New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani delivered a powerful speech on immigration ahead of the Fourth of July weekend, targeting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, Elon Musk, and the idea of an "arena of supremacy" in the United States.
Speaking at a podium flanked by eight recently naturalized U.S. citizens, Mamdani invoked the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, and America's history of immigration before criticizing the country's current state.
Mamdani blasted the wealthiest individuals in the country, saying, "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 referred to the power and influence of those with wealth, saying, "The powerful have always known their answer. America, in their view, is an arena of supremacy where only a select few are allowed freedom."
The mayor praised the legacy of immigrants, claiming that they have overcome adversity to create lives in New York City.
"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," Mamdani said.
Mamdani referenced his own immigrant experience, noting that he became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 2018 and that his family was able to make a life in New York City.
"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, the promise of the beautiful patriotic work of rendering America, year after year, a little more faithful to its founding ideals," he said.
Mamdani criticized the idea of American exceptionalism, saying that it has often been used to justify exclusion and isolation.
"There is a term so often used to describe our nation and those who have shaped it. American exceptionalism. American exceptionalism, the conventional wisdom tells us, makes our freedom a little more free. It is how we dug the Erie Canal and irrigated the West. Is why children in faraway lands grow up dreaming of one day moving here. And yet, the irony is that the story of America has so often been written by those who were told by others with power and influence and wealth, that they were anything but exceptional," Mamdani said.
The mayor called for a more inclusive vision of America, saying that every act of righteous dissent is a form of patriotism.
"Patriotism is every act of righteous dissent. It is every March led under the heavy sun. It is every protest held a decade before its time. It is precisely because we love this nation that we will not leave it."
Mamdani ended his speech with a rousing call to America's greatness, saying, "What power each of us holds to bring America ever closer to the greatness so many have seen when they looked upon these shores. The greatness that for 250 years has been America. Thank you. God bless America. God bless New York City. And happy Fourth of July."
