“...under Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution, Congress is given the power to make uniform laws on naturalization and that this power did not include the power to decide who is included or excluded from being a presidential Article II “natural born Citizen.” While Congress has passed throughout United States history many statutes declaring who shall be considered nationals and citizens of the United States at birth and thereby exempting such persons from having to be naturalized under naturalization laws, at no time except by way of the short-lived “natural born” phrase in Naturalization Act of 1790 did it ever declare these persons to be “natural born Citizens.”
The uniform definition of “natural born Citizen” was already provided by the law of nations and was already settled. The Framers therefore saw no need nor did they give Congress the power to tinker with that definition. Believing that Congress was highly vulnerable to foreign influence and intrigue, the Framers, who wanted to keep such influence out of the presidency, did not trust Congress when it came to who would be President, and would not have given Congress the power to decide who shall be President by allowing it to define what an Article II “natural born Citizen” is.
Additionally, the 1790 act was a naturalization act. How could a naturalization act make anyone an Article II “natural born Citizen?” After all, a “natural born Citizen” was made by nature at the time of birth and could not be so made by any law of man.”
Very interesting.
There can be no doubt that through vast parts of American history Ted Cruz would not have qualified as a citizen from birth. Near as I can tell he wouldn’t have before 1934 at the earliest.
The controlling law governing him because of the circumstances of his birth was the Immigration and Naturalization Act of 1952, which contained retention requirements for those like Cruz. I’ve been trying to figure out what those requirements were, but haven’t quite tracked that down yet. Someone with a great deal of expertise in this area told me earlier that it had to do with a requirement that they take an oath of loyalty upon attaining the age of 18, but that the retention requirements were done away with by Congress in 1978. I know that the latter part is true. I found on the Immigration and Naturalization Services website.
The natural born Citizen clause in Article II can not be changed by a Naturalization Act.