Senator Ted Cruz of Texas is the darling of the Tea Party and one of their great hopes for the 2016 Presidential race. Cruz is also the son a foreign national (from Cuba) and an American mother - just like President Obama. However, Cruz has the distinction of the being born on foreign soil, in Canada - unlike President Obama, who was born in the state of Hawaii. And yes, it really is a state and yes, he really does have an official birth certificate.
Now Senator Cruz has released his birth certificate and it plainly states he was born in Calgary, Alberta in 1970.
And while Cruz has chosen to downplay this factoid up till now, the Dallas Morning News did some digging, forcing Cruz to grapple with his origins. And one thing has become abundantly clear - in order to run for national office and keep his Tea Party ties intact, Cruz will have to officially renounce his Canadian ties. The problem is, that can take from 6 months up to a year, and by then the GOP primary race will be lining up at the starting gate.
Certainly Cruz is eager to shrug off his similarities to Obama, and doesn't want his followers to see him as anything but Pure American. But Democrats who have had the idiocy of Birtherism shoved in their faces through two hard fought elections will be just as persistent in bringing up Cruz's status as "foreign born" from now until the GOP picks a candidate for President. Progressives will be more than happy to cast aspersions at the man who wants to repeal Obamacare, impeach the President, and shut down the government. What a gift for all of us to know that Ted Cruz is actually "less" American than Obama. Poetic justice, karma, call it what you will. What goes around comes around.
Happy Birther Day to You, Mister Cruz!
Dallas Morning News
“Generally speaking, under the Citizenship Act of 1947, those born in Canada were automatically citizens at birth unless their parent was a foreign diplomat,” said ministry spokeswoman Julie Lafortune.
For the first time, Cruz released his birth certificate Friday in response to inquiries from The Dallas Morning News.
Dated a month after his birth on Dec. 22, 1970, it shows that Rafael Edward Cruz was born to Rafael Bienvenido Cruz, a “geophysical consultant” born in Matanzas, Cuba, and the former Eleanor Elizabeth Wilson, born in Wilmington, Del.
Her status made the baby a U.S. citizen at birth. For that, U.S. law required at least one parent who was a U.S. citizen who had lived for at least a decade in the United States.
. . . “They can feel as American as they want. But the question of citizenship is determined by the law of the territory in which you were physically born,” she said. “It’s not up to the Cruz family to decide whether they’re citizens.”
As a Cuban, Rafael Cruz probably could have requested citizenship for his son, experts said. Even if he’d wanted to, the Cuban Constitution bans dual citizenship. And the chance to register the child passed long ago.
“The U.S. and Cuba have very similar legal patterns and requirements,” said David Abraham, a professor of immigration and citizenship law at the University of Miami.
The situation reflects the overlapping jurisdictions, said Demetrios Papademetriou, president of the Washington-based Migration Policy Institute, who called birthright citizenship common in English-speaking countries.
“If Ted Cruz was born in Canada, he is Canadian. He is American. He is a dual citizen,” he said.
. . . The relinquishment process is easy enough. It can take from a few weeks to a year. There’s a four-page form with a $100 fee. Applicants must appear before a special judge to prove they have citizenship elsewhere and aren’t engaged in fraud.
From Daily Beast
First-term Sen. Ted Cruz (R–Texas), who is already considered a 2016 contender, was born in Canada to a mother who was an American citizen and a father who was then a citizen of Cuba. It’s the exact same fact pattern: foreign birth, citizen mother, non-citizen father that birthers thought applied to Obama. The only difference is that this time it’s true.
The issue has already come up for Cruz earlier this week when ABC News asked Donald Trump, who has been perhaps the most prominent birther, whether the Texas senator was eligible. “If he was born in Canada, perhaps not,” said Trump. The real-estate millionaire and reality-show host went on to say, ”I don’t know the circumstances. I heard somebody told me he was born in Canada. That’s really his thing.”
. . . The irony is that the circumstances of Cruz’s birth almost perfectly mirror the scenario offered by birthers, even down to the fact that the Texas senator nominally entered the world a British subject by dint of being born in Canada in 1970.
The result is a delightful paradox. Any liberals who try to cast doubt on Cruz’s citizenship will likely be using almost the exact arguments they scorned when falsely applied to President Obama. And, of course, any birthers who defend Cruz while still insisting Obama’s tenure in the Oval Office is illegitimate aren’t just being conspiracy theorists. They are being hypocrites as well.
