Texas Senator Ted Cruz looks like he’s going to announce a campaign from president in 2016 any day now, but many have wondered if he’s eligible for the Oval Office, since he was born in Canada. To show that he is eligible, Cruz released his birth certificate, proving that his mother was an American citizen.
Cruz, a Republican and tea party favorite, released his certificate to the Dallas Morning News and it does show that his mother is American and therefore, an instant American citizen. “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,” spokeswoman Catherine Frazier told the paper. “To our knowledge, he never had Canadian citizenship, so there is nothing to renounce.”
But the paper spoke with Canadian experts who said that Cruz has dual citizenship. He was also born a Canadian citizen. “Generally speaking, under the Citizenship Act of 1947, those born in Canada were automatically citizens at birth unless their parent was a foreign diplomat,” ministry spokeswoman Julie Lafortune said.
As USA Today notes, the U.S. Constitution says that only a “natural born” American citizen can run for the Oval Office. Scholars have interpreted that to include anyone born overseas to American parents.
Cruz has been visiting Iowa, South Carolina and New Hampshire, three states key to the primary race for the GOP nomination in 2016.
Of course, the situation with Cruz brings up memories of the “birther” movement that forced President Barack Obama to eventually release his birth certificate in 2011, after questions were raised about his status in 2008. Arizona Sen. John McCain’s eligibility also needed to be explained in 2008, since he was born in the Panama Canal Zone.
image: Wikimedia Commons
