If you’re not an American citizen, you’re not a New Yorker. New York is a city in the United States, not an independent nation with its own immigration laws. It’s pretty simple actually.

Of course he name drops an obscure Italian-American communist who was against America's participation in World War 2 and was investigated by the FBI for his ties to the international communist party. Of all the great men and women of Italian descent who've contributed to New York City and the United States, this is the idiot he picks. He is physically incapable of being anything other than a loathsome propagandist for communism. As the most prominent Italian-American in city government, please allow me to formally disinvite you from ever mentioning Italian heritage ever again. And yes, we Italians came here to work, create businesses, dig the subways, build the buildings -- and it was indeed a struggle. A struggle a rich kid like Zohran could never know. But we didn't ask for any handouts. There was no welfare, millions of us came here knowing there was only ourselves, our work, and our community -- and we thrived. We wanted to become Americans, and our people were proud to learn the language and wave the American flag. And when the time came, millions of Italian-Americans returned to Europe to fight World War 2, my father included. Many of them had to fight their own former countrymen in Mussolini's Italy. And they did exactly that, because they were nothing less than Americans. Quite the opposite of the current immigrant situation championed by people like Zohran, where we invite lazy and entitled foreigners to loot the treasury without asking anything in return, as they resentfully fly the flags of their own nations -- and could never be counted on to defend America. My mother was a widow who raised five children on her own, working in a button factory. We didn't take a penny of government assistance. We relied on ourselves. It was hard work, but we did it, and we were grateful. And today I sit on the City Council, representing the very neighborhood I grew up in. That's what being an Italian-American in New York means. Not the communist propaganda Zohran is pushing here. It's about hard work, independence, heritage, and most importantly, pride in being an American above all else.