Trump's government threatens to strip Zohran Mamdani’s citizenship - what could happen next

Some Republican lawmakers have called for Zohran Mamdani to be 'stripped' of his US citizenship.

Mamdani, 34, was elected the mayor of New York last Tuesday (4 November), much to the delight of many people living in the Big Apple, as well as people across the rest of the nation and wider world. Many were delighted to welcome in the popular democratic socialist, who is set to become the city’s most liberal mayor in generations.

However, it's clear that Donald Trump - who backed Mamdani's opponent Andrew Cuomo - was far from happy about the news, having previously been accused of being an 'authoritarian dictator' after threatening to withhold funding from the city if Mamdani were to be elected.

He also paved the way for misleading questions about the politician's citizenship and falsely accused him of being a communist, despite Mamdani addressing the fact he's a democratic socialist on a number of occasions now.

Mamdani's citizenship explained

Now, Mamdani's win made history after he became NYC's first Muslim mayor, the first of South Asian heritage, and the first born in Africa - he was born in Uganda and moved to the States in 1998 at the age of seven.

He then became a US citizen in 2018, with Al Jazeera reporting that for adults to become US citizens, they generally must have lived continuously in the country as a lawful permanent resident for five years, or three years if married to a US citizen.

Attacks on Mamdani’s citizenship

Several Republican lawmakers have called for investigations into Mamdani’s naturalisation process and urged that his US citizenship be revoked and he be deported, accusing him - without evidence - of supporting communist and 'terrorist' activities.

"If Mamdani lied on his naturalisation documents, he doesn’t get to be a citizen, and he certainly doesn’t get to run for mayor of New York City. A great American city is on the precipice of being run by a communist who has publicly embraced a terroristic ideology," Andy Ogles, from the Republican party, said in a news release dated 29 October, after asking US Attorney General Pam Bondi to investigate Mamdani.

"The American naturalisation system REQUIRES any alignments with communism or terrorist activities to be disclosed. I’m doubtful he disclosed them. If this is confirmed, put him on the first flight back to Uganda."

PolitiFact found no credible evidence that Mamdani lied on his citizenship application.

The process of revoking a person’s citizenship, also known as denaturalisation, can be done only by judicial order.

"It’s been used sparingly, such as for removing Nazis who fled to the U.S. after World War II or people convicted of or associated with terrorism," PolitiFact adds.

An expert's take

In short, in order to revoke Mamdani’s citizenship, the federal government would have to present evidence in a criminal or civil case that Mamdani made a false statement in his citizenship application, and the statement would have affected his application.

Now, immigration law experts have outlined that they have seen no evidence to support Ogles' assertions about Mamdani’s application.

"Denaturalisation is an extreme, rare remedy that requires the government to prove either illegal procurement or a willful, material lie - at a minimum, clear, unequivocal and convincing evidence that the fact would have changed the outcome at the time of naturalisation," said immigration lawyer Jeremy McKinney.

"I’ve seen no credible proof he was ineligible when he took the oath or that any omission was material."