I noticed that; it was a typical and convenient way to avoid the Draft for American citizens. Was Rafael Sr. an American citizen a that time ? What troubles me is that Rafael Jr., and Barack, appear to be equally valid, or invalid, American citizens for purposes of being natural born. Someone owes Obama an apology if they campaigned against him as a birther and write Cruz is a natural born citizen.
He was a green card holder and green card holders were eligible. He’d used up his deferments and would have been eligible up to age 35 for the draft due to getting deferred, if I remember the system correctly.
I can’t tell if he ever got a notice or what his draft number was, but a Cuban with a green card moving to Canada at that time would be serving notice IN MY MIND that his loyalties did NOT lie with the USA.
He then applied almost immediate for Canadian citizenship, and that’s another indication of his loyalties toward the USA.
SO, we have a non-loyal former Cuban temporary inhabitant of the USA and a US citizen mother who probably knew what was going on.
I don’t think George Washington would have accepted Ted as a natural born citizen.