There have been far too many diaries here lately talking about Ted Cruz’s alleged “birther” problems containing inaccuracies or comments by folks who don’t really know what they're talking about. So, here’s a little primer on the question. And yes, I know what I’m talking about. I was a US Foreign Service Officer for over 20 years. As a consular officer, I issued hundreds (if not thousands) of US passports and consular reports of birth in that time, making a determination in each case whether the individual involved qualified as a US citizen.
So, let us begin a somewhat simplified primer on citizenship law. It has changed over time.
(1) Anyone born in and “subject to the sovereignty” of the US is a citizen, regardless of their parentage. Because they are not “subject to the sovereignty” of the US, the children of most (but not all) foreign diplomats born here don’t acquire US citizenship. Before the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924, most Native Americans were not citizens, because they were considered members of sovereign Indian nations. If you are born on a flight from Mexico to Canada, or inside the 12-mile limit off the coast of Virginia, you are an American, because you were born in US airspace/waters and subject to the sovereignty of the US.
(2) The child of two American citizens is a citizen, regardless of where he or she is born. (Think John McCain or George Romney.)
(3) The child born abroad of one US citizen and one non-US citizen is not always a citizen at birth. The law has changed over time (for a long time, an American women who had a child abroad with a foreign man could not transmit her citizenship to her baby), and there are different requirements if the child is born in or out of wedlock.
(4) Ted Cruz was born in Canada in 1970 to an American woman and a Cuban father. To pass on her citizenship to her son, the law in effect at the time required that his mother have resided in the US for at least “ten years, five after the age of fourteen.” (I can never get the link feature to work, so I’ll put the whole URL at the bottom of this post.) It is well documented that Cruz’s mother met these requirements. Therefore, Cruz was a US citizen at birth. Period. It does not matter whether or not his parents obtained a US consular report of birth abroad.
(The notion, which some have passed on, that Cruz’s mother and father might have taken on Canadian citizenship before he was born is simply nonsense. They moved to Canada in 1969 and Cruz was born the next year. You can’t get Canadian citizenship that quickly, anymore than you can obtain US citizenship that quickly.)
By the way, if President Obama had been born in Kenya, and not Hawaii, as all sane people realize, he would not have been a US citizen at birth, because his mother would not have met the US residency requirement of at least “five [years] after the age of fourteen.” His mother was only 18 when he was born and 5 + 14 = 19.
(5) Most constitutional scholars agree that “natural-born citizen” means someone who is a citizen at birth. But it is not “settled law” since the Supreme Court has never ruled on it.
Thank you.
https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/legal-considerations/us-citizenship-laws-policies/citizenship-child-born-abroad.html
