Samira wrote:
It's interesting that no one brought up the same issue for Obama: wherever he was born, his mother was a U.S. citizen as an adult. Amazing, really; you'd almost think all of the "Kenya" assertions were some sort of signal that could be heard and understood only by, say, canines.
This was brought up, and responded to, many many times. The issue is that according to immigration law, there are three methods by which one can pass natural born citizenship to a child:
1. If the child is born in the US, or a US territory (this is McCain, since the Panama territory was considered US territory at the time).
If not born in the US, then either of these two still grant natural born citizenship:
2. If both parents are US citizens (this is also McCain).
3. If only one parent is a US citizen but has resided within the US as a citizen for some number of years past the age of 15 (I think, can't remember the details since I last looked this up). This is the issue that affected both Obama and potentially Cruz.
The point with Obama was that his mother was very young when she gave birth. Too young to meet the requirement under 3. And he didn't meet the criteria under 2. Thus, if there was any question at all about whether he was born in the US or outside the US, that became a determining factor.
Cruz, even if not born in the US, and even if not born to two citizens, had a mother who was born in 1934 (in Delaware), while he was born in 1970. She moved with her Cuban husband to work in Canada in 1969. Ted was born in 1970. So she lived the first 35 years of her life in the US, clearly long enough to pass natural born citizenship on to Ted.
It's a complete non-issue, raised by someone who doesn't actually understand (or hasn't bothered to read) the laws in question. There was a legitimate question about Obama since there was a suspicious absence of a long form birth certificate which contained clear data about exactly where was born, and there did exist in the state of Hawaii a process for certification of birth after the fact by merely filling out a form. A process which was well known to be used as a loophole for people to gain citizenship without actually having been born in the state. Once that long form was provided, clearly showing which hospital he was born in, complete with doctor/nurse signatures, that question was resolved (except for a small number of nutters).
Ted Cruz's questions don't even meet that level of speculation. We have a long form birth certificate for his mother, clearly establishing her as a natural born citizen of the US. We have documentation of how long she lived in the US prior to moving to Canada, clearly establishing her ability to pass that natural born citizenship on to her child, no matter where he was born. And, just in case one's still going with the "but he was raised in a foreign country" bit (which isn't legitimate anyway), the family moved back to Houston in 1975, when Ted was like 4 or 5. It's hard to argue that his most formative years (years spent in school) were spent in the US. If one accepts that this wasn't a problem for Obama, who spent the first 10 years of his life living in a foreign country, then it kinda can't be an issue at all for Cruz.
Edited, Feb 19th 2016 4:42pm by gbaji