In advance of this week’s graduation of the 4th Permanency and Adoption Competency Certificate (PACC) cohort, former Stability, Permanency and Adoption Coordinator JaeRan Kim guest blogs on the impact of newly introduced adoption legislation. JaeRan is currently Assistant Professor at the University of Washington – Tacoma in the social work program.
Until the passage of the Child Citizenship Act of 2000 (CCA), all children adopted to the U.S. via intercountry adoption had to go through the naturalization process in order to obtain their citizenship. The CCA allowed intercountry adopted children to become automatic U.S. citizens; however the legislation only covered children aged 18 or younger at the time the legislation was enacted.
This meant that many adults who were adopted via intercountry adoption and whose parents did not follow through with obtaining their citizenship were left vulnerable. Most intercountry adopted persons and their adoptive parents did not realize the consequences of not obtaining citizenship for the intercountry-adopted child. In South Korea alone, thousands of adoptive parents of children did not obtain citizenship for their child, which means these children were technically stateless.
Most intercountry-adopted adults who did not receive citizenship as a child, either through becoming naturalized or via the CCA, do not realize they do not have citizenship until they attempt to apply for a passport or other official identification, or if they run into trouble with the law. Over the past twenty years, several intercountry-adopted adults have been detained and deported to their birth country, with some tragic results. One adoptee from Brazil was murdered shortly after being deported. Some have become homeless in their birth countries. Most have lost their language, have no family or connections, and no ability to obtain employment.
Keeping in mind that intercountry adoptees were promised a family and citizenship by their adoptive parents and the United States, S 2275, the Adoptee Citizenship Act, has been introduced by a bipartisan team led by Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and co-authored by Senators Dan Coates (R-IN) and Jeff Merkley (D-OR). The Adoptee Citizenship Act gives retroactive citizenship to all international adoptees, even those adopted prior to the 2000 CCA. S 2275 also provides a clear pathway for those adoptees who were deported, and who have served their time or resolved the issues that led to their deportation, back to the U.S.
You can go to this website to read the bill and learn more about this legislation.
JaeRan Kim, PhD, LISW