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“Being an American citizen is an honor and a privilege, and being one is all or nothing. It’s time to end dual citizenship forever.”
With this sentence, Colombian-born US Senator Bernardo Moreno presented to the country’s Congress a bill aimed at abolishing dual citizenship for Americans.
If passed, the law would give U.S. citizens with more than one citizenship one year to renounce these additional citizenships or lose their status as Americans.
Moreno, who became a U.S. citizen at age 18, renouncing his Colombian citizenship, is a strong supporter of President Donald Trump in the Senate and came to his seat after a successful career as an Ohio car dealership owner.
And although Moreno had a history of what he described as “tremendous privilege” in his native Colombia, he said his story changed drastically when his parents decided to move to Florida in 1971, when he was five years old.
The American Dream
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While campaigning for Senate in Ohio, Moreno recalled that his mother made the decision to move the family to the United States to prevent her children from adjusting to the “tremendous privilege” they had in Colombia.
Moreno has spoken of the various properties his family maintained in Colombia – including a house that now houses the German embassy in Bogota – and of his proximity to political power – his father was health minister and doctor to former President Misael Pastrana Borrero.
Lecture in the Leadership Podcast Up2Moreno recalled his mother packing 23 suitcases and taking her seven children to Fort Lauderdale, Florida. His father would arrive later and manage to get his medical license in Miami.
“We actually came to the United States so that my mother could show us what it was like to live the ‘American dream,’ which is to start with a certain modesty, a lower-middle-class life, and then it’s up to you to acquire wealth without it being given to you,” Moreno said Up2.
As the current senator explained, the transfer also marked a change of identity for his family.
“We moved to the United States (he told us) that we would become Americans, and we were. That doesn’t mean we were no longer Colombians, but in the way we behaved, acted, communicated and thought, we were just Americans.”
Moreno studied at the University of Michigan and became interested in the world of cars in 2005 when he arrived in Cleveland, Ohio, where he invested all his money in a Mercedes-Benz dealership, which he expanded into a large chain that currently includes all kinds of brands, including Nissan, Volkswagen, Acura and Mini.
With success in the automotive sector, Moreno entered the world BlockchainStarting a company that helps digitize car titles.
His older brother Luis Alberto Moreno was Minister of Economic Development, Colombian Ambassador to the United States and President of the Inter-American Development Bank.
Political positions
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Even before entering politics, while still working as a businessman, Moreno began to express his opinion about the need for reform of the immigration system in the United States, which would reward the professional merits of applicants and provide a path to legalization for the millions of undocumented immigrants in the country.
According to a 2021 NBC report on leaked communications between Moreno and Republican Party figures, Moreno was even openly critical of Donald Trump at various points during the 2016 campaign.
Responding to an invitation to meet with then-party leader Reince Preibus, Moreno said: “I am a strong supporter of the party! But … if Donald Trump is nominated, I will consider it a hostile takeover and will stop associating with this new Republican Party.”
With Trump’s influence spreading across the Republican Party after his multiple victories in the 2016 Republican primaries, Moreno sharpened the tone of his criticism of the current president: “I will support individual candidates, but I am unable to support a party whose leader is so crazy.”
However, that tone changed in the president’s favor when Moreno tried to reach Congress for the first time in the 2022 Ohio state primary.
After speaking with Trump, Moreno expressed his desire for the seat that would ultimately be won by current Vice President JD Vance.
In April 2024, Moreno announced that he would run for Congress again, receiving support from Trump.
Moreno’s campaign focused on decidedly conservative ideals: “We are a sovereign country,” he told a local Ohio station during his campaign.
“We will have a secure border. We will have energy dominance. We will have trade deals that benefit the United States. We will ensure we have security around the world.”
Moreno has spoken out against abortion: “I am 100 percent pro-life, without exception,” he said.
Given U.S. policy toward Colombia, Moreno criticized current President Gustavo Petro’s government and promoted legislation sanctioning the president and his cabinet members.
The Colombian president responded by calling him a “stateless person” who “called on Trump to block Colombia.”
The senator’s office declined an interview request from BBC Mundo.
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