# Zohran Mamdani: Immigrants are America’s ‘best’, not ‘worst’ 2026-08-12T23:11:03+00:00 | World & Diplomacy | Indian Opinion Desk Corroboration: 1 independent outlet New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, in a speech marking America’s 250th Independence Day on July 4, 2026, flipped the familiar anti-immigrant trope on its head. 'For generation after generation, we have been told that when the world has sent its people to our shores, it has not sent its best,' he said. Instead, he argued, the US was built by Puritans, Sikhs, Quakers, Muslims, Jews, peasants, and serfs, those banished or oppressed elsewhere. Mamdani, who arrived from Uganda as a seven-year-old, recalled seeing the Statue of Liberty from a plane window. He wove the story of the Revolutionary War’s Battle of Brooklyn into a call for inclusive patriotism, saying 'opportunities … are not given, they are won.' The Times of India reported his address as a defence of migration as central to American identity. ## Coverage - timesofindia.indiatimes.com Tags: American exceptionalism, migration, New York City, speech, US Independence Day, Zohran Mamdani Canonical: https://indianopinion.org/zohran-mamdani-immigrants-are-americas-best-not-worst/ License: Summary and commentary (c) Indian Opinion, reusable with attribution. Facts belong to the linked sources. Cite: https://indianopinion.org/zohran-mamdani-immigrants-are-americas-best-not-worst/#story-in-brief Review state: restored archive article, accurate at time of publication, not offered to search indexes.