Chip Roy introduces the MAMDANI Act to punish immigrants for ideology—including socialism and Marxism

In the 1950s, a little-known junior senator from Wisconsin led an intense anti-communist line of questioning of fellow Congressmembers, well-known celebrities, immigrants, and labor unions. The “second Red Scare” led to the blacklisting of prominent members of society for their alleged associations with communism, anarchy, and radical left ideology, with some being arrested and even deported. When Rep. Chip Roy introduced the MAMDANI Act this week, he may not have been thinking of McCarthyism, but he was making a direct reference to New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani. The Measures Against Marxism’s Dangerous Adherents and Noxious Islamists (MAMDANI) Act is an immigration proposal that would make noncitizens deportable and ineligible for naturalization, and even potentially subject to denaturalization over ties to or advocacy for socialism, communism, Marxism, Chinese communism, or “Islamic fundamentalism.” “Why do we continue to import people who hate us?” the Texas representative said in a press release. “Not just for the last six years, but for the last 60 years, our immigration system has been cynically used to disadvantage American workers’ competitiveness in favor of mass-importing the third world.” “By targeting the Red-Green Alliance, this legislation deploys new tools to fight back against the Marxist and Islamist advance that has devastated Europe and has now arrived on our doorstep, especially in my home state of Texas,” the statement continued. The acronym references Mamdani, the 34-year-old democratic socialist who was sworn in as New York City’s mayor on Jan. 1 and became the city’s first Muslim mayor, first mayor of South Asian descent, and first mayor born in Africa. Mamdani was born in Kampala, Uganda, became a U.S. citizen in 2018, and campaigned on affordability proposals including free childcare, free bus service, and a rent freeze for rent-stabilized tenants. The act would amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to add new deportability ground…