Fact Check: Did the 'Born in America Act' pass, forcing federal officeholders to resign?
WASHINGTON, DC: A viral Facebook post circulating in late November 2025 claimed that a sweeping new citizenship law, the so-called Born in America Act, had been passed by the US Senate, allegedly triggering the immediate removal of naturalized federal officeholders.
The story sparked panic, confusion, and partisan speculation across Facebook, X, and Instagram, spreading widely within hours.
Claim: Senate passed a 'Born in America Act' authored by Sen John Kennedy requiring federal officeholders to be natural-born citizens
The viral posts asserted that Sen John Kennedy (R-La.) authored and successfully passed a Born in America Act, which supposedly required every federal officeholder to be a natural-born US citizen who had never held dual citizenship. According to the rumor, the act forced 14 House members, three senators, and two Cabinet secretaries—identified in the posts as naturalized citizens—to resign and be escorted from their offices “live on C-SPAN.”
The posts further claimed that the vice president cast a tiebreaking vote in a “51-49” outcome, and that Capitol Police physically removed officeholders in a dramatic on-camera operation. Some variations of the rumor also appeared on pages alleging that Marco Rubio introduced the same bill, even though Rubio was no longer serving as a senator in 2025 and held a Cabinet position instead.
The claim spread quickly, prompting a spike in Google searches for the phrase Born in America Act as users tried to verify whether the alleged mass resignations had actually taken place.
Fact Check: No such bill exists, no resignations occurred, and the claim is entirely false
A search of Congress.gov, which maintains the official public record of all federal legislation, shows no bill titled the Born in America Act. Likewise, an index of legislation sponsored by Kennedy contains nothing resembling such a measure. If a bill of this scale had been introduced or passed, it would appear in the congressional record.
Snopes also conducted a broad search, finding no credible news coverage, no congressional activity, and no reports of mass resignations or a Capitol Police operation. Any event involving federal officials being escorted out of Congress on camera would have dominated national headlines.
The viral story included major constitutional inaccuracies. While the US Constitution requires the president to be a natural-born citizen, it only requires House members to be citizens for seven years and senators for nine years. Naturalized citizens are fully eligible for both chambers. Changing those eligibility requirements would require a constitutional amendment ratified by three-fourths of the states, something far beyond the scope of a simple Senate vote.
The claim also contained mathematical errors. A 51-49 vote would not require a tiebreaker from the vice president. Governors were also incorrectly included in the rumor despite being state officials, not federal. And the assertion that the hashtag #BornInAmericaAct accumulated 912 billion impressions is implausible, exceeding global population many times over.
A different bill and a history of fabricated political legislation hoaxes
The closest real counterpart to the fictional Born in America Act was the Born in the USA Act, introduced by House Democrats earlier in 2025 to block President Donald Trump’s birthright citizenship executive order. That bill never advanced to a vote.
The viral claim reflects a recurring pattern of misinformation built around fabricated legislation, often involving citizenship, voting rights, or eligibility for office, and attributed to real lawmakers to provoke outrage.
