NBC posts major correction to story about citizenship for military families
“Correction: Experts who have looked at new USCIS policy say it applies if a service member adopts a child overseas, but children born to service members on deployment would still automatically get citizenship”
There has been another walk-back of shame for our press this week.
Earlier this week, social media was breathlessly spreading NBC’s report that new Trump administration guidelines could potentially deny “birthright citizenship” to the children of American military members abroad.
President Donald Trump has a strong relationship with the military. I could not imagine that changes to the citizenship status of service members’ children would be in jeopardy. So when I first read the messages, I rolled my eyes and anticipated it would be shown to #FakeNews.
And it was.
Ken Dilanian, an NBC news correspondent who covers national security, tweeted the following on Wednesday afternoon.
The correction came an hour later:
Reason contributor Elizabeth Nolan Brown offers further details on the policy.
The change will not apply to children born to any U.S. citizens serving in the military or otherwise working abroad. It will apply only in cases of foreign adoption by U.S. citizen parents, or children born to parents were not U.S. citizens at the time of the child’s birth. A Department of Defense spokesperson said the shift would affect about 100 children annually.
Acting USCIS Director Ken Cuccinelli clarified that the policy “does NOT impact birthright citizenship.”
It also does not mean that the children will be denied citizenship, just that parents have to submit an application. The change was made to bring the definition of residence in the immigration law in line with State Department guidance, USCIS told CNN.
Watch Cuccinelli explain on EWTN:
Despite the clarification, some immigration activists insist the rule-change is unfair.
But the new policy places an unfair burden on children born to non-citizen service members, according to a spokesman for a D.C.-based federal employment and military law firm.
“If both parents are U.S. citizens, their children have derivative citizenship regardless, so this is a penalty placed upon those who would serve their country and who do not have a say where they are stationed,” Shaun May of the Federal Practice Groups told Military Times in a statement.
“They serve at the direction and pleasure of the president.”
I recall the hysteria over the military birthright citizen issue when it first broke, as it was the lead trending topic on Twitter for quite some time. Some lowlights:
ICYMI – Trump’s administration has decided that children born to US military members stationed outside the US no longer have birthright citizenship. This WILL hurt families. More later, but to start: PARENTS will need visas for THEIR KIDS born abroad.https://t.co/2UIPd071d5
— Chris Rowe for Congress 2020 (@ChrisForTN1) August 29, 2019
Already this week, Trump has attacked birthright citizenship for military families, sought to deport kids with cancer, and diverted FEMA funds to his wall.
Such cruelty may account for his plummeting poll numbers. https://t.co/PZk3K9vG4J pic.twitter.com/lT1KqVsPr2
— Sophia Tesfaye (@SophiaTesfaye) August 29, 2019
Trump is such a Fascist, now he’s taking away birthright citizenship from even children born to military families overseas, & not even service to the country will be enough to help with people wanting to be citizens. Trump just hates people not native born citizens. ? pic.twitter.com/HFpkL4NUKS
— Sam Bradley (@SamBrad11134334) August 29, 2019
If it was NBC’s intention to report accurate and essential news, it failed miserably. If, on the other hand, NBC wanted to gin-up more anti-Trump hysteria and hostility toward our president, then it was a solid hit.
As far as I am concerned, the peacock laid an egg with this story and gave me even more reason to turn to foreign press for accurate coverage of American news.
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Comments
Oopsie. But I’m sure it was an honest mistake!
Does anybody here ever watch NBC?
Now you’re falling into the Pauline Kael trap. You and I don’t watch NBC, and nobody we know watches it, so you are lead to assume nobody does. But many people clearly do, or it would have gone bankrupt long ago. I don’t know who those people are, but they’re out there, probably surrounding us, just like the Nixon voters Kael was talking about.
It really is a sort of a loophole, illegal alien joins the military, is paid, is even deployed, has a kid with full maternity services from the military, now there’s an anchor baby.
It’s still US policy.
Why do we have non-citizens in the military when we’re turning away some citizens?
Again, that is not so.
I saw the headlines yesterday and didn’t even bother to read the articles, just sat back and listened to the thwap of rakes impacting faces.
Man, you people are mangling the policy and the clarification as badly as NBC did. You all need to stop it with the fake news until you can exhibit some reading comprehension.
The change has nothing to do with scams or anchor babies.
USCIS was using a definition of citizenship that differed from the State Department in the case of children born outside the U.S. ADOPTED by U.S. citizens when the birth parents were not US citizens and/or the adoptive parent was a green card holder and not yet a citizen at the time of the adoption. In some cases this caused problems issuing passports for those children due to INCORRECT DOCUMENTATION. There has been no change in the overall policy, just a clarification of how the children’s naturalization and citizenship need to be documented. The example cited was a U.S. military member who marries a local citizen and adopts their children. I believe USCIS was previously saying those kids were citizens but State said no, they have to fill out naturalization forms.
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