Senator Ted Cruz (R-Tex.), 2016 presidential hopeful, was born in Canada – everyone has seen his birth certificate and knows his mother is American and father is Cuban-Canadian. Sen. Cruz maintained a dual citizenship between Canada and the U.S. until he renounced his Canadian citizenship last year, but did that automatically naturalize him?
What does Constitutional or immigration law have to say about it?
Sen. Cruz’s Promises He’s A Citizen
Sen. Cruz was born in Canada to an American citizen mother and Cuban refugee father who was not a citizen, according to Dallas News. Sen. Cruz promises his supporters that he is indeed eligible to become president, since he gained birthright citizenship from his mother:
“It was the act of being born to my mother that made me a citizen.”
Yes, that’s right. Sen. Cruz says he holds birthright citizenship because of his mother – the same birthright citizenship he wants repealed from the Constitution.
Sen. Cruz, as a Constitutional lawyer, says he knows the law, so he’s got to see the irony in that, doesn’t he?
If by some miracle he got elected and got the birthright citizenship amendment repealed, his own actions would immediately make himself a non-citizen in the process. How would that work?
On that note, why is Sen. Cruz and the right being such hypocrites? Why wasn’t being born to an American mother good enough for everyone to believe President Obama could be president?
Dishing Out Immigration Law
One Democratic representative hopes it won’t even get that far. Representative Alan Grayson (D-Fla.) promises to file a lawsuit against Sen. Cruz to challenge his eligibility to hold the highest office in the last should he get the GOP nod, birth certificate or not.
Rep. Grayson wondered when the U.S. started counting Canadians as naturalized Americans, and how it would work and, according to Raw Story, he said:
“Call me crazy, but I think that the president of America should be an American.”
Rep. Grayson decided he would sue to question Sen. Cruz’s eligibility after efforts to remove the Texas senator from the state’s ballots failed.
The New Hampshire Ballot Commission voted to uphold the decision made by Secretary of State Bill Gardner to allow Sen. Cruz to stay on the state’s ballot unanimously.
Although the commission voted, they did not yet issue a ruling.
Sen. Cruz said that the vote settles the matter, and the ruling will cement it. However, Brad Cook, a Republican member of the Commission and attorney from Manchester, said it’s not settled at all.
“All we say is, ‘Look, when there’s an unsettled question of law … we’re not going to decide it.’”
One commission member even asked Sen. Cruz to present solid evidence, or a case precedent that proves he is eligible.
He could not. There is none. Cook said that despite the argument from both sides, the courts have “never said anything” about what “natural born citizen” actually means.
No the courts have not, but a section of the Immigration law does, and it proves Sen. Cruz is not eligible, according to Forbes.
“A child born abroad to two U.S. citizen parents acquires U.S. citizenship at birth under section 301(c) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) provided that one of the parents had a residence in the United States or one of its outlying possessions prior to the child’s birth. The child is considered to be born in wedlock if the child is the genetic issue of the married couple.”
As a result of this immigration clause, “to two U.S. citizen parents,” Ted Cruz is not eligible to run for or hold the office of President. Both his parents were not citizens when little Cruz was born, only his mother was, according to Cruz’s own spokesperson.
Good for the Goose
What’s even more ironic about this whole “Ted Cruz birther”” thing is that Sen. Cruz said that President Obama was ineligible because his father was Kenyan.
Sen. Cruz says he’s eligible because his mother is American, which makes him a hypocrite at best. This same argument alone would make President Obama eligible to serve, even if he was born in Kenya.
President Obama’s mother is American, and he was born in Hawaii, so it’s a moot point. Still, it’s nice that someone is feeding Sen. Cruz a taste of his own medicine for once.
Speaking of which, has anyone ever noticed that Sen. Cruz’s birth certificate doesn’t actually have his name on it?
His birth certificate says Raphael Edward Cruz. Not Ted. Not Theodore. Raphael Edward. Raphael means Ralph, and there’s no “T” in “Edward,” so where does “Ted” from? He says he changed his name, but since there’s no legal papers to prove it, I’ve got to ask… Is that his real birth certificate?
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