Birthers’ own bull has come round to bite them in the ass.
Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) is in a tizzy, eh, after discovering that the Canadian birth certificate he released over the weekend, while proving his American citizenship, might also prove he’s a Canadian citizen too.
And no God-fearin’, freedom-lovin’, immigrant-huntin’ Republican can bear to be anything but American, eh?
So what does Teddy plan to do about this pickle he’s in? He’s gonna pull a Bachmann and renounce his Canadian citizenship.
“Because my mother was a U.S. citizen, born in Delaware, I was a U.S. citizen by birth,” Cruz said in a statement on Monday. “When I was a kid, my mom told me that I could choose to claim Canadian citizenship if I wanted. I got my U.S. passport in high school.”
“Now The Dallas Morning News says that I may technically have dual citizenship. Assuming that is true, then sure, I will renounce any Canadian citizenship. Nothing against Canada, but I’m an American by birth and as a U.S. senator, I believe I should be only an American.”
Of course Cruz will never be “only an American,” no matter what he says or does. He came to America from Calgary when he was four years old, meaning he took his first steps and spoke his first words in Canada.
My wife was brought to Chicago when she was two and hadn’t known Mexico until she traveled back to Juárez to see her father after she got her green card. But even then, no matter how American she may be, my wife knows she’ll always be tied to the land and the people of Mexico.
Senator Cruz was part of the minority that voted against the Gang of 8 bill, citing his opposition to a pathway to citizenship for most of the 11 million undocumented immigrants currently living in the United States. To his credit, however, Sen. Cruz is not one of the Republicans promoting a repeal of Section 1 of the 14th Amendment, which grants citizenship to anyone born in the United States or its territories.
Fortunately for Cruz, his Republican friends don’t seem as bothered by his Canadian birth certificate and citizenship as they are by the president’s American birth certificate and Kenyan father.
You would think the situation would force Sen. Cruz to see the immigration debate in a new light. It should anger and disgust the Tea Party attack dog to think that some people might view him as less American just because he happened to be born 200 miles from the U.S. border.
Why should it be his fault that his parents were living in Canada when he was born and decided to bring him to the States four years later? You can’t choose who your parents are or where you’re born. But if you’ve grown up in the United States since a young age, lived as an American, attended American schools and created an American life for yourself, who’s to tell you you don’t really belong here? That you should go back to where you came from?
Eh, Senator?
[Photo: Gage Skidmore via Flickr]