Ted Cruz renounces Canadian citizenship in statement
(CNN) – Lest any questions remain about Sen. Ted Cruz's national allegiance, the Texas Republican announced Monday he was renouncing his Canadian citizenship.
Cruz was born in Canada to an American mother and a Cuban father, and over the weekend he released his birth certificate to put to rest any questions about his background. In an analysis, the Dallas Morning News speculated Cruz – considered a potential candidate for the 2016 GOP presidential nomination – was a dual citizen of the United States and Canada.
"Because I was a U.S. citizen at birth, because I left Calgary when I was 4 and have lived my entire life since then in the U.S., and because I have never taken affirmative steps to claim Canadian citizenship, I assumed that was the end of the matter," Cruz wrote in his statement.
"Now the Dallas Morning News says that I may technically have dual citizenship. Assuming that is true, then sure, I will renounce any Canadian citizenship," he continued. "Nothing against Canada, but I'm an American by birth, and as a U.S. Senator, I believe I should be only an American."
As speculation ramps up about Cruz's political future, some have questioned his eligibility to become president. Most legal experts have said Cruz qualifies as a "natural born citizen," a requirement for the White House job, as stated in the Constitution.
In the Dallas Morning News Sunday, legal experts told the paper that Cruz is not only eligible for president in the United States, he's also technically a Canadian citizen and can even run for Parliament. Unless he renounces his citizenship there, he could also obtain a Canadian passport, according to the newspaper.
The senator's office, however, said Cruz has never embraced his legal rights in Canada.
"Senator Cruz became a U.S. citizen at birth, and he never had to go through a naturalization process after birth to become a U.S. citizen," spokeswoman Catherine Frazier told the newspaper. "To our knowledge, he never had Canadian citizenship, so there is nothing to renounce."
CNN's Jim Acosta, Ashley Killough and Kevin Liptak contributed to this report.
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There goes your free healthcare. Obamacare doesn't look so bad now, does it?
Well wake up America all the folks of Cuban decent running for political office like Cruz and Rubio, old Fidel Castro is
bound to take over the nation one way or another, I buy and Vote American sorry no Cruz or Rubio for me at the ballot box.
This is awesome! I'm going to spend the next 3 years proclaiming he was actually born in Cuba, because his father is Cuban, and I don't believe any of the paperwork that he's shown.
Because according to the right-wing and Donald Trump, that's how it's done!
Ha ha ha! The Republican party is like a 5 year old that doesn't realize if they act like a jerk, they are opening the door to all the other kids acting like a jerk to them.
Rudy NYC
Fair is Fair wrote:
One more time. McCain was born in the Canal Zone, which at the time of his birth was an American Territory, thus making him an American citizen. There is no arguement to that fact.
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There you go again. You're too committed to being against everything I might write;.
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Nope. Not at all. You wrote that he's a citizen because he was born on a military installation in Panama. I am simply stating he could have been born ANYWHERE in the Canal Zone, which was MUCH more than a military installation, and he would be a citizen.
So what was the outcry over Obama about if you are still considered an American citizen & eligible to run for president, if you're born outside the country and your mother is a citizen. So it would have made no difference if Obama was from Kenya. His mother was American... Come on Trump... you at a loss for words now ??
I'm really liking this guy. I hopes he runs in 2016.
Foz-man, go for it. Actually, none of natural born citizens can wave our "original birth certificate" around because the state creates, and holds onto the original. The state gives your parents a certified copy and you can get one later, as I had to do, when driver's licensing laws were changed and I had to prove I was born in the U.S. and could not find the original given to my parents. I actually got my certified copy from the county health department, and it looks nothing like the true original. Trump would undoubtedly say I am not a citizen. His head would explode about my mother. She was born in her grandparents farm house and never had a birth certificate at all. The only way she cold prove she was born at all was an entry made in the family Bible by her grandmother. It was good enough for a passport but not good enough for the Trumpeter.
Hmm. He renounced his Canadian citizenship. Can I have it?
Whenever the teapartier speaks they could not be wrong. They are people of absolute and infallible.
Anyone else thinking: Do you really want to elect a guy who can't figure out his own citizenship? Also, the fact that his staff didn't know the consequences (or take the time to determine the impact) of his birth in Canada brings to question his leadership ability. How diligent are his staff? Given the response to Obama by many in the US you would think someone might have tweaked to Cruz's Canadian birth as a potential issue.
Also, I would be remiss if I didn't add as a Canadian, I am proud to see him go. The US is welcome to his style, approach and politics.
Damn. Wish he woulda picked the other to renounce.
Well that's progress of a sort. Now if we can only get Justin Bieber to renounce his.
Hey give this Joseph McCarthy wanne be the same welcome republicans gave Pres.Obama after his inaugeration..O yah then the hypocritical right will have something again to whine about ,never mine!!
There have been 3 presidential candidates who were not born in the US.
– George Romney, born in Mexico
– John McCain, born in Panama
– Barry Goldwater
ALL of them have been Republican. Rafael Edward wants to become the 4th.
Wasn't the entire tea party birther argument that Obama was not born in US soil – regardless of the citizenship of one of the parents? For Cruz, looks like their parents were permanent residents in Canada at time of his birth – vs say an american couple temporarily living abroad under a work assignment when the child is born.
Cruz for Parliament!
The key words are " he was born in Canada". That means he's a Canadian born Americanized citizen, NOT ELIGIBLE for POTUS! BORN IN CANADA! NOT THE USA!
@vbcsxript2, funny you should mention Cuban citizenship bacause his also crazy daddy didn't become a US citizen until 2005 so that means that theoretically he can also be called Cuban.
His ideas are more inclined towards communism and he was born in a socialist country so maybe he should move to Cuba and fight raul for power but I doubt they want him either just like the Canadians don't want anything to do with him.
Call his DC office. It's humorous when you hear this Canadian trying to pass as an American.
Can someone tell me how someone who is Born in Canada (or any other country other than the United Sates) can be a "natural born citizen"??? that makes no sense whatsoever!! Either you're born in the U.S. or you're not. You can't be born in 2 places at once.
@Fair is Fair,under another investigation it was shown McCain the Saigon Songbird was not born in the American territory of Panama in a military hospital but miles away in a small village hospital not in the territory but near it...McCains personal military files can't be opened either because his admiral father had them permanently sealed to cover up his treasonistic behavior while supposidly in a Vietnamese prison thus the name Saigon Songbird!!
On the surface, it seems that having dual citizenship might be an indication that an individual has a broad base of experience in life which could be parlayed into informed, logical leadership based on sound decision making. Alas, he's a TX Republican. The most important thing is to sound like a paranoid loon in order to win the primary (and de-facto, the election). Yet another example of how the primary system in the US is betraying our Republic.
The first 8 presidents of this country were not born here
Jack Carson
A lot of posters here don't seem to understand what "natural born citizen" means. All it means is that someone was a citizen at birth, as opposed to someone who became a citizen at a later date. In the US, there are two ways that someone becomes a "natural born citizen", and those are to either be born on US soil, or to have at least one of your parents be a US citizen.
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If anyone does not understand the meaning of "natural born citizen" it is you. The phrase has never been legally defined. But ever since the Constitution was written, academia has used the commonly accepted definition, "born on U.S. soil." There are several written decisions by the SCOTUS and several state supreme courts that all reference the commonly accepted accepted academic interpretation, "born on U.S. soil."
The law has not changed, but the politics of it has. And now people wish to change the definition to suit their politics. Beware. Cruz is shifting the discussion from "is he natural born" to "is he a citizen". All of this is being done, by him I might add, so that come 2015 he can make the false claim that his eligiblity has been "long established" by a false narrative that he's creating now.
This Canadian says, "Good riddance! Never come back!"
Birther logic:
-Ted Cruz was born on foreign soil to a non-citizen father, but because his mother is an American, he meets the requirements to run for president.
-Barack Obama was born on US soil to a non-citizen father, and even though his mother is an American, he does not meet the requirements to run for president.
Good thing right wingers are experts at mental gymnastics.