How Is Ted Cruz "Natural Born" When Senator Hirono Is "Naturalized"? Both Born In Under Same Circumstances

Senator Mazi Hirono (D)

The junior U.S. Senator from the state of Hawaii, Mazie Hirono, is a naturalized citizen, according to her official biography.

 Hirono, who ran against former Hawaii Governor Linda Lingle for the seat in 2012, makes no secret of the fact that she was “an immigrant” naturalized as a U.S. citizen in 1959, which coincided with the admission of Hawaii to the union as its 50th state. 

Hirono was born on November 3, 1947 in Fukushima, Japan to a Japanese father and U.S.-citizen mother who apparently did not lose her U.S. citizenship. 

The senator’s life story states that her mother, Laura, left an abusive, alcoholic husband in Japan to return to her native land with her two young children. Mazie was seven years old at the time.

Article I of the U.S. Constitution requires that U.S. senators and representatives be “a citizen of the United States” in order to serve.

U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, who declared himself a presidential candidate last year, was born in Calgary, Alberta, Canada to a U.S.-citizen mother and a Cuban father. His life story relates that after his father left his mother and him to resettle in Houston as a Canadian citizen, the elder Cruz reconsidered his decision and reunited with his wife and son in Houston in 1974.

It is unreported on what basis the young Cruz and his mother were able to enter the U.S. at the time.

Article II, Section 1, clause 5 of the U.S. Constitution requires the president and commander-in-chief to be a “natural born Citizen.” When questioned by a reporter in 2013 about any plans to seek the presidency given the “natural born” requirement, Cruz would say only that having been born to a U.S.-citizen mother in a foreign country, he held U.S. citizenship.  When pressed as to whether or not he is a “natural born Citizen,” by the reporter, Jorge Ramos, himself a naturalized U.S. citizen, Cruz dismissively said that he would “leave it to others to worry about the legal consequences” should he decide to run.

Cruz now insists that a child born abroad to one U.S.-citizen parent is a “natural born Citizen.” In an interview in January, Cruz told CNN’s Dana Bash that “The legal issue is straightforward. The son of a U.S. citizen born abroad is a ‘natural born Citizen,’” although relying on the Naturalization Act of 1790, which was repealed and replaced by the Naturalization Act of 1795 and omitted the1790 reference to “natural born Citizens.”