In a major new announcement that has shocked many, the administration of US President Donald Trump has announced its decision to revoke the automatic citizenship granted to the children of military members involved in overseas operations.
Previously, service members and other government employees working abroad were considered to be residing in the United States for the purpose of their children’s citizenship. However, this will no longer be the case.
The exact implications remain unclear because it could result in servicemen and women unable to return home with children they have had overseas.
The new policy is targeted explicitly at several groups of people, mostly concerned with adoption and naturalization issues. It also excludes “U.S. citizens who do not meet residency requirements.”
USCIS spokesperson Meredith Parker said: “The policy change explains that we will not consider children who live abroad with their parents to be residing in the United States even if their parents are U.S. government employees or U.S. service members stationed outside of the United States, and as a result, these children will no longer be considered to have acquired citizenship automatically.”
Parker added: “For them to obtain a Certificate of Citizenship, their U.S. citizen parent must apply for citizenship on their behalf.”
Many remain confused over the new policy, and its exact implications remain unclear for some.
Initially, there was widespread panic over the assumption that the policy would impact a much larger number of people than was later clarified.
Still, many remain highly critical of President Trump at this point over his decision, and it looks like he has managed to spark a lot of controversies once again.
The fact that this is all leading up to the 2020 election has raised some eyebrows because many assumed that Trump would tone down his controversial policies at this point.
That does not seem to be the case though, and if anything, the president appears to have ramped up his behavior in recent times and has been acting even more inappropriately in various circumstances.
Bradley Moss, a lawyer with expertise in national security, had this to say on the matter: “This kind of memo is the sort of thing that you don’t put out to the general public without a very bold-faced letter executive summary saying ‘Here’s what this does not do.’”
He added: “This changes nothing if you are a child born overseas to two U.S. citizens on a military base or just overseas in general – you are fine as a matter of law … you are still considered a U.S. citizen so long as one of your parents had been a physical resident within the United States.”
Immigration is expected to be a hot topic in the next election.
