The Foreign-Born Congress

Those born in Mexico are the biggest group of foreign-born members of the current 118th Congress. This includes freshman Representative Juan Ciscomani (R-AZ) as well as three Congresspeople who have been around for longer: Jesús G. "Chuy" García (D-IL), Raul Ruiz (D-CA) and Salud Ortiz Carbajal (D-CA). The first Mexican-born woman in Congress, Mayra Flores (R-FL), only served a short stint. Just some months passed from her swearing in mid-2022 after a special election and the end of her term in January 2023. Flores was beat in her reelection campaign by Democrat Vicente Gonzalez, an incumbent who ran for her seat after redistricting.

The second-biggest groups of current foreign-born members of Congress are immigrants from South Korea and India, the latter including Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) and freshman Representative Shri Thanedar (D-MI). The lone naturalized Senator, Mazie Keiko Hirono of Hawaii, was born in Japan. Another senator included in the list is Tammy Duckworth, born to a Thai Chinese mother and an American service member in Thailand. She is one of two members of Congress who were born abroad to one foreign parent in their homecountry, along with Marilyn Strickland (D-WA). The member of Congress born in Somalia is Ilhan Omar (D-MN).

Current members of Congress who were born abroad to American parents are actually almost as numerous as those who were naturalized. They include Senator Michael Bennet of Colorado, who was born in India while his parents were posted with the State Department and Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX), who is the child of American parents working abroad in Scotland at the time of his birth. Considering former members of Congress and former cabinet members, the most prominent foreign-born examples are former Senator and presidential candidate John McCain, who was born in Panama (then the Panama Canal Zone) to American parents stationed with the U.S. Navy and former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, who was born Marie Jana Korbelová in Czechoslovakia before emigrating to the U.S. with her parents and becoming a naturalized citizen around the age of 20. The report excludes those members who were born abroad to American parents.