Republican Sen. Bernie Moreno of Ohio plans to introduce legislation that would force U.S. citizens holding another nationality to choose one citizenship, according to news reports. Moreno, who was born in Colombia and renounced that citizenship after becoming a U.S. citizen, frames the proposal as a way to ensure exclusive allegiance to the United States.
Titled the Exclusive Citizenship Act of 2025, the bill would also treat any American who acquires a foreign citizenship in the future as having effectively relinquished U.S. citizenship. Under Moreno’s plan, current dual citizens would have one year after the law’s enactment to either formally renounce their foreign citizenship with the secretary of state or notify the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that they intend to renounce U.S. citizenship. Those who do not comply within that period would be treated as having given up their U.S. citizenship.
The measure would direct the State Department and DHS to create databases and rules to track dual citizenship status and enforce the new requirement. For people who lose U.S. citizenship—whether voluntarily or by the bill’s terms—the DHS and the attorney general would be required to record the change in federal systems and treat those individuals as noncitizens under immigration law.
Moreno has described U.S. citizenship as an “all or nothing” commitment, saying that pledging allegiance to the United States should be exclusive. His proposal aligns with a wave of immigration restrictions associated with the Trump administration and follows earlier congressional efforts aimed at limiting dual-citizenship protections, including proposals to require lawmakers to disclose or bar foreign citizenship.
Current U.S. law permits dual nationality and does not compel citizens to choose a single allegiance. Legal experts note the proposal would likely face court challenges: since the 1950s the Supreme Court has recognized the possibility of dual citizenship and several rulings have protected related rights. The Trump administration has separately pursued changes to birthright citizenship, a dispute that has generated litigation and remains unresolved at the highest levels of the courts; the administration has not taken an official position on this dual-citizenship bill.
If filed, Moreno’s measure would start a contentious policy and legal debate over national belonging, individual rights, and the constitutional limits on Congress’s power to alter citizenship status.
