New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is under fire from an Italian American heritage group after Little Italy was left off a city immigrant-neighborhood map tied to a World Cup tourism campaign — an omission critics called an insult to one of the communities that helped build New York.
“Zohran Mamdani wants to ERASE Italian Americans. First, he denied our permit for Unity Day 2026. Now, he is excluding Little Italy as a recognized location all together on the map,” wrote the Italian American Civil Rights League (IACRL) on X along with a press release.
“Italian Americans BUILT NEW YORK CITY. Not third world Ugandans, We stand AGAINST COMMUNISTS,” the group added.
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The map, titled “New York City Immigrant Enclaves,” was created by New York City Tourism + Conventions as part of its NYC Neighborhood Passport campaign tied to the 2026 FIFA World Cup. The NYC Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs has promoted the neighborhood map at pop-up booths across the city.
It encourages visitors to explore “diverse” communities, including 30 neighborhoods ranging from the popular Chinatown to lesser-known Little Palestine and Little Haiti. The map did not mention any Jewish or Irish neighborhoods.
Mamdani has touted himself as unapologetically pro-immigrant, backing sanctuary protections for immigrants while advocating for Palestinian rights.
“Mamdani’s City Hall can find room for every fashionable progressive constituency, but somehow it cannot find Little Italy,” IACRL president Mike Crispi said in the press release.
“Our culture is good enough for their photo ops, our food is good enough for their fundraisers, and our neighborhoods are good enough for tourism dollars — but when it comes time to recognize Italian Americans, they erase us,” he added.
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More than 4 million Italians immigrated to the United States between the 1880s and 1924, and roughly one-third settled in New York City, helping make Italians the city’s largest immigrant community in the early 20th century, according to the Library of Congress.
“Little Italy is sacred ground. It is where Italian immigrants came with nothing, worked like hell, opened shops, raised families, built churches, fed the city, and helped make New York what it is,” said Crispi.
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The Italian American community has previously slammed the socialist mayor, including when Mamdani posted a photo to X in 2020 showing him giving the middle finger to a Christopher Columbus statue in Queens.
Fox News Digital reached out to IACRL and Mamdani for comment.
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