wow, so if I am on vacation while pregnant, say I am in the Bahamas chilling on the beach, and my baby comes early, my baby is not a citizen? Just want to clarify....
“wow, so if I am on vacation while pregnant, say I am in the Bahamas chilling on the beach, and my baby comes early, my baby is not a citizen? Just want to clarify....”
Your baby would be a “born” citizen but not a natural born citizen. There was a question as to John McCain’s eligibility due to this same definition.
Marco Rubio is not a natural born citizen either due to his parents not being citizens at the time of his birth. But just watch the GOP band together to try to get him nominated in 2016. If they let Rubio run they have to let Cruz run. Neither one of them is eligible. They can both serve their country in the Senate or as Governors.
But of course if you are half black and a Democrat its OK that you can’t really prove where you were born and your Dad was a Kenyan.
Children of American citizens born overseas are indisputably American citizens. It’s a question of their being ‘natural born citizens,’ as called for in the Constitution as a prerequisite to presidential eligibility that is in dispute.
My husband is a soldier and we were stationed in Germany at the time of my son’s birth. I was told by the US Embassy when we received his “American Citizen Born Abroad” birth certificate that the ONLY thing he couldn’t do was become POTUS.
So yeah. Tough cookies. He’s not a natural born citizen.
In your scenario, your child would be born a U.S. citizen, just not eligible to fill the office of President. For that he must be born in the U.S. to two naturalized American citizens. Though not defined within the Constitution itself, the term “naturalized citizen” historically has come to be defined as “born within the Republic”.
I believe the Founders use of the word ‘natural’ was intentional as to covering/requiring location of birth and parentage. Both requirements are subject to USA jurisdiction.
“wow, so if I am on vacation while pregnant, say I am in the Bahamas chilling on the beach, and my baby comes early, my baby is not a citizen? Just want to clarify....”
Maybe, maybe not.
I could be wrong, but I think that in a case such as this (child born to American parents on foreign soil) there are certain actions the parents must take in a timely manner in order to establish that the newborn is to be regarded as a “natural born American citizen”.
It may involve going to the nearest American embassy and filling out some paperwork, nothing more.
But again, whether or not the newborn gains full “natural-born” citizenship may not be “automatic”, but rather established by the actions of the parents in a timely manner after the birth.
I welcome correction from others in this forum.
So… the $64 question is — was specific action required by Ted Cruz’ parents required to establish natural-born citizenship after his foreign birth, and (if so), did his parents take such action in a timely manner?
As yet, unknown….
wow, so if I am on vacation while pregnant, say I am in the Bahamas chilling on the beach, and my baby comes early, my baby is not a citizen? Just want to clarify....
Of course your child would be a U.S. citizen, just not a natural born citizen.
You’re an illegal alien!
No.
Your baby would be a U.S. citizen because you are a citizen. You will have to register your baby’s birth with a consulate or embassy while overseas.
Three types of citizenship are recognized by our government: native born; naturalized; and citizen-by-statute (derived citizenship from parents). All have equal rights. All can serve in Congress, either as a Representative in the House, or as a Senator in the Senate.
The following link will take you to the government’s own Immigration Service web page describing the three types of citizenship.
Natural born Citizen is NOT a type of statutory citizenship.
Natural born is ONLY an eligibility requirement for the U.S. Presidency per Article II, Section 1, clause 5, of the U.S. Constitution, and requires, as per the Founders, the President to be born in the United States (jus solis) AND of two citizen parents (jus sanguinas).
The definition of natural born Citizen appears in the holding of SCOTUS’s unanimous decision of Minor v. Happersett (1874).
Minor v. Happersett, 88 U.S. 162 (1875), is a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court held that the Constitution did not grant women the right to vote...
The Minor v. Happersett ruling was based on an interpretation of the Privileges or Immunities Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The Supreme Court readily accepted that Minor was a citizen of the United States, but it held that the constitutionally protected privileges of citizenship did not include the right to vote.
SCOTUS rejected Minor’s argument that she was a citizen under the 14th Amendmnet of the U.S.Constitution, and examined her eligibility, concluding that she belonged to the class of citizens who, being born in the U.S. of citizen parents, was a natural born Citizen, and not covered by the 14th Amendment. This holding has been used in 25 consequent SCOTUS decisions since 1875.
No one has the RIGHT to be President.
The eligibility requirement of Natural Born Citizenship (jus solis + jus sanguinas: born in the U.S. of U.S. citizen parents) must be viewed as a means to prevent split allegiance for any President of the United States.
If his mother was a citizen and his father was a citizen, then he is a natural born citizen. We conservatives have played this game with citizenship logic so much that this should be obvious. Instead, we end up with the absurd.
I can’t find his father’s name, but it appears the dad came to the US from Cuba in 1957. Cruz was born in 1970, so that gave the dad 13 years to gain US citizenship. His mother was born an American.
Cruz was born in Alberta Canada, and as far as I can tell, unless his parents renounced their US citizenship while there, then Ted Cruz is a natural born US citizen.
“...wow, so if I am on vacation while pregnant, say I am in the Bahamas chilling on the beach, and my baby comes early, my baby is not a citizen? Just want to clarify....”
Yes. your baby is a U.S. citizen. Eligibility requirements for POTUS (pre-odongo) would probably not be met.
This has been a known issue for a very long time. I was born in 1950 on the US/Canadian border. The only hospital was on the Canadian side. Both my parents were U.S. citizens. Because of this very issue, they elected to birth at home on the American side so as to FOREVER avoid this issue. Not that I ever wanted to run, or ever wanted the job, of POTUS, I would at least be eligible and be able to avoid just this kind of stuff. Clear as mud, I know.
your child is a US citizen ....this kind of crappola has got to stop. It makes people look ridiculous AND it weakens any argument that might have been made against The One
You really need to ‘try’ to educate yourself on the difference between being born a citizen of the USA and being a ‘natural born citizen’. Only a natural born citizen is, by virtue of the US Constitution, eligible to become President or Vice President. Natural born citizens have two parents that are BOTH US citizens, which disqualifies Barack Obama ....obviously.
And yes....if your baby comes early in the Bahamas AND if you and your husband are BOTH US citizens at the time of that birth, your baby would be eligible to become President or Vice President of the USA some day. If not, your baby would merely be deemed a US citizen, ineligible for the highest and second highest office in the land.
So we are throwing away all of our hopes of a Cruz’16 run solely on the word of one reporter??? More info is needed, especially since McLame was born elsewhere and was eligable to run.
Take a deep breath everyone. This FR post was the only thing i saw referencing this report.
Senator Cruz and your Bahama baby would probably still be a natural born citizen according to the original intent of the Framers, so long as both parents were US citizens, the child did not retain any dual citizenship loyalties, and the parents had at some point resided in the United States. Here is how the First Congress defined "natural born citizen" in the Naturalization Act of 1790:
And the children of such persons so naturalized, dwelling within the United States, being under the age of twenty-one years at the time of such naturalization, shall also be considered as citizens of the United States. And the children of citizens of the United States that may be born beyond sea, or out of the limits of the United States, shall be considered as natural born citizens: Provided, That the right of citizenship shall not descend to persons whose fathers have never been resident in the United States: Provided also, That person heretofore proscribed by any State, shall be admitted as a citizen as aforesaid, except by an act of Legislature of the State in which such person was proscribed
Many "birthers" say that you have to be both born in the US and be born to two US citizen parents in order to be natural born citizen. That your parents should be US citizens is clear, but it is not clear that you must be born in the territory of the US to be a natural born citizen. This uncertainty arises from short-sighted Congresses making changes to the US Constitution without clearly specifying how those changes may affect to other parts of the Constitution in unintended ways.
Before the adoption of the 14th amendment in 1868, there were only two ways to become a US Citizen. The first was through the bloodline of your parents (i.e. natural born citizens)as mentioned above. The only other way to receive citizenship before 1868 was through Naturalization. When the 14th Amendment was ratified in 1868, it introduced a new third method for a person to become a US citizen which had not been mentioned in the Constitution. This new type of citizenship is called "ius soli" or the "law of the soil." This principle states that a person becomes a citizen by being born in a geographical area rather than by inheriting citizenship from their parents' bloodlines. It's relationship to natural born citizenship has been argued ever since.
Has Ted Cruz ever said he wanted to run for President? Why is this an issue?
“wow, so if I am on vacation while pregnant, say I am in the Bahamas chilling on the beach, and my baby comes early, my baby is not a citizen? Just want to clarify....”
Yep, so don’t travel the world when there’s risk of giving birth.