Talk:List of foreign-born United States politicians

List of former politicians
I was thinking we could probably remove the prefix "fmr." from the "Positions held" under the list of former politicians. Also, we could list people by office, rather than alphabetically. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Matthew238 (talk • contribs) 14:14, 24 October 2005


 * Seems like a good idea to me. Also another thing that should be clarified: What's the dividing line between "former" and "historical"? Being dead? Being dead and famous? cab 01:23, 3 October 2006 (UTC)

Standard for inclusion
Does "foreign-born" include US citizens born elsewhere, who were citizens because parents were citizens or were born on US territory in a foreign country (military base, embassy, etc)?—Markles 00:26, 4 March 2008 (UTC)
 * The official U.S. Senate site has a list of foreign born Senators "Born to American parents abroad" and "Born in territories not yet incorporated into the U.S.".John McCain is notably on the list.There is a similar list (which, like the Senate list, could be used as source material for this page) at The Political Graveyard here (also includes McCain). - 121.208.89.240 (talk) 08:42, 6 September 2008 (UTC)
 * I also agree with the inclusion of John McCain. The name of the list is not "list of immigrant US Politicians" but "List of Foreign-born US Politicians". One thing that most people fail to understand is the fact that some people were born overseas, and this alone doesn't necessarily make them "a foreigner". Many of the people in the list, just like John McCain, were also born exclusively by American Parents. A good example is Diana DeGette who, just like John McCain, was also born in a military base to American parents. -- Loukinho (talk) 01:23, 20 May 2009 (UTC)

Adam Smith
Why is he included? Is it because he was born in the USA and not the US, or because he was adopted? Emir of Wikipedia (talk) 15:43, 10 November 2016 (UTC)

Some of the places use anachronistic names or flags for locations
John Mcain was born in the Panama Canal Zone when it was under U.S. control and that territory had its own flag that wasn't directly related to the U.S. flag nor Panama flag, which is the one used. I say that they should use the place name and possible flag from the era the person was born, because there is someone born in the Danish West Indies and not in the U.S. Virgin Islands. So, that person's section should have the label "Danish West Indies" and the Danish flag instead of the USVI and its flag as they weren't born recently but decades, a century or so ago in places that may not be that which we know them as today. -- Sion8 (talk) 06:37, 20 November 2016 (UTC)

Born in Territories (pre-statehood)
Noted that 31st VP Charles Curtis was born in Kansas Territory an incorporated territory if not a state (pre-statehood). Is he foreign born? Hugo999 (talk) 05:14, 24 May 2017 (UTC)

Lantos' citizenship
Tom Lantos could not have been a citizen by birth, having lived through the Holocaust in Europe. However, I can't change it because while I think it was through naturalization, since he came to the U.S. as a university student and not a dependent, I don't have documentation. Anyone? Bruxism (talk) 04:37, 19 November 2018 (UTC)


 * I am 99% sure that Congressman Lantos (whose parents were killed by the Nazis and who emigrated to the U.S. as a student) became a citizen through naturalization, but I haven't seen documentation, either. Lantos's Wikipedia article does provide that his wife took his surname when she became a naturalized U.S. citizen, but it doesn't say anything about how he became a citizen.


 * Apart from Lantos, this article has dozens of entries for persons who are incorrectly classified as U.S. citizens at birth that by all accounts were immigrants to the U.S. The fact that we don't know for certain whether such persons became U.S. citizens through naturalization or derivation should not be a reason to keep unsourced and clearly false information in the article, so I suggest that we remove such incorrect references to citizenship at birth and replace it with "Unknown" until we find a reliable source that provides the answer. AuH2ORepublican (talk) 19:54, 13 May 2019 (UTC)

Presidential Candidates
I came to this article looking for the most interesting "foreign-born" question in US politics -- which presidential candidates were born outside the United States? This article should be expanded to include that section. Off the top of my head, it would include George Romney, John McCain, Ted Cruz, and Michael Bennet. (But not Barack Obama, who was born in Hawaii, dammit.)  There are also interesting questions about Tulsi Gabbard, Barry Goldwater, Charles Evans Hughes, and President Chester Arthur. Karichisholm (talk) 07:07, 28 July 2020 (UTC)

Double dipping
Should politicians be listed more than once if they held multiple positions? The list is heavily inconsistent on that at this point. For example, John Sununu, who was both a governor and a cabinet secretary, is only listed under the latter, while George Romney, who was both a governor and a cabinet secretary, is listed under both. I believe we should only list politicians once, based on the highest office they held, with the order being President>Vice President>Senator>Representative>Cabinet>Governor>Mayor>State legislator>Other. Curbon7 (talk) 01:32, 25 October 2020 (UTC)
 * For additional perspective, I think the list right now is based on the last office a politician held, example being Lowell Weicker, who was a senator first then a governor, is listed under only governor.Curbon7 (talk) 01:35, 25 October 2020 (UTC)

John H. Sununu
Why is former NH Governor and Bush 41 Administration Chief of Statf John H. Sununu listed as having obtained his U.S. citizenship through derivation? While he was born in Cuba, his father was a natural-born U.S. citizen who had lived most of lefe in the U.S. (he and his wife were U.S. residents temprarily in Cuba on business), and under the laws in place at the time John was a U.S. citizen at birth. How could John have become a U.S. citizen by derivation when his father already was a U.S. citizen when he was born? AuH2ORepublican (talk) 04:19, 18 July 2021 (UTC)