Zohran Mamdani, a candidate for mayor of New York City, has proposed allocating $100 million in city tax funds to expand legal services for undocumented immigrants. During an appearance on MSNBC’s “The Weekend,” Mamdani stated his intention to increase staffing in the city’s law department by 200 positions to restore pre-pandemic levels and strengthen efforts to keep families together.
“I would also commit to increasing the staffing of our law department by 200 to bring us back to pre-COVID levels, and to ensure that when we look at this city we are using every tool at our disposal to keep New Yorkers together, to keep families together,” Mamdani said.
He highlighted what he described as an urgent situation: “400,000 of our residents are right now in urgent risk of deportation.”
Mamdani further explained the impact of legal assistance on these residents. “The city knows that when it provides legal assistance to those same New Yorkers, their chances of going home increase 11-fold, and yet it has only assisted fewer than 200 of those New Yorkers,” he said. “That’s why also a cornerstone of our campaign is a commitment to increase funding for those very legal defense services by more than $100 million so 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.”
His proposal comes amid ongoing debate over sanctuary policies and the use of public funds for services benefiting non-citizens. Mamdani’s plan seeks both increased staffing and expanded funding for legal defense services targeting undocumented immigrants facing deportation.
