Sen. Ted Cruz is no longer a Canadian citizen, ending a nine-month mini-controversy that raised questions about whether he was ineligible for the U.S. presidency.
U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz address delegates at the Texas GOP Convention in Fort Worth, Texas Friday, June 6, 2014. (AP/Rex C. Curry)
The Texas Republican, a Tea Party favorite and potential 2016 presidential candidate, received notification by mail at his home in Houston on Tuesday that he had successfully renounced his Canadian citizenship, the Dallas Morning News reported. The renunciation became official May 14.
Image source: Dallas Morning News
Cruz provided a copy of his Canadian birth certificate last August.
Image source: Dallas Morning News
After the Morning News reported that Cruz likely maintains dual citizenship to the U.S. and Canada, Cruz declared he would renounce his 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,” he said last year.
More from the Morning News:
Canadian law is similar to that in the United States. Citizenship is automatic for nearly everyone born on the country’s soil, whether that person wants it or not, and without any need to request it. In theory, Cruz could have asserted the right to vote in Canada, or even to run for Parliament, and he could have received a Canadian passport.Under U.S. law, a foreign-born baby is entitled to American citizenship if at least one parent is an American. That was the case for Cruz — and it’s a crucial point if he makes a White House run in 2016, as is widely expected.
In December, Cruz said he had hired lawyers to assist in the effort to renounce his Canadian citizenship.
Born in Calgary on Dec. 22, 1970, Cruz's mother is a native-born American; his father is from Cuba and became a naturalized American.
(H/T: The Huffington Post)
