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Military and immigration advocates are trying to get a handle on just what the new Trump administration policy stripping automatic citizenship from the children of some military service members and government workers born abroad means. The policy, which as announced first seemed to apply to all children of U.S. government and military employees born overseas, was later specified to be more targeted, applying to children of parents whom the Trump administration is already trying to get rid of as dirty immigrants (serving the U.S. military), children adopted by U.S. parents serving in other countries, and … well, there's a lot of confusion.
NBC News reports, “Children of U.S. citizens who do not meet technical residency requirements would also be affected.” While it’s not clear exactly how many people will be forced to apply for citizenship for children who previously would have gotten it automatically, it’s a significant shift toward the Trump administration’s goal of restricting citizenship to people Stephen Miller approves of. Previously, children born to government-employee parents were considered to be “residing in the United States” no matter where they were born.
Parents will be able to apply for citizenship for their children, but who wants to bet that turning some of those kids down is on the Trump administration’s to-do list? Meanwhile, immigration groups are still trying to figure out exactly what these military and diplomatic families will have to do to protect their kids.
The baseline policy here is clear, though, as VoteVets’ Will Goodwin told The New York Times: ”The children of Americans who risk their lives in uniform are not automatically citizens of the United States: That is an abominable and antipatriotic position for the Trump administration to take.”