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VERIFY: Kamala Harris is eligible to become president, despite viral Facebook claim

Neither your parents' citizenship nor where you were raised disqualifies you from becoming president, under the Constitution.

WASHINGTON — Editor's note: The video above is from January 2019.

Now that Kamala Harris has been selected as a vice presidential candidate and former VP Joe Biden's running mate, an old claim calling into question Harris' eligibility to become president has resurfaced. 

QUESTION:

A viral tweet claims Senator Kamala Harris is ineligible for the Oval office because her parents were not legal U.S. citizens when she was born, and because she was raised in Canada. Is Harris disqualified from the presidency?

ANSWER:

Nope. Neither your parents' citizenship nor where you were raised disqualifies you from becoming president under the U.S. Constitution.

SOURCES:

U.S. Constitution- Article II Section 1

RELATED: Joe Biden picks US Sen. Kamala Harris as running mate

PROCESS:

One day after Kamala Harris announced her 2020 bid for the presidency, naysayers on social media already called into question her eligibility to run.

One tweet with more than 22,000 likes and 13,000 retweets, says Harris is not eligible because her parents were not legal U.S. residents at the time of her birth.

So does this disqualify Harris? The Verify team found that's flat-out false.

Under Article II Section 1 of the Constitution, it lists the only requirements as:

"No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty-five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States."

"Natural born" simply means being born on U.S. soil, it has nothing to do with your parent's citizenship at the time of your birth, a Congressional Research Service report explained. 

Kamala Harris was born in Oakland, California in 1964, grew up in Canada, but has lived in the U.S. since her undergrad years at Howard University. 

So we can Verify this claim is FALSE. 

Remember to check sources for their personal biases. The guy who created this viral tweet is a self-described Trump Supporter who frequently tweets in support of Alex Jones and Info Wars. 

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