Was Sen. Ted Cruz Born with U.S. Citizenship?

IF SO, IS HE “NATURAL BORN?”

by Sharon Rondeau

(Oct. 6, 2014) — As the media representative for Texas Sen. Ted Cruz did not respond to The Post & Email’s questions last week regarding Cruz’s citizenship, The Post & Email has submitted a request under the Texas Public Information Act for copies of any documents Cruz was required to complete in order to serve as Solicitor General under Texas Attorney General Greg Abbot beginning in January 2003.

Cruz may seek the presidency in 2016, but questions remain as to whether or not he can be considered a “natural born Citizen,” as is required by Article II of the U.S. Constitution for the president and commander-in-chief.

Cruz is a graduate of Princeton University and Harvard Law School.  He worked at the federal level as Director of the Office of Policy Planning at the Federal Trade Commission and Associate Deputy Attorney General at the U.S. Department of Justice before his appointment to the Texas Solicitor General position, for which he was Texas’s youngest appointee.

Cruz’s biography does not state his birthplace, which is known to be Calgary, Alberta, Canada based on the birth certificate he reportedly released to The Dallas Morning News last year.  However, Cruz does reveal the respective birthplaces of his parents, which are Cuba for his father and Delaware for his mother.

While Fox News claims that Cruz’s birth to an American mother is enough to qualify him for the presidency, The Dallas Morning News’s exclusive article from August 2013 showing Cruz’s birth certificate is entitled, “Dual citizenship may pose problem if Ted Cruz seeks presidency.”

At the time, The Morning News reported that Cruz’s spokeswoman said, “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.  To our knowledge, he never had Canadian citizenship,” which was evidenced as false when following the Morning News’s report, Cruz announced that he would renounce his Canadian citizenship.  Through several attorneys, the process was reportedly completed earlier this year.

Cruz was born a dual Canadian-U.S. citizen at his birth, according to CBC News Canada, which also reported that the renunciation process for his Canadian citizenship should have been rapid.

AOL News featured a report from “Newsy” on the subject of Cruz’s birthplace and citizenship, then editorialized in a Huffington Post video that “birthers” would create a “sideshow” over Cruz’s apparent “dual citizenship.”  A caption beneath the set of AOL videos states, “The birth certificate shows Cruz was born in Canada to an American mother. Most legal experts say this makes him a dual citizen.”

Regarding dual nationality, the U.S. State Department today maintains:

The concept of dual nationality means that a person is a national of two countries at the same time. Each country has its own nationality laws based on its own policy. Persons may have dual nationality by automatic operation of different laws rather than by choice. For example, a child born in a foreign country to U.S. national parents may be both a U.S. national and a national of the country of birth.

A U.S. national may acquire foreign nationality by marriage, or a person naturalized as a U.S. national may not lose the nationality of the country of birth. U.S. law does not mention dual nationality or require a person to choose one nationality or another. Also, a person who is automatically granted another nationality does not risk losing U.S. nationality. However, a person who acquires a foreign nationality by applying for it may lose U.S. nationality. In order to lose U.S. nationality, the law requires that the person must apply for the foreign nationality voluntarily, by free choice, and with the intention to give up U.S. nationality.

Intent can be shown by the person’s statements or conduct. The U.S. Government recognizes that dual nationality exists but does not encourage it as a matter of policy because of the problems it may cause. Claims of other countries on dual national U.S. nationals may conflict with U.S. law, and dual nationality may limit U.S. Government efforts to assist nationals abroad. The country where a dual national is located generally has a stronger claim to that person’s allegiance.

However, dual nationals owe allegiance to both the United States and the foreign country. They are required to obey the laws of both countries. Either country has the right to enforce its laws, particularly if the person later travels there. Most U.S. nationals, including dual nationals, must use a U.S. passport to enter and leave the United States. Dual nationals may also be required by the foreign country to use its passport to enter and leave that country. Use of the foreign passport does not endanger U.S. nationality. Most countries permit a person to renounce or otherwise lose nationality.

The Dallas Morning News does not present proof of Cruz’s purported dual citizenship, and whether or not Cruz possesses such documentation is unknown.  Writer JB Williams contends that “Ted Cruz was not registered at birth as a citizen of the United States.  His only existing birth record is his Canadian birth records [sic].”  If Cruz does not now possess U.S. citizenship, he would not qualify to serve in the U.S. Senate or anywhere in the federal government.

Article II, Section 1, clause 5 of the U.S. Constitution requires the president to be a “natural born Citizen.” At the time of the Framers, it was highly likely that the term meant “born in the United States to parents who are also U.S. citizens” (paraphrased).  The media has not distinguished between the terms “citizen” and “natural born Citizen,” but rather, equated the two in its limited reportage of the controversy, which began with Obama’s seeking of the presidency in 2007.

The media has also glossed over the fact that Obama was reportedly born to a foreign-citizen father and therefore might not have been eligible based on that fact alone. In 1916, attorney and former ambassador to Italy Breckinridge Long wrote that a person born on U.S. soil to a foreign-citizen father was not a “natural born Citizen.”

The long-form birth certificate released on the White House website on April 27, 2011 claiming that Obama was born in Honolulu, HI on August 4, 1961 has been determined by a criminal investigation to be a “computer-generated forgery,” and no hospital in the country has claimed his birth.

If Obama were actually born in a foreign country to a U.S.-citizen mother, he and Cruz may have the exact same situation.  However, Obama’s purported mother was reportedly 18 at the time of his birth, which some researchers have stated was statutorily too young for her to have confirmed U.S. citizenship to her child given an out-of-country birth.

At least four U.S. Supreme Court cases deal with citizenship and “natural born” citizenship.

On July 25, 1787, John Jay wrote a letter to George Washington pertaining to the drafting of the U.S. Constitution and specifically, the requirements for the president, in which he said:

Dear Sir,

Permit me to hint whether it would not be wise and seasonable to provide a strong check to the admission of foreigners into the administration of our national government ; and to declare expressly that the command in chief of the American army shall not be given to, nor devolve on any but a natural born citizen.

I remain, dear sir,

Your faithful friend and servant,

John Jay.

The requirements for U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senator are U.S. citizenship, with respective minimum age and residency requirements lower than that of the presidency.

In “The Law of Nations,” written by Swiss philosopher Emmerich de Vattel and believed to have been relied upon heavily by the Framers, Vattel wrote:

§ 212. Citizens and natives.

The citizens are the members of the civil society; bound to this society by certain duties, and subject to its authority, they equally participate in its advantages. The natives, or natural-born citizens, are those born in the country, of parents who are citizens. As the society cannot exist and perpetuate itself otherwise than by the children of the citizens, those children naturally follow the condition of their fathers, and succeed to all their rights. The society is supposed to desire this, in consequence of what it owes to its own preservation; and it is presumed, as matter of course, that each citizen, on entering into society, reserves to his children the right of becoming members of it. The country of the fathers is therefore that of the children; and these become true citizens merely by their tacit consent. We shall soon see whether, on their coming to the years of discretion, they may renounce their right, and what they owe to the society in which they were born. I say, that, in order to be of the country, it is necessary that a person be born of a father who is a citizen; for, if he is born there of a foreigner, it will be only the place of his birth, and not his country.

Our Public Information request to the communications director for Texas Attorney General Abbott reads:

October 6, 2014

Mr. Jordan Hale
Public Information Coordinator
Office of the Attorney General
P.O. Box 12548
Austin, TX 78711 2548
fax: (512) 494-8017
publicrecords@texasattorneygeneral.gov

Dear Mr. Hale:

In accordance with the Texas Public Information Act, Chapter 552, Section 001, I am requesting copies of documents on file in the attorney general’s office or archives pertaining to the appointment of Rafael Edward (Ted) Cruz as Texas Solicitor General on January 9, 2003.

Specifically, I am seeking any documents and forms which Cruz might have been required to complete and submit in order to apply and qualify for the appointment.  I would also like to obtain a job description and requirements for Texas Solicitor General if such a document exists.

I am willing to pay reasonable costs for copying and mailing but can accept electronic delivery.

Thank you very much.

Sharon Rondeau, Editor
The Post & Email
www.thepostemail.com
P.O. Box 195
Stafford Springs, CT  06076
203-987-7948

The Post & Email later realized that “Jordan Hale” is a female and sent a note of apology for its error in addressing her as “Mr.”

At 1:12 p.m. EDT, Ms. Hale responded to our second message:

The Republican National Committee also failed to respond to The Post & Email’s inquiry into Cruz’s questionable presidential eligibility status last week, although the intern to whom we spoke was very helpful.