U.S. presidential election (16): is Ted Cruz eligible to be America’s president?
Oh, the irony of it: after all those stupid Republican birther claims that Barack Obama was not eligible to become President of the United States, there is now a discussion – mainly in Republican circles – about whether Ted Cruz, a serious candidate for the Republican nomination, is actually a US citizen and therefore eligible to serve in the White House.
Cruz’s was born in 1970 in Canada and his Cuban-born father was not a US citizen, but his mother was born in the US and his parents were married at the time of his birth. So that, should be that.
But Cruz did not give up his Canadian citizenship until 2014 which makes him politically suspect in some quarters and, much more seriously, there is some question that his mother became a Canadian citizen and may have ceased to be a US citizen.
At its most amusing and/or absurd, one commentator has speculated as follows:
“If it turns out that Cruz’s mother had ceased having US citizenship at the time he was born in Canada, then Cruz would not be a US citizen at all. That would make him an undocumented immigrant and a candidate for deportation, something that he and many other Republicans strongly favor for people in that situation.
Since he has renounced his Canadian citizenship, he would also be a stateless person. Perhaps he could apply to for refugee status though then he would have to undergo rigorous screening to ensure that he was not an ISIS agent.
It is not clear which country would be willing to take him in as a refugee, given that he is such an unpleasant person. The Canadian government of former prime minister Stephen Harper would have done so but I am not sure about the Justin Trudeau administration. They have been very welcoming to refugees but Cruz may be a bit too much to stomach.”
If you can bear to enter into the detail of this debate, check out this blog posting.
January 13th, 2016 at 11:55 pm
Part of the issue that is important is that the Constitution says that a president must be a “natural-born citizen,” not merely a citizen. Therefore, Cruz is not eligible based on the fact that he is a naturalized US citizen. The fact that his mother is a citizen isn’t enough to fulfill the requirement. If he had been born on a US military base or US territory, it would be different, but he does not meet the criterion established in the Constitution. The Washington Post had a good opinion piece on the topic (written by a Constitutional lawyer, I believe).