Mamdani responds to Trump: America's history is written by immigrants

New York Mayor Zahran Mamdani delivered a speech that carried a blunt political tone on the 250th anniversary of the United States' independence, saying that his country's history is "written by immigrants," in a message that appeared to be directed directly at US President Donald Trump's anti-immigration policies.

Speaking from the New York City Hall, Mamdani spoke surrounded by a number of naturalized American citizens, reviewing the waves of immigration that have shaped the city's identity over the centuries, from the Irish who fled the famine, to the Chinese, Italians, Jews, Syrians and others, stressing that they "helped make New York City, despite federal laws that tried to prevent their entry."

In an indirect response to  Trump's policies, Mamdani said that "the legacy of every generation of Americans who insisted that the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness also includes it, is not just a memory of the past," referring to the ongoing battle for civil rights and citizenship.

The speech comes days after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled to reject the Trump administration's efforts to end citizenship by birth, a decision that kept the principle of automatically granting citizenship to most people born on U.S. soil.

A counter-message to Trump's policies

Mamdani used the occasion to present a different vision of American identity, saying that the United States "gets stronger the more people it welcomes," in contrast to what he described as a vision that sees the country as "the property of those who have the right accent or the right skin color."

He added that the forces that seek exclusion and division "are trying to gain power and enrich themselves by pitting people against each other", considering that "division is the oldest and cheapest ploy in politics".

Mamdani offered  a different definition of patriotism, saying that "patriotism is not the claim that the nation is without mistakes, but rather every act of protest that seeks to correct the course, because we love this country and will not abandon it."

Mamdani, who was naturalized in 2018 as mayor of New York

Born in Uganda, Mamdani moved with his family to New York City at the age of seven, before becoming a U.S. citizen in 2018.

During his speech, he told the newly naturalized citizens that they "have a special power to define the meaning of America," stressing that the city that has welcomed millions of immigrants through the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island has always been the "symbolic gateway" to the United States.

He also pointed out that in 1776, New York was one of the arenas of resistance to British rule, and that it played a pivotal role in the history of the founding of the United States.

Supreme Court Brakes Trump

The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday issued  a ruling that some in the U.S. called "historic" rejecting the Trump administration's efforts to revoke the birthright of children born on U.S. soil to non-citizen parents or irregular immigrants.

In its unanimous decision, the court said that this right is "strictly protected under the 14th Amendment  to the Constitution and cannot be infringed upon by any presidential decree or executive action."

Legal circles have described the decision as one of the most important court rulings on immigration   in decades, stressing that the text of the Fourteenth Amendment is "explicit and inconsistent," and that any change in this right requires a full constitutional amendment that passes through Congress and the states, not through administrative decisions.

The ruling was a  political and legal blow to the Trump administration, as ending what it calls "birth tourism" was a central part of its hardline campaign platform on immigration, and in return, the decision was widely welcomed by civil society organizations, human rights groups, and the Democratic Party, who saw it as a victory for America's constitutional legacy and a fairness to the hundreds of thousands of families who depend on this right.

Trump's upcoming speech

Trump will speak later today from Mount Rushmore, as part of the 250th anniversary celebrations of independence, where the United States will commemorate on July 4 the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, which was passed in 1776 declaring the secession of the 13 American colonies from the British crown.

The occasion, known as the "250th Jubilee" or America 250, is one of the most prominent national milestones in the country's history, as it includes official and popular celebrations, military and cultural parades throughout the year, as the US administration seeks to highlight the historical heritage of the United States, at a time when the occasion coincides with sharp political divisions over issues of identity, immigration and the future of democracy.