Earlier today, the question of Ted Cruz’s dual Canadian/U.S. citizenship was momentarily resolved by the release of his birth certificate to the Dallas Morning News. As explained by the Washington Post, the story goes that although Cruz was born in Canada in 1970 to an American mother and Cuban father, his mother’s U.S. citizenship automatically makes Cruz a national. Problem solved, right? Not so fast for the Republican junior senator from Texas who seems to have his sights set on the White House come 2016.
Though Cruz believes that never having exercised his Canadian citizenship means it isn’t real, legal experts quoted by the Dallas Morning News say otherwise, specifically: “He’s a Canadian” and that “unless the Texas Republican senator formally renounces that citizenship, he will remain a citizen of both countries.”
So, shortly after his spokeswoman Catherine Frazier initially denied Cruz’s dual citizenship — “To our knowledge, he never had Canadian citizenship, so there is nothing to renounce” she said — the Senator himself made a statement cutting any and all ties with our neighbors to the North: “Assuming [the dual citizenship] is true, then sure, I will renounce any Canadian citizenship. 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 matter should certainly please birthers, who, although unlike the kind that continue to believe Obama is a Kenyan, would still like it if their presidential hopefuls didn’t have foreign allegiances. Donald Trump has yet to comment on the matter, but it’s likely just a matter of time before his orange mane weighs in.
