Twitter Called Out A Trump Policy On Citizenship With A Heated Hashtag

In 2019, there's no better place to air your frustrations than on social media. On Thursday, Aug. 29, a hashtag surfaced on Twitter calling out the Trump administration for yet another controversial policy. Just take a look at these tweets about Trump and military families and see for yourself.

On Aug. 29, the hashtag #TrumpHatesMilitaryFamilies surfaced on Twitter, which blasted the Trump administration over a policy change that takes away automatic American citizenship from children whose non-U.S. citizen parents are currently serving in the U.S. government and military overseas. Currently, individuals who are serving in the military abroad, but are not U.S.-born citizens, are still considered to be residing in the United States, and therefore any of their children who are born while they are residing abroad are eligible for automatic citizenship under the United States' jus soli citizenship laws.

However, a new policy change from the Trump administration will require parents of children serving in the military or other government sectors to formally apply for U.S. citizenship on behalf of their children before they turn 18, per Newsweek. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced the change in a policy alert on Wednesday, Aug. 29. It is expected to take effect on Oct. 29. During a press call hosted by USCIS, officials said that this policy change will not impact birthright citizenship for residents. However, officials said, children who are adopted from overseas by U.S. citizens are not guaranteed automatic citizenship, as well as children of parents who were not citizens at the time of their children's birth, but have since been naturalized. Parents will now have to apply for their children's citizenship before the child turns 18; previously, if a parent gained citizenship and was living in the United States before a child turned 18, the child would also be granted citizenship.

Following news of this policy change, Twitter users immediately started calling out the Trump administration over the policy change, and penned a hashtag #TrumpHatesMilitaryFamilies that went viral over Twitter.

This new policy under the Trump administration represents yet another change that could impact military personnel. On April 12, a ban that prohibits transgender individuals from serving in the U.S. military took effect nationwide. However, the president has also made controversial remarks regarding military personnel and their families, which has caused an uproar among the public. While appearing at the Family Leadership Summit in Ames, Iowa in July 2015, Trump criticized former Sen. John McCain of Arizona, and claimed that he was not a war hero because he was captured. “He’s not a war hero,” Trump said. “He was a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured.” McCain served as a Navy pilot and spent nearly six years being tortured in a North Vietnamese prison called "Hanoi Hilton."

Some of the controversy surrounding Trump's comments toward the military focus on the fact that he never served himself. During the Vietnam War, the president avoided the draft five times, four times taking deferment on education grounds (he was still in college), and one time claiming a medical waiver for bone spurs in his feet.

This policy change could impact the lives of individuals across the United States, but judging by the reaction, I doubt this will be the last we hear of the controversial policy. Stay tuned everyone, because tensions are only heating up.