Mamdani delivers pro-immigration speech on July 4, says America’s strength lies in welcoming immigrants
New York City Mayor Zahran Mamdani delivered a pro-immigration speech on Friday to mark the 250th anniversary of US independence, offering an alternative vision of America to President Donald Trump hours before the president’s scheduled speech at Mount Rushmore.Speaking from New York City Hall while sitting behind a desk once used by George Washington and surrounded by newly naturalized American citizens carrying American flags, Mamdani positioned immigration as a core element of the country’s identity and criticized what he described as efforts to define America by exclusion. Although he did not mention Trump by name, several statements appeared to target the administration’s immigration policies.
“If you ask them, America becomes smaller the more people it welcomes,” Mamdani said. “They’ll tell you that America only belongs to those who speak the right accent or the right color of skin. They insist that the rest of us should be grateful just to be allowed to visit.”The mayor, a naturalized U.S. citizen born in Uganda to parents of Indian descent, recalls seeing the Statue of Liberty from a plane when he first arrived in the United States, and said the country is constantly being reshaped by immigrants, activists and ordinary citizens striving to uphold the ideals of the Declaration of Independence.
Referring to immigration enforcement, Mamdani said: “We see masked agents terrorizing our streets, eating food cooked by our undocumented neighbors before transporting them away in unmarked trucks. We see a nation whose vast wealth was built by those with hard, dirt-stained hands — those who toil on factory floors and carve stone — and we see a nation that has allowed much of that wealth to be kept instead in the soft hands of a precious few.”
“Calling division the “oldest” and “cheapest” trick in politics, Mamdani said exclusionary politics has been defeated time and time again throughout American history.“At every moment of our past, those who led through exclusion and isolation have tried to win power and enrich themselves by pitting us against each other,” he said. “Time and time again, including 250 years ago, these forces of division have been defeated by the forces of progress.”He highlighted the role of the New Americans and said: “The work to achieve the values set forth for the first time in the Declaration of Independence is that this work will continue, and it belongs to all of us. It also belongs to the New Americans, those who stand with me here today, all of whom were recently naturalized.”“For nearly a decade, I too have felt what you feel, the joy of not just being a New Yorker, but an American,” added Mamdani, who became a US citizen in 2018.The mayor ended his speech with a call for unity, saying: “Those ideals upon which our nation was built are strong enough to withstand any tyrannical regime, but only if we reach them.”He added, “Our nation works every day toward the perfection with which it was born, a nation that seeks every day to improve itself. And here lies America’s work: to strive, improve, and reach perfection.”The speech marks Mamdani’s latest appearance on the national political stage after a string of victories by candidates he endorsed in New York’s Democratic primaries. Under the US Constitution, Mamdani is ineligible to run for president because he is not a natural born citizen. He rejected calls to amend the constitution, saying it “sounds good as it is.”Trump is scheduled to deliver his own speech at Mount Rushmore as part of nationwide celebrations marking the country’s 250th anniversary, with events across the US including fireworks displays, military flyovers and commemorative ceremonies.
