By: Andrew Carlson

The explosive New York City mayoral race took another dramatic turn this week as House Republicans called for the Justice Department to investigate the naturalization process of Democratic Socialist frontrunner Zohran Mamdani, questioning whether the Queens assemblyman should have ever been granted U.S. citizenship in the first place.

According to a report that appeared on Saturday in The New York Post, Florida Rep. Randy Fine and Tennessee Rep. Andy Ogles have both formally urged federal authorities to review Mamdani’s 2018 naturalization, claiming the socialist candidate—who leads in most current polls—may have concealed affiliations and ideological ties that could have disqualified him under U.S. immigration law.

The requests mark an unprecedented intervention by members of Congress into the citizenship status of a major New York political figure. If pursued, the probe could become the first instance in modern U.S. history where a leading mayoral contender faces the possibility of denaturalization and deportation while seeking the nation’s largest municipal office.

Speaking to The New York Post, Rep. Randy Fine said the Justice Department should “review every naturalization of the past 30 years—starting with Mamdani.” He argued that the country has “an enemy within,” suggesting that certain naturalized citizens have used their status to “undermine American values from within the system.”

“If they’re not Americans, they can’t be in office,” Fine told The Post. “I just think we need to take a hard look at how these folks became citizens, and if there is any fraud or any violation of the rules we need to denaturalize and deport.”

Fine also named Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), a Somali-born member of the progressive “Squad,” as another lawmaker whose naturalization he believes warrants review.

“Mamdani is a threat to the nation,” Fine said. “There’s a lot of us who are very concerned about the enemy within—people who have come to this country to become citizens, to destroy it.”

The Florida congressman dismissed concerns about the constitutional implications of revoking citizenship from an elected official, saying bluntly that “if they’re not Americans, they shouldn’t be serving in government.”

As The New York Post first reported in June, Tennessee Rep. Andy Ogles was the first to call for a federal inquiry into Mamdani’s naturalization process, accusing the 34-year-old lawmaker of lying on his citizenship application. Ogles claims Mamdani failed to disclose his membership in the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA)—a group the congressman described as “a communist organization.”

“Deport Mamdani!” Ogles declared in a statement quoted in The New York Post report. “He is an antisemitic, socialist, communist who will destroy the great City of New York.”

In an interview with Newsmax, Ogles elaborated on his accusation, claiming that joining the DSA prior to naturalization would have rendered Mamdani ineligible for U.S. citizenship.

“In 2018 when he was naturalized, he failed to disclose some of the things that he had been doing, one of which was joining the Democratic Socialists of America,” Ogles said. “That’s a communist organization which, quite frankly, at that time would have disqualified him from becoming a United States citizen.”

Ogles also cited Mamdani’s previous calls to free the “Holy Land Five”—a group of Palestinian-American leaders of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, convicted in 2008 for funneling millions of dollars to the terrorist organization Hamas.

Under U.S. immigration law, any individual who has “been a member of or affiliated with the Communist or any other totalitarian party” is inadmissible to the United States. The naturalization form specifically requires applicants to disclose whether they have ever been “associated in any way with any Communist or totalitarian party anywhere in the world.”

The New York Post report noted that President Trump has repeatedly called Mamdani “a communist lunatic” at campaign rallies.

Responding to the firestorm, Mamdani dismissed the accusations in a statement on Sunday to The New York Post, calling the Republican-led campaign “a cynical stunt” aimed at deflecting attention from the ongoing federal shutdown.

“No matter how many times these Republican Congress members or the president of this country calls me a communist, it doesn’t make it true,” Mamdani told The Post Sunday.

The Ugandan-born lawmaker—whose parents immigrated to the United States when he was seven—defended his political affiliation with the Democratic Socialists of America, emphasizing that the group operates legally and openly within the U.S. political system.

“I’m proud to be a democratic socialist,” Mamdani said. “I think it’s telling that in a moment when their Republican Party has shut down the federal government and thrown four million Americans off their healthcare, when military families are lining up at food banks, they would rather focus on my citizenship.”

Mamdani specifically denied ever being a member of the Communist Party, insisting that the DSA’s platform, which advocates for expanded public housing, universal healthcare, and workers’ rights, “has nothing to do with communism.”

The citizenship probe comes on the heels of a separate controversy that drew widespread criticism earlier this month, when Mamdani posted a smiling photo on X (formerly Twitter) alongside Imam Siraj Wahhaj, a Brooklyn cleric named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing that killed six people.

The photo, The New York Post reported, provoked outrage among both Jewish and moderate Muslim groups, who accused Mamdani of “embracing extremism.” Wahhaj, a longtime figure in radical Islamist circles, has been accused of delivering sermons calling for jihad and defending convicted terrorists.

Republicans seized on the image as further evidence of Mamdani’s “radical sympathies.” Ogles and Fine both cited the photo in follow-up statements to The New York Post, saying it underscored the urgency of a Justice Department investigation.

“Every week we learn something new about Mamdani’s dangerous associations,” Ogles said. “It’s time the DOJ stepped in and determined whether this man’s path to citizenship was legitimate.”

The Justice Department declined to comment directly on whether an investigation into Mamdani’s naturalization had been opened, but in a statement to The New York Post, a DOJ spokesperson said: “Due to the Democrats’ shutdown, congressional correspondence is delayed. The department does not comment on the status of ongoing or potential investigations.”

The response neither confirmed nor denied whether a review is underway, though several former immigration prosecutors quoted in The New York Post report said such an inquiry, while rare, is legally possible under 8 U.S.C. §1451, the federal statute governing denaturalization proceedings.

If the DOJ were to find evidence that Mamdani knowingly misrepresented facts during his naturalization, prosecutors could, in theory, initiate proceedings to revoke his citizenship and seek his removal from the United States.

However, as The New York Post report pointed out, actual denaturalizations are exceedingly rare and typically reserved for cases involving terrorism, war crimes, or deliberate fraud.

The accusations have intensified an already combustible political climate surrounding Mamdani’s historic mayoral bid. As The New York Post has documented, the 34-year-old assemblyman has built his campaign around progressive policies such as defunding the NYPD’s Strategic Response Group, expanding public housing, and opposing “corporate real estate control” over the city’s development.

Critics, however, view him as emblematic of a radical ideological shift in New York politics, particularly within the Democratic Party’s far-left flank.

Rep. Shri Thanedar (D-Mich.), one of the few Democrats to comment publicly on the matter, condemned the rhetoric from Ogles and Fine as “reckless and xenophobic,” urging House leadership to censure Ogles for his “deportation demands.”

“This kind of inflammatory language undermines the values of our democracy,” Thanedar told The New York Post.

Still, political strategists quoted by The Post say the controversy could damage Mamdani’s campaign, particularly among moderate Democrats and Jewish voters, many of whom remain wary of his harsh criticism of Israel and his prior statements defending pro-Hamas organizations.

As The New York Post report observed, the Mamdani case tests the intersection between immigration law, political ideology, and democratic eligibility. While Congress has the power to investigate potential fraud, it remains uncertain whether ideological membership in a political organization—even one viewed as socialist—constitutes grounds for denaturalization.

Legal experts told The Post that any action by the DOJ would likely face constitutional challenges under the First Amendment, which protects freedom of association and political belief.

Still, for Mamdani, the issue poses a profound political liability. While he continues to lead the field for mayor, The New York Post report noted that Republican strategists are already preparing to make his citizenship controversy a central theme of the general election campaign, framing it as “a question of trust, loyalty, and transparency.”

For now, Zohran Mamdani remains defiant, dismissing the Republican-led calls for his deportation as “fearmongering” aimed at derailing a progressive movement gaining traction in America’s largest city. Yet as The New York Post has chronicled, the mounting questions about his naturalization and his political associations ensure that the issue will continue to shadow his campaign.

Whether the Justice Department acts—or refrains—could shape not only Mamdani’s political fate but also the broader national debate over immigration, ideology, and the boundaries of American citizenship in an era of rising populist and socialist movements.

As one longtime political observer told The New York Post, “If the DOJ moves forward, this becomes a constitutional crisis. If it doesn’t, it becomes an election issue. Either way, Mamdani’s citizenship—once a private matter—is now at the very center of New York’s political future.”