Toward the end of August, President Trump implemented a new policy that makes it more difficult for some children born to military workers abroad to get automatic citizenship. This has created a substantial amount of uproar and discontent among the military community. Many politicians are also encouraging President Trump to revoke this new policy and put back in place the original laws. Politically and socially, this goes to show a lot of what Trump’s priorities are in a time when Americans are begging for change on topics such as gun laws, civil rights and education reformation.
In a time when we have to fear getting gunned down at our local Walmart or drowning in student loan debt after college, many Americans are hoping that speaking out on social media and protesting in public can help influence change in Washington. Instead, our president chooses to create a new policy that makes it more complicated and difficult for children born outside of the U.S. to military and federal workers to get their U.S. citizenship at birth.
The new policy specifies that the groups of people that will be affected include children adopted by parents serving abroad, children born to parents who became U.S. citizens after they were born, parents who are U.S. citizens but have never lived here and recently naturalized citizens who haven’t yet met the requirements to transmit their citizenship to their children.
The fact that this number affects such a small amount of people makes it even more ridiculous and absurd. While President Trump is currently focusing on preparing himself for the 2020 election season, he also needs to invest time into making the necessary changes to our country and continue making improvements to our quality of life. Making policies that negatively affect Americans who are risking their lives to secure and protect our freedom is not the proper way to do that.
Politically, Trump is just showing Americans that his priority is making sure that we become extra strict on all kinds of immigration laws, regardless of any foreseeable negative impact. Socially, he is causing more divisions between Americans.
Now, it is not just his supporters versus his opposers, but rather the many groups of people that he has managed to pit against each other versus the ones that continue to praise him for his actions without realizing the gravity of the negative direction that he is leading our society. As United States Representative Joe Kennedy of Massachusetts tweeted, “Not even those willing to die for this nation are spared his hate.”
Britny Sanchez is a senior majoring in political science.