A Migrant’s Triumph

On the night of Nov. 4, the shock waves of Democratic mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani’s triumph rippled through New York City. Mamdani beat his closest rival, Andrew Cuomo, by receiving 50.4% of the vote. It means that, from the start of 2026, he will be the first Muslim mayor of one of the world’s most powerful cities. Originally from a privileged background in Uganda, 34-year-old Mamdani won because his campaign focused on an area rarely paid attention to by politicians: the issues that are most sensitive to the city’s communities.

For those of us who live in New York, our complaints are always the same: the cost of living, both in terms of housing and the unaffordably high price of a basic bag of groceries, and the difficulties in managing childcare while working in this concrete jungle. Written in both English and Spanish, Mamdani’s messages targeted common people like you and me: people who use public transportation every day, have bills to pay, and are being oppressed by a current administration that insists on racist persecution of both documented and undocumented immigrants in the community.

In the days after an historic election night brought gains for the Democrats, there seemed to be a glimmer of hope in the migrant community, the idea that things would one day turn out okay after so much persecution. The Trump administration has posed a threat to people of all nationalities, but for us Mexicans it has been particularly brutal. Criminalization and anti-migrant rhetoric have been waged against us. This is proven by statistics provided by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which claim that 49,341 Mexicans were detained between January and July, a number far higher than that of Guatemalans, Hondurans, Venezuelans and El Salvadoreans.

In this whirlwind of emotions, Mamdani’s victory seems logical. The nature of the crisis endured by the U.S. has led to a demand for change from many groups that otherwise would not have been involved in politics. Mamdani won in four of New York’s five boroughs. He also won votes from a third of the Jewish population, as well as from young people, university students and those of African, Latin American and Asian descent.

This is in contrast to results among elderly white voters and in Staten Island, one of the most affluent parts of the city, where Cuomo fared much better. The question is, what can the undocumented migrant community expect from Mamdani’s victory? The answer is clear: justice. After Emiliano, a man from the indigenous Zapotec community, was asked for his thoughts on New York’s next mayor, he replied: “I hope he puts a stop to everything us migrants are going through.”

While nobody is sure what will happen in the coming months, some experts have suggested that Mamdani’s victory will lead to a greater ICE presence on the streets, as well as potential deployment of the National Guard, as has happened in Washington, Los Angeles and Chicago. The one certainty is that Mamdani has revived hope, thought to be already lost at the hands of the atrocities of the last few months.

Mothers and fathers are being arrested in front of their kids. Women are being pushed to the ground by ICE, simply for asking for some compassion. Construction workers are hiding in attics to avoid being discovered. Random people are being stopped and detained for no reason while walking the street. I could go on for hours listing the types of persecution to which we have been subjected. For these reasons, and many others, Mamdani was victorious; the “communist” label that he was given, as well as his Muslim faith, did not matter to us. What does matter is that American society is suffering, especially the Latin American community, which has taken a considerable beating.

The persecution we are experiencing is a great betrayal, given that it follows a period in which we were the motor powering the U.S. economy. It isn’t enough anymore to be a cleaner who spends every night washing the fronts of Wall Street’s most iconic buildings, a chef who cooks for VIPs in Soho, a delivery person who played a crucial role during the COVID-19 pandemic, or a concierge in an apartment building on the Upper East Side who greets people with a smile every morning.

None of that matters any longer. We have become the primary target of hate coming from an administration that would rather spend hours ranting about immigrants than trying to fix the American economy, which is slowly falling to pieces. This is why Mamdani’s victory was inevitable, in the process creating a glimmer of hope that justice will be served in future elections. While we wait to see if this comes true, our communities are celebrating a migrant’s triumph in New York City.