Rep. Khanna grills GOP witness over his call to denaturalize Chinese Americans

Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) confronted a congressional witness Thursday over past social media posts calling for the denaturalization of Chinese Americans, escalating tensions at a House hearing on Chinese Communist Party economic espionage.

Khanna, ranking member of the House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party, questioned Michael Lucci, founder and CEO of private security company State Armor, over the posts. “Do you believe these people should be denaturalized? It’s U.S. law that anyone born in a U.S. territory is an American citizen. Do you believe that 1.5 million [people] should be denaturalized?” Khanna asked.

Lucci said denaturalization was “worth considering” for birthright citizens with “practically zero nexus to the United States of America, other than they were born in a territory.” Khanna called Lucci’s posts racist; Democrats said his position mixed national security enforcement with ethnic targeting, while Republicans kept their focus on his threat assessment. The exchange came as the Supreme Court is expected to rule imminently on the Trump administration’s effort to limit birthright citizenship.

The hearing stoked anxiety among Asian American communities already wary of broad national security enforcement. At the hearing, John C. Yang, president and executive director of Asian Americans Advancing Justice, said each period of U.S.-China tension has prompted Asian Americans to be treated as suspects. “For nearly 25 million Asian Americans, the stakes of getting this right are immediate and personal,” he said. As we previously reported, a survey by The Asian American Foundation found one in five U.S. adults already believe Chinese Americans pose a threat to society.

The committee is due to report its findings, policy recommendations and legislative proposals to the House and relevant standing committees by Dec. 31.