Attention birthers of the Democratic Party: Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) has officially released his birth certificate and questions regarding his eligibility to seek the White House have been quelled.
After speculation regarding Cruz’s citizenship — and eligibility to run for President — the Tea Party darling released the document to The Dallas Morning News. The potential GOP presidential nominee was born Rafael Edward Cruz in Calgary, Canada, to an American mother and Cuban father in 1970.
“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,” Catherine Frazier, Cruz’s spokeswoman, told The Dallas Morning News. “To our knowledge, he never had Canadian citizenship, so there is nothing to renounce.”
Because the Texas Republican was born to an American mother — who was born in Delaware — Cruz became a U.S. citizen at birth. But as he was born on Canadian soil, Cruz retains citizenship in both countries, legal experts say.
“If Ted Cruz was born in Canada, he is Canadian. He is American. He is a dual citizen,” Demetrios Papademetriou, president of the Migration Policy Institution, told The Dallas Morning News.
Though some detractors argue Cruz cannot run for president because he wasn’t born on U.S. soil, many constitutional and legal scholars agree an American born overseas to American parents satisfy the requirements to seek the presidency outlined by the Constitution.
“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,'” a report by the Congressional Research Service said.
The Constitution asserts three qualifications in order to obtain the presidency: the person must be a natural-born citizen; must be at least 35 years old; and must be a resident of the United States for at least 14 years. And, as interpreted by the Congressional Research Service, Cruz does satisfy the requirement of being a natural born citizen, contrary to his dissenters.
However, the Constitution does not address whether the Senator would have to renounce his Canadian citizenship in order to serve as President.
But this hasn’t stopped Cruz from seeking the Republican Party’s nomination in 2016. Though he hasn’t officially announced his intent to run, Cruz headed to Iowa for the second time this summer earlier this month and will travel to New Hampshire at the end of the week — two strong indicators he’s eyeing a 2016 run.
