[NoMoreNicksLeft]

I have a question of my own. Is there another country whose citizens are regularly elected to Congress? Dual citizens are not barred from holding office in Congress, and certainly there are more than a few English Americans and French Americans who hold citizens in both respective countries, but I have never heard of any winning office (or even running, for that matter).

[burkaman]

It is relatively common for people born outside the US to be elected to Congress (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_foreign-born_United_St..., https://www.senate.gov/senators/Foreign_born.htm), but there is no requirement to publicly disclose dual citizenship. Ted Cruz and Michelle Bachmann are the most famous examples of holding dual citizenship during a congressional career, there may be more examples that I'm not aware of.

[tzs]

Ted Cruz says he did not know he was a dual citizen. He said he assumed that because he was a US citizen by birth, left Canada at 4 and lived entirely in the US and never took affirmative steps to claim Canadian citizenship he was not a Canadian citizen.

When a newspaper brought it up he went through the steps to formally renounce Canadian citizenship, which became official in May 2014.

[NoMoreNicksLeft]

> he went through the steps to formally renounce Canadian citizenship,

Not a fan of Cruz, but this is sufficient for me. More problematic would be those nations that don't accept or don't allow them to renounce citizenship.

[burkaman]

I'm not accusing him of anything, I'm just saying he's one of two known cases. I don't personally consider it a problem and I wouldn't care if he hadn't renounced it.

[samatman]

I'm not aware of any dual citizens in Congress, could you provide some names please?

[burkaman]

I could be wrong but I think it's an intentional misrepresentation of Israel's Law of Return (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_Return), which allows any Jewish person to move to Israel and then become a citizen. It doesn't mean that every Jewish person anywhere in the world is automatically an Israeli citizen whether they want to be or not, but some people like to say that.

[NoMoreNicksLeft]

This is from your own link.

>On the day of arrival in Israel, or occasionally at a later date, a person who enters Israel under the Law of Return as an oleh would receive a certificate confirming their oleh status.

On the very day they step off the boat or plane. This isn't the case of "anyone who comes to the US and waits 10+ years might finally get to become a citizen". Seems pretty fucking automatic.

[burkaman]

What's the next sentence?

The Wikipedia summary is oversimplified, it's very easy but you do have to affirmatively express an interest and fill out an application (https://www.gov.il/en/service/declaration_of_intent_to_recei...). They don't literally hand it to you when you get off the plane, and even if they did you still can't point to any Jewish person and declare that they must be a citizen of Israel. Most Jewish people have never even been to Israel.

Maybe you're arguing that since it's so easy, all Jewish people in Congress are effectively dual Israeli citizens even if they never actually apply for citizenship. In that case, you'll also be shocked to learn that every single person in Congress is a dual citizen of Dominica, which can be obtained without ever setting foot in the country by just paying $100,000 (https://www.cbiu.gov.dm/dominica-citizenship/). Everyone in Congress can afford that, so we might as well say they've already done it.