Ted Cruz was born on December 22, 1970, in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. HIs father was a Canadian citizen, or at least, not an American citizen. His mother was an American citizen.
Under the law of Canada, then and now, Cruz was a citizen of Canada from birth. Under the law of the United States, Cruz, having been born abroad, was presumptively NOT a citizen of the United States.
However, Cruz (or more likely his parents) could establish that he was a citizen of the United States if he met two requirements:
1. Either his mother or his father would have to be a U.S. citizen at the time of his birth, AND
2. The parent through whom U.S. citizenship was claimed would have to have been the residency requirements in effect as of the date of the child’s birth. (See here for some details).
For children born abroad before November 14, 1986 and after December 24, 1952, for the U.S. citizen parent to confer U.S. citizenship on the child, the parent would have had to have been physically present in the United States for at least 10 years, five of which would have had to have been after the age of 14.
This created a rather strange situation where a parent had to be at least 19 years of age to confer citizenship upon a child born abroad. One of the numerous conspiracy theories about President Obama was that his mother, who was 18 at the time of his birth, had actually given birth in Kenya and then smuggled the child into the U.S. to avoid this legal problem.
However in the case of the Honorable Senator Cruz, he clearly was born abroad. Hence heis subject to the requirement that the requisite physical presence of his mother be established. According to Wikipedia, Ted Cruz’s mother graduated from college in Texas sometime in the 1950s, so it appears that she readily meet the physical presence requirements prior to the birth of her son in Canada in 1970.
Let me be clear on this. It is NOT enough that Ted Cruz, or any other person born abroad who claims to be a U.S. citizen, produce a birth certificate showing that they are child of a U.S. citizen, or that they have a birth certificate of the U.S. citizen parent. The physical presence requirements must also be met.
But what if Senator Cruz’s mother had become a Canadian citizen? Back in 1970, the State Department took the position that naturalization of a U.S. citizen in Canada was equivalent to a surrender of U.S. citizenship.
There is a report, apparently credible, that Ted Cruz’s mother was listed as an eligible voter in Canada in 1974. This of course doesn’t mean that she was a naturalized Canadian citizen in 1970.
But I want to be clear on this — if Ted Cruz’s mother had been naturalized as a Canadian citizen before his birth, it’s quite likely that she would have been deemed to have lost her U.S. citizenship and therefore have been unable to confer U.S. citizenship on her son.
A couple of other points.
Congress has rewritten the laws a number of times (warning: PDF) that govern when a child born abroad to a U.S. citizen parent can be considered a U.S. citizen from birth. See here for a well written in-depth legal discussion.
While it is (fortunately) largely beyond the power of Congress to say who, born in the United States, shall be deemed a citizen, Congress has much greater power to define the rules for those born abroad.
Starting in 1802, Congress required that the father of the child have resided, at least for even a short time, in the United States, for citizenship to be conferred.
One law from the good old days of 1855 that conservatives like Ted Cruz seem to love so much was that only fathers could confer citizenship on children born abroad, not mothers. (Prior to that time both parents could do so.) This remained the law until 1934, when U.S. citizen mothers again became capable of conferring U.S. citizenship upon their children. The change was NOT retroactive however until the 1990s, when legislation made it so.
Had Ted Cruz been born back in the days of Calvin Coolidge , whom he admires so much, Cruz would not have been a U.S. citizen, lacking a U.S citizen father. By comparison 1968 presidential candidate George Romney, (born in 1907 in Mexico) had a U.S. citizen father as well as a U.S. citizen mother. Therefore he was a citizen from birth under the law that was in force in 1907.
Having been born abroad Ted Cruz is only a citizen by the grace of Congress, which substantially liberalized the laws to his (and many others of course) great benefit.
Further, it is not a conspiracy theory to question whether Cruz’s mother was capable of conferring citizenship on him when he was born. In fact, it looks like, unfortunately for the other 330 million of us in the United States, she was legally able to do so — assuming she not naturalized as a Canadian citizen before the Senator’s birth. To ask that question is legitimate.
Please note also that Ted Cruz, Super Legal Genius, claims never to have realized he was a Canadian citizen, even though he was born there. Either (a) he’s lying or (b) he should sue Harvard Law School to get back his tuition money.
In short, Ted Cruz is a citizen of the United States but only as a result of the liberalization of citizenship laws enacted by a government he detests. Hypocrite? Conservative? Qu’elle surprise, as they say in Quebec.