A post accompanying a photo purportedly showing the birth certificate of USA Vice President Kamala Harris is widely circulating across social media platforms (here, here, here, & here). The claim accompanying the post suggests that Kamala Harris is ineligible to hold office as the President of the United States of America because she was born to non-American parents in the USA. In this article, let’s fact-check the claim made in the post.
Claim: Kamala Harris is ineligible to hold the office of President of the United States of America because her parents were not US citizens at the time of her birth.
Fact: Kamala Harris is a citizen of the United States of America and is eligible to hold the office of US President. According to the US Constitution, the requirements for a person to run for President include being a US citizen, at least 35 years old, and having resided in the US for at least 14 years. Additionally, according to the US Constitution, children of both legal and illegal immigrants born in the United States are US citizens by virtue of being born on US soil. Kamala Harris is a citizen of the USA by birth and has been residing in the United States for more than 14 years. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
Kamala Harris was sworn in as Vice President of the USA in January 2021, making her the first woman, the first Black American, and the first South Asian American to hold this position.
We found that this purported photo showing the birth certificate of USA Vice President Kamala Harris is going viral on social media with the same claim suggesting that she has been ineligible for the office of the USA President since at least 2019 (here) (archived link).
To verify the validity of the viral claim, we first conducted a relevant keyword search to understand the citizenship laws regarding children born to legal or illegal immigrants in the USA. This search led us to a document titled “Myths & Facts about Birthright Citizenship“ shared on the American Immigration Council’s official website.
According to this, children of both legal and illegal immigrants born in the United States are U.S. citizens by virtue of being born on U.S. soil. According to information available on The White House’s website, Kamala Harris was born in Oakland, California. Therefore, it is clear that Kamala Harris is a citizen of the USA because she was born there, regardless of her parents’ citizenship at the time of her birth.
We further conducted a relevant keyword search to learn about the qualification requirements to run for public office specifically for the office of President in the United States of America. This search led us to the website of the US Constitution, which includes an article regarding “Qualifications for the Presidency.” The fifth clause of Article II lists three requirements for a person to run for President: one must be a US citizen, at least 35 years old, and have resided in the US for at least 14 years.
According to information available on The White House’s website, Kamala Harris was born in Oakland, California. Harris later graduated from Howard University and the University of California Hastings College of Law, and she has been working in public offices since 1990. This information makes it clear that Kamala Harris is a citizen of the United States of America and has been residing in the United States for more than 14 years. Therefore, she is eligible to hold the office of President of the USA.
To sum up, Kamala Harris is a citizen of the United States of America and is eligible to hold the office of US President.
