New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani took aim at U.S.Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, Elon Musk and what he described as the "arena of supremacy" in the United States during an immigration-themed America 250 speech on Friday ahead of Fourth of July weekend.Flanked by eight recently naturalized U.S.
citizens, Mamdani invoked the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island and America's history of immigration before turning his rhetoric on elements of today's U.S.Mamdani also blasted the "world's first trillionaire" --- a milestone Musk achieved with the long-awaited Initial Public Offering (IPO) of SpaceX last month."We see the wealthiest country in the history of the world, one where children go to sleep hungry while the world's first trillionaire hungers for more," Mamdani said, without naming Musk.
"We see monopolies that dominate every industry, and oligarchs who buy elections.We see masked agents terrorizing our streets, eating food cooked by our undocumented neighbors before spiriting them away in unmarked vans.""We see a nation whose immense wealth has been built by those with calloused, dirt-streaked hands, those who toil on factory floors and chisel into stone.
And we see a nation that has allowed so much of that wealth to be held instead in the soft hands of a precious few," he added.Mamdani also praised the legacy of immigrants, claiming that they have overcome riots "aimed at their very existence," to create lives in New York.FETTERMAN WARNS MAMDANI RISKS 'CONSTITUTIONAL CRISIS' BY VOWING TO DEFY SCOTUS IMMIGRATION RULINGNew York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani delivers a speech to mark the 250th anniversary of the United States of America at City Hall on July 3, 2026.(Anna Connors/Pool via REUTERS)"Over the years that followed, despite laws enacted by the federal government to bar their entry, despite sweatshop fires that killed hundreds of women, despite riots aimed at their very existence, immigrants made homes here in New York City, and they helped t...