Adoptees Face Deportation Threat Due to Citizenship Gaps

Thousands of individuals adopted by U.S. families, some decades ago, are confronting potential deportation due to a lack of formal U.S. citizenship. Many of these adoptees, who have spent most or all of their lives in the United States, have only discovered their undocumented status when attempting to access services or obtain official documents. The issue stems from past adoption procedures and the limitations of the 2000 Child Citizenship Act, prompting concerns among affected individuals and advocacy organizations.

Background on Citizenship Gaps

Historically, intercountry adoptions approved by courts and government agencies did not automatically confer U.S. citizenship. This meant adoptive parents were often responsible for completing additional legal paperwork to naturalize their adopted children.

The Child Citizenship Act of 2000 aimed to address this by granting automatic citizenship to international adoptees upon their entry to the U.S. or upon the finalization of their adoption. However, this legislation applied only to future adoptees or those born after February 1983, leaving an estimated 18,000 to 75,000 individuals adopted prior to this cutoff date without automatic citizenship. Many of these adoptees remain unaware of their non-citizen status until adulthood.

Reasons for the lack of citizenship often include adoptive parents not completing the necessary naturalization paperwork or adoptees having entered the U.S. on visa types that did not automatically lead to citizenship without further action.

Joy Alessi of the Adoptee Rights Campaign noted that tourist visas were common for adoptions from countries without formal intercountry adoption systems at the time, and these visas often expired before state adoption proceedings concluded, requiring a formal adjustment to permanent residency.

Individual Cases Illustrate Challenges

Several cases vividly illustrate the dire situation faced by non-citizen adoptees.

Shirley Chung: A Decades-Long American Life at Risk

Shirley Chung, adopted from South Korea in 1966 at one year old, discovered she lacked U.S. citizenship in 2012 when applying for a replacement Social Security card. Her birth father was reportedly an American military member. She was raised in Texas, attended school, obtained a driver's license, worked, married, and raised children, believing she was a U.S. citizen. Ms. Chung, now in her 60s, has publicly appealed for assistance in securing citizenship for herself and others in similar situations.

Iranian Adoptee Faces Removal Proceedings

A woman adopted from Iran in 1973 at the age of two by an American couple recently received a letter from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) initiating removal proceedings. Now in her 50s and residing in California, she was raised in the U.S. Midwest. She entered the U.S. on a tourist visa. She discovered her non-citizen status at age 38 when she attempted to get a passport and was informed that critical documents supporting her citizenship claim were missing from immigration records.

She states she has no criminal record and believes her parents had completed the naturalization process, citing a local newspaper article and a document found among her late father's belongings that requested lost citizenship paperwork.

Her attorney, Emily Howe, characterized the situation as "epitomizing a broken system." The woman has expressed fear of deportation to Iran, citing her late father's U.S. military service during World War II, her Christian faith (Iran is ranked among the top 10 most dangerous countries for Christians by Open Doors), and having no family or Farsi language proficiency in Iran. Her case is scheduled before an immigration judge next month. Her father was described as a retired Air Force officer and World War II prisoner of war.

Other Tragic Outcomes

The Adoptee Rights Law Center has reported dozens of adoptees being deported to their birth countries in recent years. In one instance, a man adopted from South Korea was deported due to a criminal record in 2017 and subsequently died by suicide. Debbie Principe, who adopted two children with special needs from Romania in the 1990s, has spent decades seeking citizenship for them. Her most recent citizenship application for one child was rejected in May, followed by a notice requiring an appeal within 30 days or the child would be subject to surrender to Homeland Security.

Current Enforcement Environment and Advocacy Efforts

Concerns among non-citizen adoptees and their families have reportedly escalated amid an increased focus on immigration enforcement. The Adoptee Rights Law Center has noted a significant increase in requests for assistance, with attorney Greg Luce receiving over 275 requests. Some adoptees have reportedly taken measures to avoid potential encounters with authorities, such as the Iranian adoptee who avoids certain areas and shares her location with friends.

Broader enforcement actions cited include the deportation of 238 Venezuelans to El Salvador, accused of gang affiliation, with reports indicating most had no criminal records, and the detention of 475 individuals, including over 300 South Korean nationals, on allegations of illegal employment at a Hyundai facility in Georgia.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) declined to provide specific comment on individual cases without names. However, DHS stated that immigrants facing deportation "receive full due process and asylum seekers have their fear claims heard."

Legislative efforts to address gaps in the 2000 Child Citizenship Act, specifically a bill aimed at removing the age cut-off, have received bipartisan support but have not yet passed Congress. The bill's progress has reportedly been impacted by its association with broader immigration debates. Advocacy groups continue to push for these changes to grant automatic citizenship to all intercountry adoptees who arrived in the U.S. as minors.