George Santos, R-NY, may really be R-Brazil. Talking Points Memo spotted yet one more questionable part of Santos’s resume, reported in the Port Washington Patch: George Santos' Former NY Coworkers Fill In Murky Biography
Barbara Hurdas said she started training at Dish the same day as Santos in October 2011. She was hired as a Greek language representative, and the two worked together at the now-closed Queens office until Santos left the company, she said.
"He used to tell us he was born in Brazil," she recalled to Patch, "and that he would travel back and forth and that he came from money." [emphasis added]
The Patch story doesn’t make anything out of this statement, focusing instead on other discrepancies in Santos’s bio (of which there are too many to count). But TPM’s Josh Marshall did spot the significance:
My assumption is that Santos is a citizen. But based on my reading of the available reporting there’s no actual evidence that Santos was born in Queens or anywhere in the United States, other than Santos’s say-so, which is obviously worth less than nothing. And there’s at least some evidence – Ms. Hurdas’s recollection – that he told others he was born in Brazil.
This really is a case where “show us the birth certificate” (or naturalization papers) has legal merit. As the Constitution requires:
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. Art. I Section 2 [emphasis added]
Given how Santos has been caught lying about his work record, his school record, his charities, his sexuality, and probably the direction where the sun rose this morning, it is entirely reasonable to ask where he was born (either in the US, or abroad as the child of a US citizen), or if he has been a naturalized citizen for at least 7 years. Should be simple enough to establish, right?
I’ll let Patch have the last word:
Hurdas told Patch she's not surprised about the recent allegations.
"Even back then it seemed that his life was fabricated, almost like he was playing a character," she said.
Edit: 1603 PST I want to expand on an offhand reply I made below:
If Santos is found (in a final decision by a court of law) not to have been a citizen, and to have known or been reasonably expected to know that he was not a citizen, he can be deported and barred for life from re-entering the United States, under 8 USC 1182 (a)(6)(C)(ii):
Any alien who falsely represents, or has falsely represented, himself or herself to be a citizen of the United States for any purpose or benefit under this chapter (including section 1324a of this title) or any other Federal or State law is inadmissible.
Voting when not a citizen is a false representation (though if you were under the reasonable impression that you were in fact a citizen, DHS may decide to give you a pass). Running for federal office as a non-citizen is definitely beyond the pale.
Consular officials know this one as 6C2. Normally there is no way to waive this inadmissibility, though there are a couple of very narrow exceptions.
