Sen. Ted Cruz Takes Step To Renounce Canadian Citizenship, Fueling Rumors

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-TX., leaves the Senate floor on Capitol Hill in Washington, Friday, Dec. 20, 2013. In its last hours before Congress shuts down for the year, the Senate is voting on several nominations. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta) (AP2013)

U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, often mentioned as a possible contender for the 2016 presidential election, said he is working on renouncing his Canadian citizenship, according to The Dallas Morning News.

“I have retained counsel that is preparing the paperwork to renounce the citizenship,” said Cruz according to the newspaper.

Cruz, whose firebrand political stances often have grabbed national headlines, was born in Canada to a U.S.-born mother and a Cuba-born father.

Cruz purportedly thought he had only U.S. citizenship because U.S. law dictates that a child born outside the country who has at least one U.S.-citizen parent is automatically a U.S. citizen. He is said to have learned that he still was a Canada citizen (as well as a U.S. citizen) after The Dallas Morning News pointed it out.

That led to debates about whether Cruz was eligible to run for U.S. president.

“The strong legal consensus,” the newspaper said, “is that with even one American parent — a circumstance shared by Obama and Cruz — a child born anywhere qualifies as a ‘natural born American,’ entitled to citizenship at birth and therefore eligible to serve as president.”

The newspaper added that Cruz denied he was renouncing his Canadian citizenship in order to run for the White House.

“My political perspective is focused on representing the state of Texas,” he said, according to the newspaper.

Follow us on twitter.com/foxnewslatino
Like us at facebook.com/foxnewslatino