From Fox News: Zohran Mamdani, the leading New York City mayoral candidate who has been branded as a “communist” by GOP critics including President Donald Trump, plans to invest $165 million in legal defense services for immigrants if elected this November.
Mamdani, a self-proclaimed Democratic socialist, called the policy proposal a “cornerstone” of his campaign on MSNBC’s “The Weekend” on Sept. 21, while affirming his commitment to increase funding by more than $100 million for New Yorkers he said are “in urgent risk of deportation.”
The 33-year-old mayoral hopeful fails to specify who qualifies to benefit from the $165 million fund. A distinction between legal and illegal immigration is missing from Mamdani’s proposal, and his campaign did not respond to Fox News Digital’s attempt to clarify.
Among the $165 million funding commitment, Mamdani is planning to increase funding for the Rapid Response Legal Collaborative from $500,000 to $25 million, “ensure families can stay together” by increasing funding from $16 million to $30 million for the New York Immigrant Family Unit Program and increasing funding from $20 million to $40 million for the Immigrant Opportunity Initiative.
“A cornerstone of our campaign is to increase funding for those very legal defense services by more than $100 million so that we can ensure we’re taking every step we can to keep New Yorkers safe, to keep New Yorkers together, and to show the world that they are welcome in this city,” the Muslim Democrat socialist declared in his MSNBC interview.
Mandani touted the New York City’s sanctuary city policies “that keep us safe.”
He claimed that there are 400,000 “of our residents in urgent risk of deportation.”
🔥WOWZERS..Called it. THE MAIN REASON ZOHRAN MAMDANI IS BEING INSTALLED IS TO IMPEDE ICE DEPORTATIONS.
He just said he increasing staffing of the LAW DEPARTMENT BY 200, 100 Million more will BUDGETED FOR LEGAL SERVICES..right 400k ILLEGALS are at URGENT risk of deportation… pic.twitter.com/QVBo52PQ5L— Johnny St.Pete (@JohnMcCloy) September 21, 2025
NYC council member Robert Holden blasted Mamdani, writing in a post on X, “New York is in a fiscal crisis, and Mamdani wants to rip another $100 million from taxpayers to bankroll deportation defense, rewarding lawbreaking while seniors, classrooms, sanitation, and public safety go without. It spits in the face of every immigrant who played by the rules, and I will fight this giveaway with everything I’ve got.”
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