My wife is a naturalized U.S. citizen. She was born in Poland to Polish parents. She had a naturalization ceremony. I went to it. I am not aware of any naturalization ceremony for Ted Cruz. My understanding is that generally, people are born U.S. citizens if they are born in the United States or if they are born abroad to U.S. citizens.
Nevertheless, you would have to cite some precedential court opinion to convince me that Cruz is a naturalized U.S. citizen, as opposed to a citizen by birth.
Cordially,
“My wife is a naturalized U.S. citizen. She was born in Poland to Polish parents. She had a naturalization ceremony. I went to it.”
Yes, and that is the immigration and naturalization procedure for the naturalization after birth of foreign born citizens. The administrative procedures are described in the U.S. State Department Foreign Affairs Manual.
“I am not aware of any naturalization ceremony for Ted Cruz.”
The naturalization of a child born abroad with a U.S. citizen parent is described by the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Act of 1952 by which Ted Cruz was authorized to acquire U.S. citizenship as “Nationality at Birth and by Collective Naturalization”, meaning such a child is automatically and collectively naturalized by the authority of the statute, provided certain other provisions of the immigration and naturalization act are complied with. It is generally required for a parent to obtain a U.S. State Department Consular Report of a Birth Abroad (CRBA) for the child to gain admittance to the United States. There are circumstances by which parents have brought their Canadian born child into the United States without doing so, and they were typically still able to acquire U.S. citizenship for this foreing born child of a U.S. citizen.
“My understanding is that generally, people are born U.S. citizens if they are born in the United States or if they are born abroad to U.S. citizens.”
Yes, they are born as citizens, but only in a little more than just the last century or so. Previously, there were many periods of time in which no child born abroad with a U.S. citizen parent or two U.S. citizen parents acquired any form of U.S. citizenship. Afterwards, the citizenship acquired could only be naturalized citizenship as stated by several Supreme Court of the United States decisions, including the United States v. Wong Kim Ark (1898) decision quoted below.
“Nevertheless, you would have to cite some precedential court opinion to convince me that Cruz is a naturalized U.S. citizen, as opposed to a citizen by birth.”
Note, Ted Cruz is a naturalized citizen “at birth” and not a natural born citizen “by birth”, or what Sir Edward Coke in Calvin’s Case 1608 described as a form of naturalization or subject-made (datus) at birth versus a natural born subject or subject-born by birth (natus). Also observe Ted Cruz acquired U.S. citizenship by grant from the authority of manmade statutory law and not with natural law bestowing the citizenship by birth in nature and under natural law. Technically, the child born abroad acquires allegiance to the foreign sovereign by birth in the sovereign’s domain and jurisdiction, making the child an alien with respect to the father’s sovereign. The father’s sovereign, having provided a manmade and therefore artificial law and legal fiction for the naturalization of a child born abroad and outside the domains, jurisdiction, and allegiance of the father’s sovereign, requires by force of law the child be “considered as” or accepted as if the child was entitled to some but not all of the same rights and powers as if the child had been an actual natural born child within the sovereign’s domains, jurisdiction, and allegiance. See:
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66 Stat. Public Law 414 - June 27, 1952. TITLE III - NATIONALITY AND NATURALIZATION. Chapter 1 - Nationality at Birth and by Collective Naturalization. NATIONALS AND CITIZENS OF THE UNITED STATES AT BIRTH. Sec. 301. (a) The following shall be nationals and citizens of the United States at birth; . . . (7) a person born outside the geographical limits of the United States and its outlying possessions of parents one of whom is an alien, and the other a citizen of the United States who, prior to the birth of such person, was physically present in the United States or its outlying possessions for a period or periods totaling not less than ten years, at lest five of which were after attaining the age of fourteen years: Provided, That any periods of honorable service in the Armed Forces of the United States by such citizen parent may be included in computing the physical presence requirements of this paragraph.
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Note this law naturalizes a child born abroad with a parent who is a U.S. citizen, so such a child and Ted Cruz are naturalized U.S. citizens by the authority of this law.
The U.S. State Department Foreign Affairs Manual acknowledges that immigration and naturalization law and says such a child and Ted Cruz were born abroad and naturalized as U.S. citizens.
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U.S. Department of State Foreign Affairs Manual Volume 7
Consular Affairs. 7 FAM 1151 INTRODUCTION... b. 8 U.S.C. 1101(a)(23); INA 101(a)(23)) defines naturalization as the conferring of nationality of a state upon a person after birth by any means whatsoever. . . For the purposes of this subchapter naturalization includes:... (5) “Automatic†acquisition of U.S. citizenship after birth, a form of naturalization by certain children born abroad to U.S. citizen parents or children adopted abroad by U.S. citizen parents.
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[The Supreme Court of the United States also decided a child born abroad such as Ted Cruz can only “become a citizen by being naturalized.â€
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United States v. Wong Kim Ark, 169 U.S. 649, 18 S.Ct. 456, 42 L.Ed. said “A person born out of the jurisdiction of the United States can only become a citizen by being naturalized....”
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