New York, NY – June 4, 2025. DRUM Beats, a grassroots organization advocating for the rights of South Asian and Indo-Caribbean immigrant communities, has strongly denounced recent remarks made by New York City Councilmember Vickie Paladino targeting Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani. The comments, which included calls for deportation, were widely condemned as xenophobic and Islamophobic.
The controversy arose from Paladino’s public reaction to a 2019 tweet by Mamdani, in which he reflected on his excitement to vote in a U.S. presidential election for the first time and support Senator Bernie Sanders. Paladino questioned the legitimacy of Mamdani’s elected office, citing his relatively recent citizenship status and accusing him of harboring radical anti-American views.
“Councilmember Paladino’s comments about Zohran Mamdani reflect a long-standing pattern: elected officials using xenophobic and Islamophobic rhetoric to signal who belongs in public life, and who doesn’t,” said Fahd Ahmed, Executive Director of DRUM Beats.
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DRUM Beats emphasized that these remarks are part of a broader, troubling narrative used by politicians across party lines to marginalize working-class immigrant communities—particularly South Asian and Muslim Americans. The organization asserts that Paladino’s comments do not merely reflect personal prejudice but reveal systemic biases that undermine democratic inclusion.
“Time and again, our communities are treated as outsiders,” the organization said in its official release. “Now, when someone from these communities rises into leadership, the response is still to call for their removal—not on merit, but on the grounds of identity.”
The group framed the attack as a broader assault on inclusive politics, noting that campaigns like Mamdani’s represent a shift in political power toward communities long excluded from decision-making.
“This moment isn’t just about one person’s words; it’s about the politics that allow them to go unchecked,” Ahmed added.
DRUM Beats reaffirmed its commitment to building political systems that reflect the voices and interests of working-class immigrant communities.