Washington Post

September 6, 2019

Last week the Trump administration announced that it would make it harder for children born to U.S. service members serving abroad to claim U.S. citizenship. Many were outraged, even as the Trump administration argued that the policy would affect only servicemembers who are naturalized citizens and deployed before establishing U.S. residency.

But what’s more important than this particular change is how the new policy fits a trend. Just as the Trump administration has sought to limit both legal and illegal immigration generally, it has tried to make it harder to gain U.S. citizenship by serving in the military. That’s a sharp break from the past.

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