Rep. Nancy Mace wants to change the Constitution so that no one born outside the United States can serve in Congress, sit on the federal bench, or hold a Senate-confirmed position in the executive branch. Rep. Ilhan Omar, the Somalia-born Minnesota Democrat who appears to be the proposal's primary target, offered a four-word response: "Good luck to her."

Mace, a South Carolina Republican, unveiled the proposed amendment last week, naming Omar alongside Reps. Shri Thanedar of Michigan and Pramila Jayapal of Washington, all Democrats, all born abroad, as examples of why the change is needed. Under current law, only the presidency and vice presidency carry a natural-born-citizen requirement. Mace wants to extend that bar across the entire federal government's upper tiers.

The amendment faces enormous procedural hurdles. It would need two-thirds approval in both the House and Senate, then ratification by 38 of the 50 state legislatures, a threshold no proposal has cleared since 1992, when the 27th Amendment restricted Congress from raising its own pay until after the next House election. But the political message Mace is sending is louder than the legislative math.

Mace questions loyalty of foreign-born members

In a statement accompanying the rollout, Mace framed the amendment as a matter of national allegiance:

"If you hold power in the American government, you should be a natural-born American citizen. For too long we have allowed foreign-born members to hold seats in this government, while making clear their loyalty is not here. We see it every day."

She sharpened the point on X, listing the three Democratic members by name:

"Ilhan Omar. Shri Thanedar. Pramila Jayapal. All born in foreign countries, none were citizens by birth. All sitting in the United States Congress. All making clear every single day their loyalty is not to America."

The language is blunt, and it lands squarely on Omar, who became a U.S. citizen in 2000 after arriving as a refugee from Somalia. Mace and Omar have an acrimonious history. Earlier this year, Mace filed a motion in the House Oversight Committee to subpoena Omar's family records, an effort tied to long-circulating, unproven accusations that Omar married her brother. That motion failed.

Omar has faced persistent questions about her personal and financial conduct throughout her tenure. She has refused to cooperate with a Minnesota fraud committee as subpoena efforts fell short, a pattern that has fueled Republican frustration.

Omar dismisses both the amendment and an investigation claim

When Fox News Digital asked Omar about the Mace proposal, she did not engage on the substance. "Good luck to her," she said, a response that reads less like confidence and more like a bet that the constitutional math will protect her.

She was also asked about a separate claim from Vice President JD Vance, who indicated to reporters that Omar is facing some sort of investigation related to her immigration status. Omar denied it flatly: "That is not something that is happening. That man is delusional."

The article does not provide Vance's verbatim remarks, and no details about the alleged investigation, which agency, what stage, what specific conduct, have been made public. The claim remains unresolved. But it is not the first time the vice president has raised the issue. Vance has previously accused Omar of committing immigration fraud, putting the administration's weight behind allegations that Omar has categorically rejected.

The numbers cut both ways

Mace's amendment would not affect only Democrats. The House currently includes 19 Democrats and 7 Republicans born overseas. If ratified, the amendment would retroactively disqualify sitting members on both sides of the aisle, a detail that makes passage even less likely within the GOP conference, let alone across both chambers and three-quarters of state legislatures.

That political reality has not stopped Mace from pressing the issue. She has built a brand around confrontation, and Omar has been a recurring foil. Mace has also named lawmakers she says used taxpayer-funded settlement funds to bury sex scandals, establishing herself as a Republican willing to pick fights that generate heat even when the votes aren't there.

Whether this latest proposal is serious legislation or a messaging vehicle, it puts a question on the table that some conservatives have raised for years: Should the natural-born-citizen requirement extend beyond the Oval Office? The Constitution's framers drew the line at the presidency. Mace argues the line should move.

Omar's growing list of controversies

For Omar, the amendment is one more entry on a lengthening list of Republican-led challenges. Beyond the Mace subpoena effort and the Vance investigation claim, she has faced scrutiny over financial disclosure discrepancies. GOP Rep. Tom Emmer has called Omar a "complete fraud" as those discrepancies drew party-wide attention.

Omar has also had to address questions about her connection to Minnesota's massive Feeding Our Future fraud case, which she has denied while blaming the Trump administration for politicizing the matter.

None of these threads, individually, has produced a formal charge or official finding against Omar. But taken together, they form a sustained campaign of pressure from Republicans who believe the Minnesota congresswoman has not answered basic questions about her background, her finances, and her conduct in office.

Omar's strategy has been consistent: dismiss, deny, and dare her opponents to prove it. On the amendment, she is probably right that the math is against Mace. Constitutional amendments are the hardest thing to pass in American government, and this one would face bipartisan resistance from the 26 foreign-born House members whose seats would vanish.

The real question Mace is asking

Strip away the procedural impossibility, and Mace's proposal still raises a legitimate policy debate. The framers decided that the commander-in-chief must be born on American soil. They did not extend that requirement to the people who write the laws, confirm the judges, or oversee the executive branch. Mace argues that gap is a vulnerability. Omar's dismissal, and the broader Democratic silence on the proposal, suggests the left would rather not have the conversation at all.

The amendment will almost certainly die without a vote. But the fight it represents, over who gets to wield power in American government and what obligations come with it, is not going away. Omar can shrug all she wants. The questions keep piling up, and "good luck" is not an answer.