U.S. senator’s birth certificate reveals he was born in Canada
U.S. Senator Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican whose recent travel has fuelled speculation he may run for president in 2016, has released his birth certificate, showing that he was born in Canada to an American mother, the Dallas Morning News said on Monday.
The move came after President Barack Obama faced intense scrutiny from “birthers” about his eligibility to be president. Born in 1961 to an American mother and Kenyan father, Mr. Obama in 2011 released his birth certificate, which says he was born in the U.S. state of Hawaii.
The Dallas Morning News posted on its website a photo of Mr. Cruz’s birth certificate, which it said was released to the newspaper.
The U.S. constitution says that only natural born U.S. citizens are eligible to hold the office of president. Some interpret that to mean born in the United States, while others say it includes someone who is born abroad to American parents. Mr. Cruz’s office has long maintained that because his mother was an American, Mr. Cruz became a U.S. citizen at birth.
Mr. Cruz, 42, was born in Calgary, while his Cuban-born father, an engineer, was working in the energy industry there during the oil boom, according to the birth certificate. His mother is U.S.-born, from the state of Delaware.
The family eventually relocated from Calgary and Mr. Cruz spent most of his formative years in Houston.
Asked during a 2012 interview with The Associated Press whether he holds dual U.S. and Canadian citizenship, Mr. Cruz wouldn’t answer directly, saying only: “I am a U.S. citizen.”
“I was born in Canada, but I was a [U.S.] citizen at birth because my mother was a citizen,” he said. “I have only ever had one passport and that is a U.S. passport.”
Mr. Cruz released his birth certificate after several recent trips to Iowa, an early presidential caucus state. A conservative elected to the U.S. Senate last year, he has strong support from Tea Party activists, who seek to reduce the size of the U.S. government.
The Dallas Morning News quoted Canadian legal experts as saying Mr. Cruz will remain a citizen of both countries unless the Texas Republican senator formally renounces his Canadian citizenship.
That means Mr. Cruz could assert the right to vote in Canada or even run for office, said the experts. The newspaper mused further that “on a lunch break from the U.S. Senate he could head to the nearby embassy – the one flying a bright red maple leaf flag – pull out his Calgary, Alberta, birth certificate and obtain a passport.”
Toronto lawyer Stephen Green, past chairman of the Canadian Bar Association’s Citizenship and Immigration Section, told the paper: “He’s a Canadian.”
Catherine Frazier, a spokeswoman for Mr. Cruz, disputed that claim in a statement to the newspaper.
“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,” Ms. Frazier told the Dallas Morning News. “To our knowledge, he never had Canadian citizenship, so there is nothing to renounce.”
A spokesman for Mr. Cruz did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for a statement.
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