welcomes."
He concluded by defining patriotism not as a blind acceptance of the nation's state, but as an act of commitment. "There are some who respond to those who ask for more from America with a simple refrain. 'Love it or leave it,' they say. But patriotism has never been about pretending our nation is without flaws. Patriotism is every act of righteous dissent," Mamdani said. "It is precisely because we love this nation that we will not leave it."