WHY ARE THE RECORDS OBSCURED?
by David Pickhardt, ©2016
(Apr. 28, 2016) — [Editor’s Note: The letter and attachments which follow were sent as a result of the denial by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) for the author’s request for any “A-File documentation” the agency might hold on Rafael Bienvenido Cruz, father of presidential candidate Ted Cruz, as reported here.
In 1940, the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) began the issuance of alien registration numbers for all foreigners admitted to the U.S., with actual “A-Files” generated as of 1944. The records are often sought by genealogical researchers.
The elder Cruz reportedly left Cuba in 1957 and became a permanent U.S. resident after attending the University of Texas. However, he and his future wife, Eleanor Elizabeth Wilson, went to Calgary, Alberta, Canada to work in the oil industry in December 1967, where they resided until 1974. Cruz reportedly became a Canadian citizen in 1973, although such records, as in the U.S., are not released without a signed privacy waiver from the subject.
According to public reports, Rafael abandoned his wife and son in late 1974 and settled in Houston, where the family reunited several months later. Pickhardt is seeking exit and entry documents for the father as well as his U.S. naturalization record from 2005, when he reportedly surrendered his Canadian citizenship.
FOIA requester David Pickhardt maintains in his appeal that the citizenship status of Rafael B. Cruz is germane to his son’s status given his presidential candidacy. Ted Cruz is known to have been born in Calgary and was issued a Canadian birth certificate in December 1970.
When The Dallas Morning News reported in August 2013 that Ted Cruz continued to hold Canadian citizenship, Cruz at first denied it, then applied to renounce it nine months later in May 2014. Despite his birth in Canada, Ted Cruz claims that he is a “natural born Citizen,” as required by Article II, Section 1, clause 5 of the U.S. Constitution for the president and commander-in-chief, by virtue of his birth to a U.S.-citizen mother.
Some have speculated that Eleanor became a British or Canadian citizen at some point. Cruz has ignored requests to release any documentation which might prove her status as well as his own.]
Attachments:
Dear David,
You are to be commended for the reasearch and hard work that you have obviously put into this endeavor the fruits of which will certainly be in the public interest. All who seek to hold public office should be made to open any such documents as would shed light on who they are and where they come from – It cannot be denied that since they are seeking public office, it is then in the public interest that this information be available so that an informed choice regarding Candidates can be made. It is an absolute national disgrace that Ted Cruz has followed the example of the present occupant of the White House in hiding from public scrutiny all documents that would shed light on who he is and the circumstances surrounding his Citizenship. It is beyond the pale that this sort of behavior is condoned by the Congress, who are supposed to serve as the people’s representatives, by the courts who by their refusal to hear cases regarding these citizenship issues give tacit approval to them and by the electorate ourselves who twice elected a man whose life narrative was convoluted, contradictory and even sealed by Executive Order. This situation must be reversed and the information necessary to make informed decisions placed in the hands of the Electorate where it belongs.
Nice work David. Thank You
ELmo