Proof of Delivery of Cruz Eligibility Letter Received from Texas Governor’s Office

IS THERE PROOF OF SEN. TED CRUZ’S PRESUMED U.S. CITIZENSHIP?

by Sharon Rondeau

(Mar. 12, 2016) — On March 4, The Post & Email sent a letter by certified mail to Texas Governor Greg Abbot asking if his office, or that of any state government entity in the state, possessed proof that U.S. Senator and presidential candidate Ted Cruz has ever averred U.S. citizenship.

Abbott and former Texas Gov. Rick Perry have both endorsed Cruz for president.

Cruz was born in Calgary, Alberta, Canada on December 22, 1970 to a presumed-U.S.-citizen mother and Cuban-citizen father.  He was a Canadian citizen from birth.  In 2012, he sought and won a U.S. Senate seat in Texas without disclosing that he was at a minimum a dual citizen of Canada and the U.S.

Today, children of U.S.-citizen parents born in foreign countries are registered as U.S. citizens by the completion by their parents of a Consular Report of Birth Abroad (CRBA).

According to The Dallas Morning News in August 2013, Cruz provided a copy of his Canadian birth certificate and, after the outlet reported that he was born a dual citizen, denied knowing that he was considered Canadian all of his life by that country’s government.

Eight months later, Cruz made application with the government of Canada to renounce that citizenship, stating that he should be “only an American.”

Despite numerous requests to Cruz, his Senate office and his presidential campaign, no documentation showing that he ever claimed to be a U.S. citizen or providing proof that he is a U.S. citizen has come to light.  Through a series of FOIA requests made beginning last March, when Cruz declared himself a presidential candidate, The Post & Email has requested documentation from the U.S. State Department, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, Selective Service System, U.S. Department of Education, the Federal Trade Commission, the Texas Public Information Officer, State Bar of Texas, Texas Board of Licensure, and U.S Department of Justice seeking documentation of Cruz’s citizenship status or that which he has claimed.

We also wrote to the government entity of Alberta, Canada which maintains vital statistics records but were denied a certified copy of Cruz’s birth certificate.

Cruz worked at both the Federal Trade Commission and the U.S. Department of Justice prior to serving as solicitor general for the state of Texas from 2003 to 2008.  While the State of Texas was very responsive to our requests and provided the requested documentation, none of the documents signed by Cruz posed the question as to whether or not he is a U.S. citizen, including for the position of Texas solicitor general.

The Selective Service System released a registration form reported to have been generated as a result of Cruz’s application for federal financial aid for college.  The U.S. Department of Education would not release Cruz’s financial aid applications, citing privacy law, as was the case with USCIS and the State Department.

Approximately ten days ago, the U.S. Department of Justice informed The Post & Email that its FOIA request for documents signed by Cruz when he was employed as an assistant deputy attorney general will require another 12-16 weeks to fulfill.  The request was made last April.

During a WheresObamasBirthCertificate.com (WOBC) March 4 radio broadcast on which this writer was a guest, a caller informed that the standard federal employment application, or “SF 171,” contains the questions as to whether or not the applicant is a U.S. citizen and requests proof of same.  Subsequently, The Post & Email filed a FOIA request for an SF 171 bearing the name of “Rafael Edward ‘Ted’ Cruz.”

The last page of the SF 171 asks, “Are you a citizen of the United States?” followed by “(In most cases you must be a U.S. Citizen to be hired. You will be required to submit proof of identity and citizenship at the time you are hired.)”

Coincidentally, the North American Law Center on Thursday wrote a letter to Texas Secretary of State Carlos H. Cascos on behalf of a Texas citizen to ask if it is Cascos’s “official opinion as the Chief Elections Officer for Texas that U.S. Senator Rafael Edward (Ted) Cruz was in fact a legal citizen of Canada in November of 2012, when he ran for, was elected and certified by the Texas Secretary of State as the new U.S. Senator representing the good people of Texas…?”

When Cruz renounced his Canadian citizenship in May 2014, some questioned why he delayed commencing the process after “discovering” that he held Canadian citizenship as a result of The Dallas Morning News’s August 19, 2013 article reporting that he was born a dual citizen.

The Post & Email’s letter to Abbott called attention to the Article II, Section 1, clause 5 requirement in the U.S. Constitution that the president be a “natural born Citizen,” a term which is often conflated by the media with “a Citizen,” the requirement for U.S. representatives and senators.  Cruz claims “natural born” status through his U.S.-citizen mother, who the Cruz campaign stated did not assume Canadian citizenship, as her husband, Rafael Bienvenido Cruz, did while the couple was operating a business in the Canadian oil industry roughly between 1969 and 1974.

Presidential candidate Donald Trump has openly questioned whether or not Cruz meets the constitutional requirement to serve given his birth in Canada, while Democrat Rep. Alan Grayson, who is seeking the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by presidential candidate Marco Rubio, has stated unequivocally that he will file a “beautiful lawsuit” should Cruz receive the Republican nomination at that party’s convention in July.

On his campaign website, Cruz claims that questions about his eligibility amount to “a non-issue,” similar to a statement made by former Obama White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer when Obama released his long-form birth certificate on April 27, 2011, later deemed by a law enforcement investigation to be a “computer-generated forgery.”

The Post & Email will report further should we receive the requested response from Abbott.