NYC Italian Community Rips Mayor Mamdani Over Massive Snub
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is facing new criticism from a storied ethnic group that helped build the Big Apple.
And members of the group don’t appear to be in any mood to embrace the mayor anytime soon.
An Italian American advocacy organization is shredding Mamdani after Little Italy was omitted from a city neighborhood map created as part of a tourism campaign tied to the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
The map, titled “New York City Immigrant Enclaves,” was developed by New York City Tourism + Conventions for its NYC Neighborhood Passport campaign and has been promoted by the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs at events across the city.
The map, titled “New York City Immigrant Enclaves,” was developed by New York City Tourism + Conventions for its NYC Neighborhood Passport campaign and has been promoted by the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs at events across the city.
The guide encourages visitors to explore 30 immigrant neighborhoods, including Chinatown, Little Palestine and Little Haiti, but does not include Little Italy.
The Italian American Civil Rights League (IACRL) accused the city of overlooking the historic neighborhood and criticized the omission in a statement posted on social media.
“Zohran Mamdani wants to ERASE Italian Americans. First, he denied our permit for Unity Day 2026. Now, he is excluding Little Italy as a recognized location all together on the map,” wrote the Italian American Civil Rights League (IACRL) on X along with a press release.
“Italian Americans BUILT NEW YORK CITY. Not third world Ugandans, We stand AGAINST COMMUNISTS,” the group added.
IACRL President Mike Crispi said Little Italy represents an important part of New York City’s immigrant history and argued that the neighborhood deserved recognition in a campaign highlighting the city’s diverse cultural communities.
According to the Library of Congress, more than 4 million Italians immigrated to the United States between the 1880s and 1924, with roughly one-third settling in New York City, making Italians the city’s largest immigrant community during the early 20th century.
The tourism map also does not identify neighborhoods associated with Irish American or Jewish communities.
Mamdani has advocated for sanctuary city policies and expanded protections for immigrants but, obviously, not all immigrants.
He’s also a big advocate for Palestinian rights over those of American Jews.
“Mamdani’s City Hall can find room for every fashionable progressive constituency, but somehow it cannot find Little Italy,” Crispi said in the press release.
“Our culture is good enough for their photo ops, our food is good enough for their fundraisers, and our neighborhoods are good enough for tourism dollars — but when it comes time to recognize Italian Americans, they erase us,” he added.
“Little Italy is sacred ground. It is where Italian immigrants came with nothing, worked like hell, opened shops, raised families, built churches, fed the city, and helped make New York what it is,” said Crispi.
The dispute is not the first time Mamdani has drawn criticism from Italian American organizations.
In 2020, he posted a photo on X showing himself raising his middle finger toward a statue of Christopher Columbus in Queens, a gesture that prompted backlash from some Italian American leaders and advocacy groups.
Vice President JD Vance traveled to New York City over Independence Day and gave speech that was worthy of praise.
It followed one the previous day by Mamdani, and the contrast couldn’t be more stark.
While Mamdani used the occasion – sitting behind George Washington’s desk – to trash the country that took him in and has given him so much, Vance’s speech focused on all the good that America has done for its citizens and for the world.
“We celebrate 250 years of America facing the future without fear. We celebrate 250 years of proving what a free people can achieve by the providence of our almighty Creator,” he said.
Vance went on to urge the country to unite on America’s 250th birthday and remember exactly why and how it was founded.
“We are a people formed by generations of self-governance and personal industry. We are formed by Frontier Assembly Hall and Congregation, by River Valley and Prairie and Factory Floor,” Vance shared.
Trump Admin Says It Uncovered $10 Billion Obamacare Fraud Scheme
The Trump administration says it has uncovered what it describes as a massive fraud scheme within the Affordable Care Act.
Members of Trump’s administration allege that roughly $10 billion in taxpayer money was improperly paid out between 2021 and 2024 because of weakened enrollment safeguards under former President Joe Biden.
According to a Department of Health and Human Services report, officials have already removed nearly three million fraudulent or improper Obamacare enrollments and estimate another 2.6 million questionable enrollments remain.
Administration officials say the findings are part of a broader government-wide effort to eliminate fraud, waste, and abuse across federal programs.
The report traces the alleged problems to changes made during the Biden administration that expanded enrollment opportunities while relaxing income verification and eligibility checks.
At the start of Biden’s presidency, approximately 10 million people were enrolled through the Affordable Care Act exchanges. By 2024, enrollment had surged to roughly 22 million.
Federal investigators now believe millions of those enrollments were improper, fraudulent, or created without the knowledge of the individuals involved.
“By our estimate, improper, phantom, and fraudulent enrollment peaked at 5.6 million people in 2025,” the report states.
“We estimate 2.6 million improper and phantom enrollments remain, including over 1 million enrollments without a Social Security number.”
According to the report, several different forms of abuse contributed to the alleged fraud.
Officials say some applicants intentionally understated their income to qualify for larger taxpayer-funded subsidies.
Others allegedly received premium assistance despite failing to meet eligibility requirements.
Investigators also identified what they describe as “phantom enrollments,” in which insurance brokers allegedly enrolled people in Obamacare plans without their knowledge to collect federal commissions.
The report argues that reduced verification requirements made those practices significantly easier to carry out.
Since taking office, the Trump administration says it has restored stricter income verification requirements, ended several special enrollment periods, increased screening for duplicate Medicaid enrollment, and launched investigations into brokers suspected of creating phantom policies.
Officials also say they have strengthened oversight of agents participating in the federal marketplace.
As a result of those efforts, nearly three million enrollments have already been removed from the Affordable Care Act exchanges.
Even after those removals, approximately 19.2 million people remain enrolled.
The administration says its goal is not to reduce legitimate coverage but to ensure taxpayer dollars are being spent only on individuals who actually qualify.
“Preserving the fiscal and programmatic integrity of the ACA Exchanges is key to safeguarding taxpayer-funded resources for those that truly need them,” the report states.
“The federal government paying brokers to enroll individuals without their knowledge is not.”
The report also says the administration will continue pursuing additional enforcement actions against brokers and others accused of exploiting the program.
“The Trump Administration continues to aggressively root out fraud, waste, abuse, and corruption by promulgating new regulations to improve program integrity, investigating suspected improper or fraudulent enrollment, and taking action against agents and brokers committing fraud.”
The findings are likely to reignite debate over the Affordable Care Act and how aggressively eligibility rules should be enforced.
Supporters of the administration argue the report demonstrates that stricter oversight is necessary to protect taxpayers and preserve benefits for those legally entitled to receive them.
Critics of previous verification rollbacks have long warned that loosening enrollment safeguards could increase improper payments and fraud, while supporters of the Biden-era policies argued the changes made healthcare more accessible to eligible Americans, Fox News reported exclusively.
The administration says its investigations remain ongoing, with an estimated 2.6 million additional enrollments still under review as officials continue auditing the federal health insurance exchanges.
Trump has been pushing to replace Obamacare for over a decade, and this may give Republicans enough motivation to actually do something.
