The Ted Cruz Problem Is The Reason Trump Ducks and must Duck the Obama Birther Question

[Wash. state Desk Jet]

This is the issue that just must cross the mind when one wonders what the hell is with those republicans.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/paul-abrams/the-ted-cruz-problem-is-t_b_8167272.html?ncid=txtlnkusaolp00000592






Every Republican candidate should be asked if they think that Ted Cruz (R/TP-TX) is eligible to serve as President. There is no dispute that Cruz was born in Canada. Indeed, he took his congressional oath of office while still being a Canadian citizen. One has to wonder if that was a violation of his oath.

Republican candidates should not only be asked about Cruz's eligibility, but pressed for an answer. And, not only pressed for an answer on Cruz, but asked why none of them stepped forward during the birtherism campaigns. During those days, they were writing into state laws requirements for producing birth certificates, and an Israeli-born dentist claimed she had proof of Obama's foreign birth.

Why did they not step forward and state that Obama's place of birth did not matter because his mother was an American citizen? For Cruz to be eligible, that is what they have to believe. Let them say it...now.

Especially Donald Trump. Why? Because Trump's message for years was President Obama's eligibility for the White House was based upon his place of birth. Never once, at least of which I am aware, was Trump or any of the other nut jobs asked why it mattered.


Here is the thing, I don't know about revisions in the immigration laws all that. But here's another thing, go back in the early 20th. century ,say 1910 through 1935. See bordering states U.S. Canada ,U.S. Mexico.See it when the old wooden bridges existed and crossing the boarder was a walk or a ride. No big deal.,it's just a bridge or a crossing. Than marriages and of course visitations. Say a spouse from Canada or Mexico the other US.It's 1925 ,a different world !

So now on a visitation an off spring comes along, is born over the boarder. Raised and schooled in the U.S. WW2 comes along served in the war-the off spring. It just happened to happen across the boarder !

!961 comes along and the immigration sends a letter telling the off spring now raising a family ,of course in the U.S. and it says in a letter, you are not a U.S. citizen ,if you want to become one you must meet all the requirements per.U.S.immigration law. (Take the test.) Well, how revolting is that ?

Did Cruz or should Cruz be forced to take the test ?
After all it did say it is required, does it say different now ?

And when did it change if it did change ?
It may seem like a little thing, but to those who got caught up in that little revolting thing ,it wasn't so little at the time.

Did he or didn't he ,take and pass the test ?
Should he or shouldn't he ?

Some of those names on the eastern sea board were there since before the revolutionary war. How revolting is that !

[HassleCat]

1. I understand it differently

I thought Ted Cruz was born to at least one US citizen parent, although he was born in Canada. When he was around 14, his parents got him a US passport, so he chose US citizenship, or his parents chose it for him, when he was 14. The mystery seems to be what paperwork his parents filed to establish his US citizenship. It's probably one of those things we'll never know, like why GW Bush didn't show up for his final few months of National Guard drills. I guess the Cruz story has several variations, and I doubt if anyone will care unless he gets the nomination, which seems unlikely.

[Wash. state Desk Jet]

4. I see what you are saying

In the case reference both parents are US citizens ,one U.S born . since the offspring was born in Canada or Mexico the offspring /child is a naturalized citizen of Canada or Mexico as a matter of birthright and as a matter of law.
On Cruz it matters not the renounced /turned in his canadian citizenship, he is always entitled to dual citizenship as a matter of birthright and as a matter of law. Therefore his speaking to the issue is just politics. I do not think the passport thing is a way Cruz can get around the laws ,thats if the immigration laws from the 60's have not in some way been revised. In a guess I would guess it's a gray area.

Cities,counties and states were not all that tentative in processing the necessary records in the registry's. Neither was the US census department of immigration ,citizenship, naturalization all that. And the boarder issues existed before the revolutionary war, so it was on cities, counties and states -you know where the right hand don't know what left hand is doing ! Old Old story !

[jberryhill]

2. The common loon is a migratory bird

[cascadiance]

3. His father was born in Cuba too...

So, do Republicans love ancestry from Cuba more than Kenya?

Most of us don't really care, but I wonder how they feel about it.

[Jim Lane]

5. The premise of the linked article is just wrong.

The author writes of the Republicans:

Why did they not step forward and state that Obama's place of birth did not matter because his mother was an American citizen? For Cruz to be eligible, that is what they have to believe. Let them say it...now.

The error is the assumption that Obama and Cruz were similarly situated. And, no, the difference is not race or party affiliation.

The law in effect in 1961 (when Obama was born) and in 1970 (when Cruz was born) was simply not as the author assumes. In the situation that Cruz was in and that the birthers allege without evidence that Obama was in -- a child born abroad to one citizen parent and one noncitizen -- the child did not automatically acquire citizenship. There was instead a residency question. The citizen parent conveyed citizenship to his or her child only if the citizen parent had lived in the United States for at least five years after attaining the age of 14.

Obama's mother was only 18 when he was born. She simply couldn't meet that requirement. If she had, inexplicably, chosen to fly halfway around the world to give birth in the Third World, then her child would not have been a citizen. Obama's citizenship (and hence eligibility) depends on the fact (obvious to all sensible people) that he was born in Hawaii.

By contrast, Cruz's mother, born in Delaware, stayed in the United States and received her undergraduate degree from Rice. I don't know if she can prove where she lived during the 1960s, but there's no serious good-faith question about her residence. All she needed was a total of five years here after her 14th birthday.

My answer to the question implied by the author's title is different. Trump was playing the birther card a while back, when it was a way to get attention. His problem now is that it's played out. There's no longer talk of impeaching Obama, let alone arresting him for fraud. Trump knows that going birther at this point would just exacerbate his problem of being seen as a mountebank rather than a serious leader.