Chip Roy Pushes to Denaturalize and Deport Zohran Mamdani and Ilhan Omar
Republican Rep. Chip Roy of Texas is pushing for the denaturalization and deportation of leaders like New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar. It is one of the most aggressive citizenship proposals to come out of Congress in decades.
Roy has accused both of acting against American interests and meddling in U.S. foreign policy. Both are naturalized American citizens. Mamdani was born in Uganda, moved to New York as a child, and became a citizen in 2018. He took office as mayor of the nation's largest city this year. Omar came to the United States as a refugee from Somalia and became a citizen in 2000. She has represented Minnesota's 5th District in Congress since 2019.
The push builds on legislation Roy introduced on April 20, 2026, called the MAMDANI Act. The name stands for "Measures Against Marxism's Dangerous Adherents and Noxious Islamists," and the acronym points straight at the New York mayor. The bill would allow the government to deny entry, deport, refuse citizenship to, or denaturalize immigrants who advocate socialism, communism, Marxism, Chinese communism, or Islamic fundamentalism. It also covers membership in named organizations, including the Democratic Socialists of America, the Communist Party USA, the Chinese Communist Party, Hamas, Hezbollah, the Islamic State, and the Muslim Brotherhood. Mamdani is a member of the DSA.
When he filed it, Roy asked, "Why do we continue to import people who hate us?" He argued that the immigration system has been used for decades to the disadvantage of American workers, and he described the bill as a national security measure aimed at people who do not share American values.
The bill reaches further than current law in several ways. It would double the look-back period for naturalization from 10 to 20 years. It would remove the existing exception for people who joined a listed group involuntarily. It would also limit judicial review of decisions made under its deportation and denaturalization sections, which critics say would make those decisions final.
Nine Republicans have signed on as cosponsors: Reps. Barry Moore, Keith Self, Andy Ogles, Randy Fine, Josh Brecheen, Mary Miller, Brandon Gill, Diana Harshbarger, and Ralph Norman. Ogles had already asked the Justice Department in 2025 to look into Mamdani's citizenship. President Trump and other Republicans have also raised denaturalization for Omar in the past.
For now, the bill sits in the House Judiciary Committee, with no further action as of September 8. Supporters say the country has every right to screen out people who oppose its founding principles, and that citizenship obtained by people who reject those principles should be open to review.
Critics, including civil liberties groups, say the proposal would put political belief at the center of citizenship decisions, and that the Constitution protects the speech of naturalized citizens the same way it protects everyone else's. Any serious attempt to denaturalize a sitting mayor or a sitting member of Congress would almost certainly end up before the Supreme Court.
The debate is not going away. With Mamdani running the country's biggest city and Omar a regular target in national politics, the question of who gets to keep citizenship is now squarely on the table.
Should Congress be able to strip citizenship over political beliefs? YES OR NO?
