Bills
| 3.23.22

Should Children Born Abroad to U.S. Military & Civil Service Personnel or Adopted Receive U.S. Citizenship? (S. 2679)

Do you support or oppose this bill?

What is S. 2679?

(Updated May 16, 2020)

This bill — the Citizenship for Children of Military Members and Civil Servants Act — would modernize Section 230 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) to ensure that children abroad to U.S. military and civil service members automatically receive U.S. citizenship. This would also apply to stepchildren and adopted children.

Argument in favor

The Trump administration’s August 2019 decision to end automatic citizenship for children of military and civil service members serving overseas is a poor way to repay these people and their families for the sacrifices they make to serve the U.S. overseas. Reversing this policy to ensure that all children of U.S. military and civil service members overseas automatically receive U.S. citizenship is a small, but important, way to show gratitude for their service.

Argument opposed

Only 20-25 children a year are affected by the Trump administration’s August 2019 policy change, so this issue isn’t particularly important based on the number of people affected. More importantly, the administration’s policy update didn’t end citizenship for any children of military or civil service members serving overseas — it merely required that some children apply for U.S. citizenship because they’re ineligible for birthright citizenship.

Impact

Military members; civil service members; military or civil service members serving overseas; children of military or civil service members serving overseas; and automatic citizenship for certain children of U.S. military and civil service members affected by an August 2019 policy change ending automatic citizenship for them.

Cost of S. 2679

A CBO cost estimate is unavailable.

Additional Info

In-Depth: Sponsoring Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) introduced this bill to fix a problem in current law that disadvantages certain children whose parents are serving abroad in the U.S. military or civil service: 

“Children of Americans serving their nation abroad are just as worthy of automatic citizenship as any other children. Forcing military families to jump through bureaucratic hoops and spend hundreds of dollars applying for citizenship on behalf of their children is not right. That is why I’m proud to be working across the aisle with my good friend Senator Isakson on this common-sense bill to ensure that when U.S. servicemembers and civil servants start a family while stationed abroad, their children automatically gain citizenship of the country they proudly serve.”

Original cosponsor Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-GA), who is the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, adds: 

“This commonsense legislation to help our military families is overdue, and I’m glad to be part of an effort to ensure that the children of service members who are born while stationed overseas are automatically recognized as U.S. citizens. We should be doing all we can to ease the lives of our all-volunteer force, not add needless hurdles for them and their families.”

House sponsor Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) says: 

“I am very proud to be introducing this legislation with bipartisan support, along with Ranking Member Collins, Chairman Smith, Ranking Member Thornberry, Subcommittee Chair Lofgren, Subcommittee Ranking Member Buck, and Representatives Gallego and Lieu. This small but important change is the least we can do for the men and women who serve our country in the U.S. armed forces and in federal government positions overseas, and I am glad we could work together to introduce this legislation that provides greater flexibility and support to those who have dedicated their careers to serving our nation.”

The Trump administration argues that the overall impact of its policy change removing automatic U.S. citizenship for the children of some U.S. military members and government employees working overseas will be minimal. In late August 2019, USCIS clarified that the new rule would only affect three categories of people: 1) children of non-U.S. citizens adopted by U.S. citizen government employees or service members; 2) children of non-U.S. citizen government employees or service members who were naturalized after the child's birth; and 3) children of U.S. citizens who do not meet residency requirements. 

Acting USCIS Director Ken Cuccinelli wrote on Twitter that people were “freaking out over nothing.” He described the new policy as a “highly technical policy memo” used by career employees at USCIS and nothing more. In a statement released by USCIS, Cuccinelli clarified: 

“This policy update does not affect who is born a U.S. citizen, period. This only affects children who were born outside the United States and were not U.S. citizens. This does NOT impact birthright citizenship. This policy update does not deny citizenship to the children of US government employees or members of the military born abroad. This policy aligns USCIS’ process with the Department of State’s procedure, that’s it.”

In a statement to The Hill, a USCIS official said that the policy update was made to make the INA internally consistent. According to the official, the previous definition of residency in Section 320 conflicted with the definition of “residence” in the rest of the INA and specifically in INA 322(d), which refers to children residing abroad with members of the U.S. armed forces as “residing outside of the United States.” 

The official also added that the previous policy conflicted with State Dept. guidance: 

“In addition, the current policy conflicts with the Department of State guidance. Having conflicting policies can lead to inconsistent decisions on citizenship claims by USCIS and the Department of State and can cause confusion as to the date children of U.S. service members and government employees stationed abroad become U.S. citizens.”

This legislation has three bipartisan Senate cosponsors, including two Republicans and one Democrat. Its House companion, sponsored by Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY), has seven bipartisan House cosponsors, including four Democrats and three Republicans.


Of Note: Under previous presidential administrations of both parties, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) considered children of members of the U.S. Armed Services and employees of the U.S. government stationed outside the U.S. as “residing in the United States” for the purpose of automatically receiving citizenship under Section 320 of the INA. However, in August 2019, USCIS announced plans to change this policy, ending automatic citizenship for certain children of U.S. servicemembers and civil servants working for and residing outside the U.S. 

This policy, which targets the “derivation process,” would force some affected Americans to navigate a complex bureaucratic process without a guarantee of their child receiving citizenship at an application fee of $1,170 per child. The derivation process is a fast-track to citizenship for children of U.S. citizens, and it allows children to fulfill a residency requirement by living in a home abroad with their U.S. citizen parents. Under the rule change, this option would be eliminated, and children would have to fulfill their residency requirement on U.S. soil before turning 18. Additionally, their parents would have to complete a citizenship application for affected children (which would have to be processed) before the child’s 18th birthday.

When this policy was announced, Sen. Duckworth send USCIS and the U.S. of Homeland Security (DHS) a letter demanding that both agencies quickly rescind this policy update. She wrote: 

“This [change] represents the worst type of policy: it is confusing, cynical, unnecessary and unfair. Worst of all, this policy update harms our national interest and disrespects the service of certain U.S. servicemembers and civil servants. If even one active duty U.S. servicemember deployed overseas is forced to spend $1,170 to ‘prove’ their child is worthy of U.S. citizenship, that is one too many.”

Rep. Val Demings (D-FL) also criticized the policy change. She argued that it opened the door to ending birthright citizenship: 

“This move by the administration will make it harder for Americans serving our country overseas to have families. This also appears to be an initial step towards ending birthright citizenship, something which the president has threatened to do—and which would be unconstitutional."

The policy change took effect on October 29, 2019 and is only expected to affect 20-25 people each year.


Media:

Summary by Lorelei Yang

(Photo Credit: iStockphoto.com / FatCamera)