Why would Donald Trump put forth this terrible and unfair policy discriminating to children born to military families?

Where is Senator Ted Cruz?  He was born in Canada in a Canadian hospital and his birth was paid for by the Canadian health care system.  He should lead the opposition to this terrible policy primarily because his esteemed colleague the late Senator John McCain would have been subject to this unfair, cruel and totally unnecessary policy.  Americans must kick Donald Trump out of the Oval Office where he is directing horrific policies that are harming our citizens. Children have no control whatsoever about where they are born!  Moreover, military families have zero influence about where their spouses will receive orders to be stationed.

Opinion- Children of U.S. troops born overseas must now apply to become citizens? That's ridiculous!

Echo by E.J. Montini published in the Arizona Republic

The Trump administration has decided that children born to U.S. service members and government employees stationed overseas will no longer be automatically considered citizens of the United States.

Can you imagine anything more ridiculous? Sure.

But this is right up there among the most ridiculous and cruel.

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) made the announcement Wednesday, saying that children born to service members and other government employees at military hospitals and other locales outside the country will no longer automatically be considered U.S. citizens. Instead, their parents will have to apply for naturalization.

Senator John McCain, US Navy veteran and presidential candidate (1936-2018)- born in Panama, while his father was serving in the US Military.

Arizona is home to thousands of full-time and part-time military personnel, many of whom eventually serve overseas.
Not only would this new citizenship rule be an unnecessary hassle for individuals serving their country, but it may have the effect of preventing the children of government employees and military personnel from becoming president of the United States, depending upon how the Constitution is interpreted.

Still citizens, but with limits?

The founders, under Article II, Section 1, said that in order to be president a person had to be 35 years old, to have lived in the U.S. for at least 14 years, and be a “natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution.”

Since there are no longer any naturalized citizens who were around at the time of the adoption of the Constitution, military kids could be out.

If this rule were to have applied in 1936, a future U.S. senator named John McCain, who was born in the Panama Canal Zone, might not have been eligible to run for president.

At least one member of Arizona's congressional delegation, himself a veteran, noticed this. Tweeting:

FYI under this situation Senator John McCain would not have been eligible to run for President. https://twitter.com/jaketapper/status/1166815383959085056 …

This, of course, makes no sense.

I know, not shocking.

What would be shocking is if Congress didn’t step in and figure out a solution.  Either that, or limiting the citizenship rights the children of those who serve could become U.S. policy.

Reach Montini at ed.montini@arizonarepublic.com.