Sen. Ted Cruz Is a Naturalized Citizen, not a Natural Born Citizen

The United States Constitution requires  presidents to be "natural born citizens".   The original  Constitution doesn't define "natural born citizen", but the 14th Amendment states there are two categories of U.S. citizens:  those who are born in the United States and those who are naturalized under Acts of Congress.

Sen. Ted Cruz was not born in the United States so his citizenship is conferred by Congress under its naturalization authority.  Children born to U.S. citizens outside the United States do not automatically qualify as U,S, citizens under the Constitution.   They can only qualify if a parent meets the criteria required by the law.  For example, when Cruz was born one U.S. citizen  parent had to have lived in the United States for 10 years before the birth with at least five of those  years coming after the 14th birthday.  t

The criteria can be changed by Congress at any time.  For example, Congress might decide to require that both parents be citizens or change the residency requirements.  The specific criteria required of Cruz or others  aren't important.  The important point is that a person whose citizenship is due to naturalization law cannot be a "natural born citizen".

Cruz has stated that he never checked to see if he became a Canadian citizen when he was born in Canada until the Dallas Morning News said he was a Canadian citizen.  I hope that he checked to see if any required applications for U.S.  citizenship registration have been met.   If registration requirements have not been met, Cruz is not any kind of U.S. citizen.