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Whether Ted Cruz is your choice for the Republican presidential nomination or not - and we're not going to settle that today - at least we can settle the matter raised by any number of commenters who asked, "Hey, wasn't he born in Canada?"
Why yes, he was. And it's completely irrelevant. Despite the insistence of some folks that you're not a "natural-born citizen" unless you're born on U.S. soil, Cruz in fact is a natural-born citizen and he's eligible. And this video from the Wall Street Journal explains it pretty clearly:
The key lies in the distinction between a natural-born citizen and a naturalized citizen. At its essence, this simply means there are two kinds of citizens - those who were citizens from birth and those who became citizens later on. A lot of people assume that you're only a natural-born citizen if you were physically born in the U.S., but that's not true. That's one way you can be a natural-born citizen, but another way is to be born abroad to parents who are citizens.
And this makes sense when you think about it. No one gets to choose where they're born, and if your parents are U.S. citizens and they happen to be abroad when your mother goes into labor and gives birth to you, there's really no reason that should impact your citizenship. To tell someone born under those circumstances that they have to later take a citizenship test and become "naturalized" would be absurd.
The reason the Constitution doesn't allow a naturalized citizen to become president is that they want to prevent true foreigners who might have another agenda from obtaining citizenship for the purpose of obtaining power and then misusing it to the detriment of the United States. That clearly doesn't apply to someone whose American parents happen to be in Calgary when he's born
So feel free to raise whatever objections you might have about the merits of Ted Cruz as a candidate, but let's put this one to bed. He is eligible to be president.
"born abroad to parents who are citizens" - therein lies the rub - just as with barry. Only one of their respective parents WERE US Citizens. It does not say parent (singular) it says parents (plural). Period.
ReplyDeleteAs long as one parent is an American, anyone born to said parent is an American...far as I'm concerned, Ted Cruz - whatever one may think of him as a candidate - is an American citizen, period, full stop.
ReplyDeleteSo do I have this right.... Obama is not a "natural citizen" because he was born in Hawai'i but only one of his parents was a citizen. But Cruz is, because he was born on the mainland in a foreign country - Canada.
ReplyDeleteOr are you saying that both are in fact "natural citizens" ie citizens not naturalised, and that much of the GOP has been spouting lies for the last 6 years?
I'd agree with the last.