Dual citizenship may pose problem if Ted Cruz seeks presidency
Sen. Ted Cruz’s birth certificate shows he was born in Canada in 1970. It was released exclusively to The Dallas Morning News.
By TODD J. GILLMAN
Washington Bureau
Updated: 19 August 2013 03:51 PM
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WASHINGTON — Born in Canada to an American mother, Ted Cruz became an instant U.S. citizen. But under Canadian law, he also became a citizen of that country the moment he was born.
Unless the Texas Republican senator formally renounces that citizenship, he will remain a citizen of both countries, legal experts say.
That means he could assert the right to vote in Canada or even run for Parliament. On a lunch break from the U.S. Senate, he could head to the nearby embassy — the one flying a bright red maple leaf flag — pull out his Calgary, Alberta, birth certificate and obtain a passport.
“He’s a Canadian,” said Toronto lawyer Stephen Green, past chairman of the Canadian Bar Association’s Citizenship and Immigration Section.
The circumstances of Cruz’s birth have fueled a simmering debate over his eligibility to run for president. Knowingly or not, dual citizenship is an apparent if inconvenient truth for the tea party firebrand, who shows every sign he’s angling for the White House.
“Senator Cruz became a U.S. citizen at birth, and he never had to go through a naturalization process after birth to become a U.S. citizen,” said spokeswoman Catherine Frazier. “To our knowledge, he never had Canadian citizenship.”
The U.S. Constitution allows only a “natural born” American citizen to serve as president. Most legal scholars who have studied the question agree that includes an American born overseas to an American parent, such as Cruz.
The Constitution says nothing about would-be presidents born with dual citizenship.
Detractors have derided Cruz as “Canadian Ted,” saying he can’t run for president because he wasn’t born on U.S. soil.
Cruz, a Harvard-trained lawyer and former clerk for the U.S. chief justice, disagrees. He reasserted last week that being an American by birth makes him eligible.
https://www.dallasnews.com/news/politics/headlines/20130818-born-in-canada-ted-cruz-became-a-citizen-of-that-country-as-well-as-u.s..ece
I still haven’t seen Barry Soweto’s real birth certificate! I’m guessing it will surface after he’s done with his second term.
Cruz thinks he would be a good president. Because he is a good man he is not hiding anything. His commitment to the sanctity of the U.S. Constitution is unfortunately, very unfortunately, eclipsed by his ambition. Accordingly, he has arrived at the conclusion that he is legally eligible to run for and hold the office of president based solely on his having been a statutory citizen since birth. Get it folks? He has no choice other than to put forth this weak legal argument. Therefore, he runs it up the flagpole to see who salutes.
If Cruz REALLY wanted to be president, he would have sealed everything about his life, his wife’s life, etc. Then, when his detractors demanded he provide documentation, he should call them racists. A couple of autobiographies wouldn’t hurt full of navel-gazing BS and parties in the Choom Wagon. Forget about a constitution that enumerates our rights; give an interview and argue that the constitution doesn’t restrict rights. Add to that a circle of friends that include domestic terrorists and Chicago strongmen.
He coulda had a shot.