You can't make yourself into a natural born citizen, you're either born one, or you're not.
That's the whole point of the term NATURAL born, as in *not done by Man*.
No, and Cruz did not make himself a born American. He was just born into being an American naturally, and so required no naturalization, either at birth or later. It’s just what he was when he was born. He inherited the status from his mother. Jus sanguinis, as it is sometimes called, by the blood. That required no naturalization.
One thing I’ve noticed in these debates is how hard it is for the legally inexperienced to address the concept of overlapping law. You can have a fact pattern where the citizenship is both natural at birth and also recognized, not created, by statute. It is a trap to believe they are always or necessarily mutually exclusive. This sort of overlapping law problem goes on all the time in contract law.
The point is, Cruz never did require any statutory process to become a citizen. He was one by virtue of his birth, by nature, through his mother. The fact of being a dual citizen does not remove his claim to be a natural born American. However, to remove confusion and misunderstanding, it was to his advantage to renounce his Canadian citizenship, so of course he would do that.
So until you come up with actual, legally binding authority asserting that one passage from Vattell as the final authority, your opinion is nothing more than just that, your personal opinion, which is not enough to deprive one who was born a second generation American of his right to run for the highest office in the land.
Peace,
SR