Should Requirements to Serve in Congress Be Upgraded?

The liberty principle for this Freedom Friday concerns the loyalty that American citizens should be able to expect from members of Congress. When they are elected to Congress, each congressional member – as well as other elected officials – swears an oath to uphold the Constitution and defend the United States.

Americans expect that the oath of office means something. However, there are members of Congress who hold allegiance to other nations, an obvious violation of their oath of office. Glenn Beck published an article with the following information at The Blaze. 

Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-Ill.), a sitting member of Congress, openly stated in Spanish during a political event in Mexico City, “I’m a proud Guatemalan before I’m an American.”

Ramirez didn’t have a casual slip of the tongue. Her statement was a declaration of her loyalty to another nation. And it’s not just her words that are troubling; her husband, according to Rolling Stone, is in the U.S. illegally. That’s a violation of our immigration laws – laws that Ramirez should be sworn to uphold.

Ramirez’s statement isn’t an isolated incident. This is part of a growing pattern where elected officials, like Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), proudly identify with their country of origin before America. They claim cultural pride, but celebrating your heritage is distinctly different from putting your identity above the country that gives you the freedom and opportunity to express that identity.

Beck stated elsewhere in his article: “If we don’t demand that our elected leaders place their loyalty to the United States above all else, then we risk the very foundation of this republic.”

It may be time to add more qualifications for being a U.S. Representative or U.S. Senator. Is it time to eliminate the rights of foreign-born citizens from serving in Congress?

Those who wrote the Constitution thought the following were good enough qualifications at that time but may not have considered that people who came to America would stay loyal to the nations they left. Here are the qualifications given in the U.S. Constitution.

·         U.S. Representatives

Article I, Section 2, Clause 2 of the U.S. Constitution states the qualifications for being elected to Congress: “No Person shall be a Representative who shall not have attained to the Age of twenty-five Years, and been seven Years a Citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an Inhabitant of that State in which he shall be chosen.”

In simple words, the qualifications for election as a U.S. Representative are: be at least twenty-five years old, have been a citizen of the United States for at least seven years, and be an inhabitant of the state they wish to represent.

·         U.S. Senators

Article I, Section 3, Clause 3 of the U.S. Constitution states the qualifications for becoming a U.S. Senator: “No Person shall be a Senator who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty Years, and been nine Years a Citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an Inhabitant of that State for which he shall be chosen.”

In simple words, the qualifications for election as a U.S. Senator are: be at least 30 years old, have been a citizen of the United States for at least nine years, and be an inhabitant of the state they wish to represent.

·         President (and thus Vice President)

Article II, Section 1 of the U.S. Constitution states the qualifications for becoming President of the United States: “No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty-five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States.”

In simple words, the qualifications for current election as President of the United States are: be at least 35 years old, be a natural born citizen (be born within the borders of the United States and/or be born to parents who are American citizens), and lived within the borders of the United States for at least 14 years.