Donald Trump and a few others including John McCain are formally challenging Ted Cruz on his birthright eligibility to be President. These arguments were not cast at Barack Obama’s eligibility even though Hillary Clinton was the first ‘birther’ laying into public judgment questions about his history. This question has never officially been answered as Obama signed an executive order terminating all access to his historical family records.
Below are the facts on Ted Cruz.
Eleanor Darragh, mother of Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), was born in Delaware on Nov. 23, 1934, establishing her citizenship by birth–and, according to U.S. law, that of her son, even though he was born in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, on Dec. 22, 1970.
Breitbart: The Cruz for President campaign provided Breitbart News exclusively with the birth certificate.
Later, Ted Cruz’s own birth certificate listed his mother as “Eleanor Elizabeth Wilson.” “Elizabeth” was her mother’s first name, and “Wilson” is a surname from a previous marriage.
Eleanor Darragh Birth Certificate
The Cruz campaign was responding to inquiries from Breitbart News about a document showing that both of Cruz’s parents had been named on a list of voters in Calgary for the 1974 Canadian federal election.
Only Canadian citizens were (and are) able to vote in federal elections. The lists were compiled through a door-to-door process of “enumeration” by registrars, and were publicized partly so that mistakes could be corrected.
According to Elections Canada–the independent, non-partisan agency that runs Canadian elections–“voters were sent a copy of the list showing the name, address and occupation of all voters in the relevant poll.”
Mistakes were frequent (i.e. “Raphael” instead of “Rafael”), and voters were given the opportunity to fix errors.
Ezra Levant, a Canadian conservative journalist who was born and raised in Calgary, recalled the process of enumeration.
“It was like a census… they were very quick and non-obtrusive visits, someone standing in your doorstep,” he told Breitbart News via e-mail. “They certainly didn’t ask for ID.
“It is not surprising to me that there may be a spelling error in someone’s name. A name appearing on the list would not necessarily indicate that they were a citizen, or that they themselves had even spoken to the enumerator—someone else in the household may have spoken for them,” Levant added.
The Cruz campaign told Breitbart News on Friday that Cruz’s mother had never become a Canadian citizen.
“She was in Canada on a work permit and never became a permanent resident, let alone a citizen,” said Jason Johnson, chief strategist for the Cruz campaign.
“She never registered to vote and never applied for Canadian citizenship.”
In a subsequent statement to Breitbart News, Johnson added:
“Eleanor was never a citizen of Canada, and she could not have been under the facts or the law. In short, she did not live in Canada long enough to be a Canadian citizen by the time Cruz was born in 1970: Canadian law required 5 years of permanent residence, and she moved to Canada in December 1967—only 3 years before Senator Cruz’s birth.”
The campaign could not provide her Canadian work permit.
Canadian immigration authorities could not provide Breitbart News with additional documents, citing Canadian privacy laws.
