US Senator-elect Ted Cruz (R-TX), whose real name is Rafael Edward Cruz, was born on December 22, 1970 in Calgary, Canada.
Cruz was four years old before he moved, with his parents, to the United States of America. Unlike our de facto president Barack Hussein Obama II who probably only spent a number of days in Kenya before coming to the USA Cruz spent at least the first four (4) years of his life in Canada.
Cruz’s father, Rafael Cruz, was a Cuban immigrant in the United States of American during the Cuban Revolution. He came to the USA in 1957 to study at the University of Texas. However, it wasn’t until 2005 that he became a US citizen.
It appears that Cruz’s mother, Eleanor Darragh, was born in Delaware. If readers of this blog have information to contrary please do share it with us in comments section below.
Is Cruz eligible to serve as President of the United States of America? Speculation that Cruz is gearing up for a 2016 run is, and has been, developing ever since Cruz won the 2012 US Senate election and notably more so now after an October 29, 2012 speech given by Cruz in Washington, DC at the American Principles Project in which Cruz introduced a concept which he calls “Opportunity Conservatism”.
A political science professor, Brandon Rottinghaus, of the University of Houston, has weighed in regarding Cruz and the Natural Born Citizen clause saying that the sticking point comes from what the definition of a “natural born citizen” is, and whether Cruz’s Canadian birthplace is addressed by the law. “Natural born citizenship is not defined in the US Constitution,” Rottinghaus said. “The reason they didn’t is not totally clear.” Rottinghaus says that the writers of the US Constitution probably meant to include both people born on U.S. soil and those born to citizens, but ultimately left the decision to be made by the states.
UCLA law professor Eugene Volokh also weighed in citing The Nationality Act of 1940 which outlined which children became “nationals and citizens of the United States at birth.” The law stated that a person is a U.S. citizen if he or she were born in United States; born outside the U.S. to parents who were both citizens; found in the United States without parents and no proof of birth elsewhere; or if a person has been born to one American parent, provided that parent has spent a certain number of years in the United States.
Professor Volokh says that the “single-American parent requirement” has been amended a few times. As it applies to people born between 1952 and 1986, they must have a parent who was a U.S. citizen for at least 10 years, including five after the age of 14, in order for the baby to be considered a natural-born citizen.
It should be noted here that professor Volokh calls himself a friend of Cruz and has known him since the 1990s. It should also be noted here that in 2008 Volokh wrote about Barack Obama and came to the same conclusion regarding eligibility.
Peter J. Spiro, who holds the Charles Weiner Chair in international law, at Temple University says that, “Ted Cruz didn’t naturalize. He was natural at birth.”
Professor Spiro also says its possible that a person could challenge that the laws granting citizenship at birth do not define what it is to be a natural-born citizen. In fact, the phrase “natural-born citizen” is only used once in the U.S. Code — in Article 2 of the Constitution. Such a challenge would be unlikely to change the current definitions, however, Spiro says.
If you ask me, Lucas D. Smith, it appears that Rafael Edward Cruz’s birth account is reciprocal with, mirrors or at very least is much like Barack Hussein Obama’s. One notable dissimilarity is that Cruz spent at least the first four (4) years of his life outside of the United States of America (in Canada) while Obama probably only spent a number of days after his birth (in Kenya) before coming to United States of America.
Is political science professor Brandon Rottinghaus (University of Houston) correct in taking the position that the writers of the US Constitution ultimately (because they didn’t define it in the Constitution) left the decision of determining who is, and isn’t, a natural born citizen, to be made by the states?
In the summer/fall of 201o I (Lucas) participated in several telephonic discussions with the office of then Congressman John Tanner (D-TN). Tanner’s office stated, hypothetically, that if Barack Hussein Obama II was indeed born abroad (outside of the USA), to at least one US citizen parent, his US citizen parent would have to apply for (via application) his US citizenship. Tanner’s office went on to state that if the US citizen parent DID NOT make an application for citizenship before Barack Obama turned age 18 that it would then become the responsibility of Barack Obama himself to file an application for US Citizenship. Either scenario (parent application or self application) would make Barack Obama a “natural born citizen”, according to Tanner’s office.
Did the US citizen mother of Rafael Edward Cruz make application for her son’s US citizenship when she moved her son to the USA more than four (4) years after his birth? If not, did Cruz himself at any point after turning age 18 make the application for US citizenship?
In closing I will add that I if Cruz does decide to run for President 2016 I would like, and demand, to see his birth certificate.
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