Within 24 hours of releasing his birth certificate to the Dallas Morning News Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, has announced that he plans to renounce his Canadian citizenship, which he was not aware that he had, according to the Washington Post.
Cruz is thought to be a potential candidate for the Republican nominee for president in the 2016 election. One of the stipulations to becoming president is that the Constitution states that a candidate needs to be a "natural born" citizen of the United States. Cruz was born to an American mother, automatically making him a U.S. citizen, while in Canada, also making him a Canadian citizen.
"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 said in a statement released Monday evening. "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," Cruz 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."
The majority of scholars agree that being born a U.S. citizen, regardless of country of birth, is enough to qualify as a "natural born" citizen. The definition in the Constitution is vague and has never been fully challenged since a foreign born citizen has never been elected president. George Romney, who was born in Mexico, and John McCain, who was born in Panama, never had their eligibility officially challenged in the courts, according to the Washington Post.
Dante Scala, a political scientist at the University of New Hampshire, told USA Today that even if Cruz denounces his Canadian citizenship the issue could remain in the public eye for a while much like it did for President Barack Obama.
"If we learned anything from the allegations surrounding President Obama's citizenship, it's this: Facts may be stubborn things, but people's beliefs can be a lot more stubborn than the facts," Scala said. "Many people believe what they want to believe, regardless of facts, especially when it's about a public figure they do not like in the first place."
If Cruz is serious about denouncing his Canadian citizenship he's going to have to spend $100 and go through a potentially lengthy process. Cruz easily fits some of the qualifications to renounce citizenship by being over 18 and living in Houston. Cruz will have to prove that he understand the significance of renouncing his Canadian citizenship, according to the Washington Post.
