After initially reporting that new guidelines could potentially deny “birthright citizenship” to the children of American military members abroad, NBC followed up with a major correction.

Initial reports on the new policy from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services focused almost entirely on one line from the guidance, namely that the Department of Homeland Security “no longer considers children of U.S. government employees and U.S. armed forces members residing outside the United States as ‘residing in the United States’ for purposes of acquiring citizenship.”

Today USCIS issued guidance that DHS “no longer considers children of U.S. government employees and U.S. armed forces members residing outside the United States as ‘residing in the United States’ for purposes of acquiring citizenship” —https://t.co/IRNR21Qm4P — Tal Kopan (@TalKopan) August 28, 2019

After a more careful reading of the policy, however, NBC’s Ken Dilanian offered a correction noting that the policy would apply to children adopted by American military and government employees overseas. (RELATED: Trump Lawyer Demands MSNBC ‘Immediately’ Retract Report That Russians Backed Trump Loans)

Correction: Experts who have looked at new USCIS policy say it applies if a service member adopts a child overseas, but children born to service members on deployment would still automatically get citizenship. I deleted tweets with the incorrect info. https://t.co/xeu8I3zrkJ — Ken Dilanian (@KenDilanianNBC) August 28, 2019

Snopes reported that an additional correction from NBC noted that the policy would also apply to children of non-citizens who later became naturalized.

The new rules apply to children who were not born as citizens — such as those who were born to non-citizens and later adopted by U.S. citizens serving abroad, or in cases where parents who were not citizens at the time of the child’s birth but were later naturalized.

Even former Vice President Joe Biden jumped on the initial reporting, calling the move “reprehensible and cruel.”

Our military families sacrifice everything in service to our nation. And today, the Trump Administration revoked automatic citizenship for some of their children. It’s reprehensible and cruel. As president, I’ll reverse it immediately. https://t.co/WgizSndgMF — Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) August 29, 2019

USCIS acting Director Ken Cuccinelli also gave a statement clarifying the impact of the policy, noting that even those children who were affected still had a legal path to citizenship — it just required different paperwork.

(2/3) The policy update doesn’t deny citizenship to the children of US gov employees or members of the military born abroad. This policy aligns USCIS’ process with the Department of State’s procedures for these children – that’s it. Period. Background in next tweet… — USCIS Acting Director Ken Cuccinelli (@USCISCuccinelli) August 28, 2019