Actor Robert Davi is criticizing New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani after a city map highlighting immigrant neighborhoods left out Little Italy, drawing complaints from Italian American organizations and others.
According to Fox News, the controversy centers on the "New York City Immigrant Enclaves" map, which resurfaced on social media this week.
While it identifies 30 immigrant communities across the city's five boroughs, critics noted that it omitted Little Italy along with historically Jewish and Irish neighborhoods.
After the backlash, city officials said the map will be updated to include Little Italy.
Davi, who was born in Astoria, Queens, posted a video on X on Friday condemning Mamdani over the omission.
"I hope every New York Italian American and Irish American spits on you when they see you," Davi said. "I would spit on you if I saw you. Shame on you, you garbage man. Shame on you. Respect the city you're in and understand the people who helped build it."
The "Die Hard" and "Licence to Kill" actor also reflected on his family's immigration story, saying his grandparents came from Sicily and Naples and embraced life in the United States.
"My grandparents came from Sicily and Naples and they taught me, speak the English. This is America. God bless America," Davi said.
He added that his grandfather served in World War I after immigrating to the United States.
"My grandfather enlisted in World War I and got wounded three times… he helped build New York City as an immigrant, an Italian immigrant," Davi said.
Davi also sharply criticized the mayor, referring to him as a "leftist Marxist Communist."
He suggested Mamdani should leave the United States and argued there should be a constitutional amendment preventing people like him from holding public office.
Mamdani, who was born in Kampala, Uganda, moved to the United States at age 7.
The mayor addressed the controversy during an unrelated news conference Friday, explaining that the map was originally created in 2023 under the previous administration.
"This map was initially created by the prior administration in 2023, and when we inherited it, we added a few additional neighborhoods," Mamdani said. "It's clearly not an exhaustive list of the more than 200 ethnic communities that call our city home, and we're going to be making additional changes in the future to reflect that and that includes Little Italy."
According to the Library of Congress, more than 4 million Italians immigrated to the United States between the 1880s and 1924, with roughly one-third settling in New York City.