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. 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.
