U.S. immigration officials on Thursday defended a new policy that ends automatic citizenship for some children born to U.S. citizens stationed abroad as government employees or members of the U.S. military, saying it would only affect a "handful" of families every year.
"It bears repeating that this affects a very small population of individuals and they have another means of obtaining citizenship for their children," a U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) official said in a call with reporters, adding that the new pathway "just requires different paperwork."
Under current policy, children of service members and other officials stationed abroad are considered to be "residing in" the United States, so they receive the same automatic citizenship as if they were born on U.S. soil.