Jayapal slams GOP resolution excluding naturalized citizens like her from federal office

U.S. Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) is pushing back against a Republican colleague’s constitutional amendment targeting naturalized Americans, dismissing it as racist and xenophobic.

U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) introduced a joint resolution on Wednesday seeking to make naturalized U.S. citizens ineligible for congressional seats, federal judgeships and Senate-confirmed appointments. This would extend to Congress a citizenship requirement the Constitution currently reserves only for the president and vice president. In an X post, she wrote, “The people writing America’s laws, confirming America’s judges and representing America on the world stage should have one loyalty: America. Not any other country.”

One of Mace’s posts took direct aim at three Democratic House members born outside the U.S.: Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, born in Somalia; Shri Thanedar of Michigan, born in India; and Jayapal herself, born in India. The resolution’s reach, however, would extend well beyond those three. Currently, 26 House members (including Raja Krishnamoorthi of Illinois, also born in India; Ted Lieu of California, born in Taiwan; and Marilyn Strickland of Washington, born in South Korea) and six senators (including Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, born in Thailand and Mazie Hirono of Hawaii, born in Japan) are naturalized citizens. Nine of them are Republicans, including Young Kim of California, who was born in South Korea.

Jayapal responded the same day, framing Mace’s move as a distraction from everyday economic concerns. “Instead of working to help the American people, as so many cannot keep the lights on, keep food on the table or pay their rent, Nancy Mace is instead introducing racist legislation that denies the very history of a country that has been proudly shaped by immigrants,” she said in a statement. “This is also insulting to the hundreds of thousands of constituents who elected naturalized citizens into office.”

Beyond the political argument, Jayapal, who has represented Washington’s 7th District since 2017, grounded her rebuttal in her own experience as a naturalized citizen. “My naturalization ceremony was one of the most meaningful days of my life. Twenty-six years later, I have never forgotten that day as I stood with hundreds of people from across the world who had waited, in many cases decades, to become American citizens,” she said. “This narrow-minded, xenophobic legislation has no place in Congress, and I call on all my colleagues — including my Republican colleagues who are naturalized citizens — to condemn this.”

Mace’s resolution surfaces amid a broader federal push with significant implications for Asian Americans. Last month, the Trump administration reportedly began assigning civil litigators at U.S. attorney offices nationwide to pursue denaturalization cases against hundreds of individuals, a campaign the DOJ has described as “the highest volume of denaturalization referrals in history.” The stakes are particularly high for Asian Americans, as immigrants from the community naturalize at higher rates than any other group in the country.

Mace faces a Republican gubernatorial primary on June 9.