Rep. Nancy Mace introduced a joint resolution Wedensday seeking to ban foreign-born U.S. citizens from serving in the highest levels of the federal government.
The proposal, which she called “long overdue,” seeks to amend the Constitution to require that federal judges, members of Congress and all Senate-confirmed officials be natural-born citizens.
“If you hold power in the American government, you should be a natural born American citizen,” the South Carolina Republican said in a press release. “This is not complicated. The people writing America’s laws, confirming America’s judges, and representing America on the world stage should have one loyalty: America.”
Under the Constitution, only the president and vice president are required to be natural-born citizens; no such restriction applies to other federal elected officials or appointees. Amending the Constitution would be a steep challenge, requiring approval from two-thirds of both the House and Senate and ratification by three-quarters of state legislatures.
More than two dozen foreign-born lawmakers currently serve in Congress, including Democrat Reps. Pramila Jayapal, Shri Thanedar and Ilhan Omar.
“Ilhan Omar is just one of many foreign born members of this government who have made clear, time and again, their loyalty is not here,” Mace said.
Omar, a Somali-born Minnesota Democrat, has frequently been singled out by Mace, who is running for South Carolina governor.
In September, Mace said that she would “love to see” Omar “deported back to Somalia” in a high-octane social media clash over the Democrat’s comments about assassinated conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
Omar shot back: “Would love to see you get the help you need next. You belong in rehab, not Congress.”
Mace, who graduated from The Citadel and previously worked as a consultant, has been no stranger to controversy on other fronts.
In February 2025, she repeatedly shouted an anti-trans slur during a congressional hearing, eliciting pushback from the committee’s ranking Democrat.
Two months later, she filmed herself ranting at a man in a South Carolina cosmetics store after he asked about her town hall schedule. She yelled: “Get the f**** out of my face…Stay the f*** away from me.”
In October, a small miscommunication at a Charleston airport led Mace to explode into an expletive-filled “spectacle” that left staff “visibly upset,” according to The Washington Post, citing an airport police investigation. Mace’s office said details of the report were “a full exoneration.”
Mace has also broken with President Donald Trump on several key issues. She was one of a handful of Republicans to vote to release the Epstein files, and she has opposed sending U.S. troops to fight in Iran, saying: “I’m not voting to send South Carolina’s sons and daughters into battle to die for the price of oil.”
