New York City lawmakers are staring in disbelief as leading mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani pledges to boost taxpayer funding for deportation defense by over $100 million dollars.
Mamdani, a New York State Assembly member and self-described democratic socialist, has put forward a plan to turbocharge public spending on deportation defense for illegal migrants, pledging to more than triple the Big Apple’s current spending if elected to the mayor’s office. He’s touting the audacious proposal as local officials repeatedly warn that the city is walking a fiscal tightrope.
{snip}
New York City is no stranger to doling out taxpayer dollars on illegal migrants contesting deportation orders.
The Big Apple shelled out $17,350,000 in fiscal year 2022, $16,600,000 in fiscal year 2023, and another $16,600,000 in fiscal year 2024 on the New York Immigrant Family Unity Project (NYIFUP), which specializes in providing representation for foreign nationals who’ve been detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), according to city budget data. {snip}
NYC’s 2026 budget, passed in June, allocates $54.5 million in taxpayer funding for foreign nationals fighting deportation orders, an amount outgoing Mayor Eric Adams said is more than what any other city spends. However, Mamdani believes current funding isn’t nearly enough.
“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 far-left candidate said during an appearance on MSNBC earlier in September.
Funding for deportation defense would skyrocket to $165 million under a Mamdani administration, according to his campaign website.
The Democratic socialist lawmaker wants to increase funding of the NYIFUP from $16 million to $30 million while ratcheting up spending on other immigration legal services by millions of dollars. The funding increases are part of Mamdani’s plans for “Trump-proofing” NYC.
{snip}
City Council opposition to Mamdani’s proposal extends beyond the political aisle, with one Democrat vowing to fight “with everything I’ve got” against it.
{snip}
The post Mamdani’s $100 Million Deportation Defense Pledge Leaves NYC Lawmakers in Utter Disbelief appeared first on American Renaissance.
American Renaissance
