Where Are Donald Trump and His Birthers When You Need Them?

 

Is Ted Cruz eligible under the Constitution to become president?

By Tom Feran
Published on Thursday, May 9th, 2013


Cleveland-based PolitiFact Ohio has the distinction of being the closest PolitiFact unit to Canada, which might explain why we received several email and Twitter messages about Ted Cruz -- the Republican junior senator from Texas who is "considering a presidential run," according to friends and confidants quoted by the conservative blog National Review Online.
"Please tell Ted Cruz he can't be president," said an email to us. "He was born in Canada!"
We have no interest in another "birther" controversy, but we were curious for more information.
The basic biography: Cruz was born in 1970 in Calgary, Alberta, while his parents were working there.
His Cuban-born father, who is now an American citizen, was not at the time. His mother was born in Delaware. The family returned to the United States when Cruz was 4.

The Constitution gives three eligibility requirements to be president: one must be 35 years of age, a resident "within the United States" for 14 years, and a "natural born Citizen," a term not defined in the Constitution.


That lack of precision has given rise to controversy and legal challenges, but has never resulted in a definitive determination by the U.S. Supreme Court.
For that reason, PolitiFact refrained from making a Truth-O-Meter ruling in a May 2008 article that looked at the question of presidential eligibility for someone not physically born in the United States. The question had been raised about John McCain, who was born in the Panama Canal Zone when his father was stationed there in the U.S. Navy.
The issue was not likely to come before the high court, the article noted, and most legal scholars said McCain would have little to worry about if it did. It also noted that McCain’s campaign had commissioned a bipartisan duo of legal scholars to investigate the issue, and they concluded his status as a natural-born citizen was not in question.
Still as it was then, the issue remains rooted in legal opinions, and we make no ruling here either. But we can offer more support for the argument that McCain and Cruz are "natural born citizens," thanks to a more recent report on presidential qualifications by the Congressional Research Service and a nicely sourced posting by associate editor David A. Graham of The Atlantic.
CRS says: "The weight of legal and historical authority indicates that the term 'natural born' citizen would mean a person who is entitled to U.S. citizenship 'by birth' or 'at birth,' either by being born 'in' the United States and under its jurisdiction, even those born to alien parents; by being born abroad to U.S. citizen-parents; or by being born in other situations meeting legal requirements for U.S. citizenship 'at birth.'"
There is no requirement of two "citizen-parents," CRS found.
The CRS report took note of a federal court decision by the Northern District of California, which said that McCain would qualify as a citizen "at birth," and thus would be considered a "natural born" citizen, since he was born outside the United States to citizen parents.
The CRS did not look specifically at Cruz, and we can’t ask it to comment on him. The service works exclusively for Congress.
But Cruz, by being entitled to citizenship at birth because his mother was a U.S. citizen and by being in the U.S. for more than 14 years, would seem to qualify as a "natural born citizen" under the definition in the report.
When discussing McCain, the CRS report draws on immigration law and says: "The uncertainty concerning the meaning of the natural-born qualification in the Constitution has provoked discussion from time to time, particularly when the possible presidential candidacy of citizens born abroad was under consideration. There has never been any authoritative adjudication. It is possible that none may ever develop. However, there is substantial basis for concluding that the constitutional reference to a natural-born citizen includes every person who was born a citizen, including native-born citizens and citizens by descent."
So legally, the question is unsettled. Perhaps it will be if Cruz ever becomes a presidential contender.

Robert Reich

A few weeks ago Senator Ted Cruz (R-Tex) said on ABC's "This Week" that if the Senate immigration bill becomes law, “20 or 30 million” people will be living in the U.S. illegally. But the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office says the bill, if enacted, would reduce future illegal immigration by 33 percent to 50 percent compared with current law. It turns out that Cruz, who opposes any means by which undocumented immigrants or their children might eventually become American citizens, has a special relationship with the issue of immigration. He was born in Canada to a Cuban father and American mother, and is still a Canadian citizen. He said yesterday that he initially didn’t know he was a Canadian citizen because he didn’t think it was important to consult an immigration lawyer to find out, "because, frankly, it didn’t matter." Cruz said he got a U.S. passport, never did anything to claim his supposed Canadian citizenship, and “thought that was the end of it” until the Dallas Morning News in a story Sunday spoke to a Canadian immigration lawyer who said Cruz has Canadian citizenship. In a statement on Monday night, Cruz said he would renounce his Canadian citizenship. In all likelihood, Cruz will be running for the Republican nomination for President in 2016.

Cruz will renounce Canadian citizenship 19 Aug 2013 Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) announced Monday evening that he will renounce his Canadian citizenship, less than 24 hours after a newspaper pointed out that the Canadian-born senator likely maintains dual citizenship. The Dallas Morning News wrote in a story posted late Sunday night that Cruz likely remains a Canadian citizen, by virtue of being born there to an American mother. Having never renounced that citizenship, Cruz was technically a Canadian and an American citizen, according to legal experts.

Ted Cruz releases birth certificate 19 Aug 2013 Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) released his birth certificate Sunday amid questions about whether he is eligible to run for president. Cruz was born in Canada in 1970, to an American mother and Cuban father. By virtue of his mother’s status, Cruz instantly became a U.S. citizen. He released his birth certificate to the Dallas Morning News, verifying what he has previously asserted.