Which current members of Congress are naturalized U.S. citizens and when did they naturalize?
Executive summary
At the opening of the 119th Congress, 32 members of Congress were born outside the United States — 26 Representatives and six Senators — but the public record compiled by the sources provided does not systematically list the dates when those foreign‑born members became U.S. citizens (i.e., the dates of naturalization) . Reporting and institutional summaries identify who is foreign‑born and, in some individual cases, note that a member was naturalized (or naturalized as a child), but none of the supplied sources give a comprehensive roster of naturalization dates for current members .
1. What the official rosters say about foreign‑born membership
Congressional and Library of Congress summaries make clear that a measurable share of the 119th Congress was born abroad — the Library of Congress counted 26 Representatives and six Senators born outside the United States and listed their countries of birth , and the House Clerk published a dedicated “Foreign‑Born in the UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES” report for the 119th Congress identifying foreign birth among House members [1]. Those official compilations are focused on birthplace, not the administrative date when each individual obtained U.S. citizenship by naturalization [1].
2. Which members are explicitly described as naturalized in the reporting
Some profiles and news stories explicitly describe individual lawmakers as naturalized or naturalized as children: for example, the Pew Research profile notes members who immigrated as children (such as Rep. Robert Garcia, who emigrated from Peru at age five) and outlines the constitutional citizenship‑length requirements for House and Senate service, but it does not give formal naturalization dates . VOA reporting notes that Rep. Young Kim “became a naturalized citizen as a child” without supplying a precise date . Statista’s reporting identifies Senator Mazie Keiko Hirono as the lone naturalized senator and notes she was born in Japan, again without a naturalization date . These source statements confirm naturalized status for certain members but stop short of providing exact timing .
3. What the sources do not provide — and why that matters
None of the supplied documents deliver a vetted, comprehensive list pairing each foreign‑born Member of Congress with a specific naturalization date; the House Clerk and Library of Congress focus on birthplace [1], while journalistic and research outlets (Pew, VOA, Statista) profile backgrounds and note naturalized status in select cases but do not attempt to compile or verify individual naturalization certificates or dates for all members . Because U.S. constitutional eligibility depends on length of citizenship (seven years for the House, nine for the Senate), the absence of dated naturalization records in these summaries is a notable gap for anyone seeking precise timelines of when each immigrant member became a citizen .
4. How to get the definitive list and dates (and the limits of public reporting)
To compile an authoritative roster of which current members are naturalized citizens and exactly when they naturalized would require consulting primary records — congressional biographical statements, members’ official disclosures, archived news interviews, naturalization records, or direct confirmation from congressional offices — because the publicly aggregated sources provided do not include those dates [1]. Institutional agendas shape coverage: official rosters emphasize birthplace for demographic counts (Library of Congress, House Clerk) while media pieces highlight notable immigrant stories for narrative and political context (Pew, VOA, Statista), which explains why date‑level legal documentation is rarely published in aggregated form .
5. Bottom line and recommended next steps for verification
The supplied reporting establishes who in the 119th Congress was born abroad and identifies several members as naturalized (e.g., Mazie Hirono, Young Kim, and others described as immigrants or naturalized in profiles), but it does not provide a complete set of naturalization dates for all naturalized members . For precise, date‑specific answers, researchers should consult the House Clerk’s foreign‑born list and then follow up case‑by‑case with official congressional biographies, archived news reporting, or direct requests to members’ offices or the National Archives for naturalization records — an approach that acknowledges the limits of the aggregated sources provided here [1].