Paladino in hot water again for suggesting mayoral candidate be deported

Queens City Councilmember Vickie Paladino is in hot water for her social media again, this time for a tweet saying mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani should be deported. Gerardo Romo / NYC Council Media Unit.

By Ryan Schwach

Queens Republican Councilmember Vickie Paladino questioned the citizenship of Queens legislator and mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani and suggested he should be deported on X – once again putting her in hot water for her comments on the social media platform.

Paladino, who represents North Queens in the Council, said without evidence that Mamdani’s path to citizenship was likely “rife with illegalities" and that he only became a U.S. citizen to run for office.

Paladino’s comments almost immediately drew backlash, and were condemned by a number of Mamdani’s opponents in the Democratic primary contest, including the race’s frontrunner, Andrew Cuomo.

City Council sources told the Eagle on Tuesday that Paladino’s tweets would likely be referred to the Council’s Standards and Ethics Committee.

Paladino’s post came in response to a 2019 post by Mamdani, which was unearthed on social media this week. In Mamdani’s post, the Uganda-born assemblyman said he couldn’t vote for Senator Bernie Sanders for president in 2016 because he wasn’t a citizen yet.

“Let’s just talk about how insane it is to elect someone to any major office who hasn’t even been a US citizen for ten years,” Paladino’s post read. “Much less a radical leftist who actually hates everything about the country and is here specifically to undermine everything we’ve ever been about.”

“Deport,” she said at the conclusion of her post.

Councilmember Vickie Paladino posted that Assemblymember and candidate for mayor Zohran Mamdani should be deported and brought into question his path to citizenship. Screenshot via X

In further tweets, Paladino called Mamdani’s path to citizenship “sketchy,” and said he only became a citizen in order to run for office.

Mamdani moved to the U.S. as a kid and graduated from the Bronx High School for Science.

His campaign did not respond to a request for specifics about his path to citizenship, but his initial post suggests he became a naturalized citizen between 2016 and 2019.

“Death threats, Islamic bigotry. Now a sitting Councilmember is calling for my deportation,” Mamdani said in response to Paladino’s messages. “This is what Trump and his sycophants have wrought. It’s an assault on the values of our city and our constitution.”

In a separate, official campaign statement, Mamdani called Paladino’s comments “hateful rhetoric.”

Thomas Paladino Jr., the councilmember’s son and close advisor, claimed that the posts were co-written by him and his mother.

He also doubled down on the comments.

“It's pretty clear that [Mamdani’s parents] probably pulled a few strings to get him, to get him pushed through,” he said. “I mean, that's obvious.”

Paladino Jr. didn’t provide any evidence to support his claims and said he didn’t need to.

“In our opinion, these are the facts,” he said.

On Tuesday afternoon, Paladino said that she had received death threats in response to her posts and that people had shown up to her office and made threats to her staff.

She doubled down on her initial comments, and said that the threats “[illustrate] perfectly the need for president Trump’s mass deportation policy, particularly on our college campuses.”

In addition to Cuomo, Paladino’s posts were also condemned by mayoral candidate and Comptroller Brad Lander, City Councilmember Chi Osse, Assemblymember Jessica González-Rojas and City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, who is also running for mayor.

“This rhetoric has no place in our city and is part of a playbook to divide us and spread hate,” the speaker said. “It is dangerous and unacceptable. Councilmember Paladino should remember that she was elected to represent every resident of her Council District and has a responsibility to her constituents and this city to represent them all.”

Mayor Eric Adams didn’t explicitly condemn the post, but said during his off-topic presser Tuesday that “everyone” should “tone down the rhetoric.”

But Paladino also had some jump to her defense.

“We've heard much more inflammatory rhetoric from members of the far left, and nobody bats an eye,” Fellow Queens Republican and Council Minority Leader Joann Ariola said. “There is a very real double standard at play when it comes to this kind of thing.”

"People can get passionate during election seasons, especially when one candidate seems to align themselves with pro-Hamas radicals,” Ariola said. “There is a genuine concern among a lot of voters, and Vickie voiced that concern, which is her right to do."

This is certainly not the first time recently that Paladino’s posts on social media have sparked controversy.

Earlier this year she suggested a transportation reporter should be punched in the face, and implied that people should use lasers to disable congestion pricing cameras.

In 2023, she was removed from the Committee on Mental Health, Disabilities, and Addiction after saying the year prior that Drag Story Hours were “unacceptable and grotesque” and amounted to “child grooming.”