snip
Officials at Citizenship and Immigration Canada said that without a signed privacy waiver
from Cruz, they cannot discuss his case.
“Generally speaking, under the Citizenship Act of 1947, those born in Canada were automatically
citizens at birth unless their parent was a foreign diplomat,” said ministry spokeswoman Julie Lafortune.
For the first time, Cruz released his birth certificate Friday in response to inquiries
from The Dallas Morning News.
Dated a month after his birth on Dec. 22, 1970, it shows that Rafael Edward Cruz was born
to Rafael Bienvenido Cruz, a “geophysical consultant” born in Matanzas, Cuba, and the former
Eleanor Elizabeth Wilson, born in Wilmington, Del.
Her status made the baby a U.S. citizen at birth. For that, U.S. law required at least one parent who was a
U.S. citizen who had lived for at least a decade in the United States.
She registered his birth with the U.S. consulate, Frazier said, and the future senator
received a U.S. passport in 1986 ahead of a high school trip to England.
Rafael Cruz, now a pastor in suburban Dallas, fled Cuba for Texas as a teen in 1957. He
remained a Cuban citizen until he became a naturalized American in 2005.
end snip
She registered his birth with the U.S. consulate, Frazier said, and the future senator
received a U.S. passport in 1986...
Did she only register his birth in 1986? That does mean that he was not on paper an American until he was 16.
Until a few minutes ago, I assumed he was a US citizen. But now I realize that he has to prove a 5 year period of continuous US residence between the ages of 14 and 28, in order to still be a citizen of the US. We don't know enough to decide the case. What age was he when he returned from his UK trip? Did he make other trips abroad? There is anecdotal evidnece that he visited Canada during college. Each trip abroad strats the "5 years of continuous presence" clock anew.