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FIRST ON FOX: A House GOP lawmaker is calling on the Department of Justice (DOJ) to denaturalize and deport New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani.
Rep. Andy Ogles, R-Tenn., is sending a new request to the DOJ to probe Mamdani, a self-declared Democratic socialist and New York State assemblyman, who is the frontrunner in the race to lead the Big Apple.
Since his initial inquiry in June, Ogles wrote that “additional public reporting has raised further questions about Mr. Mamdani’s past statements and associations, including his refusal to disavow violent anti-American rhetoric and continued public praise for individuals convicted of providing material support to Hamas.”
Mamdani, who holds dual citizenship with the U.S. and Uganda, was naturalized as an American in 2018.
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It is illegal to deport American citizens. A denaturalization process can occur if it can be proven via federal court that someone’s citizenship was fraudulently obtained.
“No individual, regardless of public office or public profile, should be shielded from accountability if credible evidence indicates deception or concealment during the citizenship process,” Ogles wrote.
“I again urge the Department to open a formal investigation into whether Mr. Mamdani’s public expressions of support for the Holy Land Foundation’s convicted leadership, and his ongoing rhetoric sympathetic to anti-Israel and anti-U.S. movements, were disclosed as required during his naturalization.”
The Holy Land Foundation was accused in a U.S. court of having ties to Hamas.
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The New York Post reported that Mamdani praised the group’s founders in a 2017 rap song he released under the name “Mr. Cardamom.”
The mayoral hopeful has also been accused multiple times on the campaign trail of being overly sympathetic to Hamas, the Palestinian terror group that was behind the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks in Israel.
He is also a fervent critic of Israel and its war in Gaza, pledging to arrest Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he set foot in New York City.
But Mamdani has painted a more moderate picture of himself as he pledges to be a mayor for all New Yorkers, regardless of whether they supported him or not.
He has never explicitly expressed support for Hamas but has avoided directly weighing in on the group on multiple occasions until a recent debate against his fellow mayoral candidates, where he said, “Of course, I believe that they should lay down their arms.”
Ogles’ letter said, “The United States must uphold the integrity of its citizenship process and ensure that those who seek to represent the public meet the highest standards of loyalty to this Nation.”
Fox News Digital reached out to Mamdani’s campaign for a response but did not hear back.
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