Also controversial: US Vice President-elect son of Brazilians may have lied about being born in NY

From the newsroom

On Monday, the 17th, George Santos, who represents New York’s 3rd Congressional District, issued a press release announcing that he will seek re-election next year. The memo did not address allegations that Republicans participated in a credit card cloning operation, or his outright lies about helping children with a rare skin disease, or allegations that he stole thousands of dollars from a campaign to support a dying dog owned by a disabled person. Senior, a job candidate alleges that Santos sexually harassed her in his congressional office

However, as quoted, he referred to himself as a “first-generation American”—meaning, according to common usage, born outside the United States, according to the Census and Immigration Center at Harvard University.

Santos, a notoriously unreliable narrator of his own past, was born in Sunnyside, Queens (NY) to parents who immigrated from Brazil, and a 2013 Brazilian court document describes him as a US citizen. However, this is not the first time that official information from his campaign has contradicted his story. Late last year, a statement to his lawyer referred to Santos as an immigrant and said he was born in Brazil, according to a former colleague.

This means that the Constitution requires that members of Congress be citizens or have been citizens for at least seven years before assuming office. If Santos was born abroad, as his own campaign has repeatedly said, that would not necessarily disqualify him from office, but it would raise questions about when he became a citizen and why he claimed to have been born in Queens. No official body inquired whether he was fit for the role.

As the issue of the citizenship requirement remains unresolved, it is unclear what will happen if he is found to be constitutionally ineligible.

Santos’s press team said, “When talking about first-generation Americans, one can refer to someone born in the United States, of immigrant parents, or a naturalized citizen of the United States. Both types of people are considered US citizens.

But it is not known whether he was born in America or Brazil. Nysa Woomer, a spokeswoman for Santos’ congressional office, declined to comment on the campaign’s apparent confusion over where the congressman was born and whether he was eligible to serve in Congress. “Congress offices do not comment on campaign matters.