PRESS RELEASES
Long Pham for CA-42 CD 1529
1529 W. Balboa Blvd., Newport Beach, CA 92663-4567 www.phamforcongress.com
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Long Beach, CA – May 13, 2026 – Long Pham, candidate for California’s 42nd Congressional District and former Orange County Board of Education Trustee, today called on federal authorities to investigate incumbent Congressman Robert Garcia’s eligibility to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Pham urged (1) the U.S. government to immediately investigate and revoke Congressman Garcia’s U.S. citizenship if it was obtained fraudulently or if he was not a citizen at the time of his election, and (2) the U.S. House of Representatives to remove Mr. Garcia from Congress.
According to publicly available information, Robert Julio Garcia was born in Lima, Peru, on December 2, 1977. He arrived in the United States with his mother in 1982 at the age of five on visitor visas, which they overstayed. In 1986, the family applied for green cards under the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA), signed into law by President Ronald Reagan.
Garcia has stated that he became a U.S. citizen in his early 20s while in college. However, IRCA eligibility was limited to individuals who entered the United States prior to January 1, 1982. Garcia and his mother arrived in 1982, after the cutoff date, making them ineligible for legalization under the main provisions of the Act.
The only exception under IRCA was for Special Agricultural Workers (SAWs), which required at least 90 days of seasonal agricultural work in the year preceding May 1986. This exception does not apply to Garcia, who was eight years old at the time and whose family lived and worked in the San Gabriel Valley, far from agricultural areas.
“Congressman Garcia’s own timeline raises serious questions about the validity of his U.S. citizenship,” said Pham. “If he was not lawfully eligible for amnesty under IRCA, he should not be serving in the United States Congress.”
For more information about this topic or to schedule an interview with Long Pham, please contact 949-500-9887 or email long@phamforcongress.com.
