City Council stands with military, federal workers amid citizenship policy change

The Council passed a resolution expressing support for children and families of military members and federal workers serving aboard, as well as its opposition to policy changes that infringes on the rights to American citizenship for children of U.S. service members.

The Trump administration recently issued a policy change regarding automatic citizenship granted to children born abroad for military members or federal employees serving outside the country. Before the policy change, children born abroad to parents serving in the military or working in the federal government can be considered residing on U.S. soil for immigration purposes and their citizenship is automatically granted provided they meet certain requirements. Yet, this new policy change would make it more difficult for some of these children to automatically become citizens.

Councilor Flynn said, “This new policy change is making it more stressful and confusing for military members and federal workers serving aboard. These men and women make tremendous sacrifice serving our country [and] these kids that were born on these military bases are just as American as we are, as my family who are a military family as well.”

Examples of those affected include children adopted by certain service members, children born abroad to parents who are recently naturalized, or to parents who are U.S. citizens, but have not lived in the U.S.