Who in Congress or the Senate are foreign born ?

1. How many foreign‑born members are in the current Congress, and why numbers differ

Recent Pew Research counts distinguish “foreign‑born” members from those with immigrant parents and report roughly 80 lawmakers who are foreign‑born or have at least one immigrant parent — about 61 in the House and 19 in the Senate — while other analyses that limit the pool to only foreign‑born individuals report much smaller totals (Pew’s broader combined count is 80; the narrower “foreign‑born only” figure has historically been as low as roughly 18 in prior Congresses) ^{[2] [1]}. The discrepancy arises because some datasets exclude people born abroad to American parents (for example, children of diplomats or military personnel stationed overseas), while others include them; Statista and Senate lists explicitly note methodological exclusions or inclusions when compiling “foreign‑born” tallies ^{[3] [4]}.

2. Who are the commonly cited individual examples

The most consistently named foreign‑born senator in recent years is Mazie Keiko Hirono of Hawaii, who was born in Japan and is routinely identified as the lone naturalized or foreign‑born senator in several counts ^{[1] [5]}. In the House and across both chambers, frequently cited examples of foreign‑born or immigrant members include Pramila Jayapal and other members born in India, Raul Ruiz (born in Mexico), Norma Torres (born in Guatemala), Ted Lieu (born in Taiwan), Ilhan Omar (born in Somalia), and Albio Sires (born in Cuba) — though which of these names appear on any particular list depends on whether analysts include births to American parents or limit to naturalized citizens ^{[3] [5] [6]}.

3. The Senate’s historical and official recordkeeping

The U.S. Senate maintains a dedicated page and historical directory on senators born outside the United States and explains the constitutional citizenship threshold for senators (nine years) versus the presidency’s “natural‑born” requirement; the Senate’s materials are a primary source for identifying senators who were born abroad and for clarifying whether births were to American parents or not ^{[4] [7]}. Official Senate lists and the Congressional Biographical Directory remain the most authoritative starting point for naming foreign‑born senators, but even those sources leave room for interpretation about ancestry versus place‑of‑birth ^[7].

4. What the House clerk and quota counts tell reporters

The Clerk of the House published a foreign‑born listing for the One Hundred Nineteenth Congress that serves as the formal House inventory of members’ birthplaces and is the basis for many media and research citations; that document must be read alongside Pew’s and other analyses to reconcile minor differences in totals ^[8]. Media and advocacy organizations have historically used the Clerk’s and Pew’s counts to produce charts and commentary showing that immigrants and children of immigrants make up a modest — and in many respects underrepresented — portion of Congress relative to the U.S. population ^{[8] [2]}.

5. Caveats, politics and why the distinction matters

Counting foreign‑born legislators is not a neutral technicality: partisan debate over “foreign influence” and eligibility sometimes exploits the line between someone born abroad to foreign parents and someone born abroad to American parents, and different groups highlight whichever definition supports their narrative about representation, diversity or loyalty ^{[3] [5]}. Researchers warn that readers treat headline counts with skepticism and check methodology — whether births on overseas military bases or U.S. territories are included, and whether “foreign‑born” is conflated with “child of immigrants” — because the political implications hinge on those choices ^{[4] [1]}.