Thousands of US adoptees at risk of deportation

(CLO) Thousands of foreign children have been brought to the US for adoptive families, but at that time many of them had unknown nationality, and now they are at risk of being deported.

Some adoptees are living in hiding, fearing that reporting them to the government could lead to deportation. Meanwhile, some have been deported.

A bill to support them has been introduced in Congress but has yet to pass. Supporters of the bill argue that its extreme view of immigration has blocked any effort to extend citizenship to everyone, even those legally adopted by American parents.

They are very fearful of what might happen if former President Donald Trump is re-elected because he has pledged to conduct large-scale immigration raids and detention camps.

The clothes of a child adopted from South Korea when he was only 5 months old. Photo: AP

The international adoption system arose out of the desperate need for children in the United States, in the wake of birth control and social change. Many of the adoptees came from South Korea, a country struggling to feed its own large population.

Adoption agencies have been quick to respond to the urgent need for newborns in the United States. But there are few guarantees that parents will be able to care for them and that they will gain citizenship.

International adoptions were carried out under a system for domestic adoptions. The state court issued the children new birth certificates with the names of the adoptive parents, with the intention of giving them all the privileges of biological children.

But state courts have no power to control immigration. After the lengthy and costly adoption process, parents are required to naturalize their adopted children, but some never do.

In 2000, the US Congress acknowledged this legal limbo for adoptees, and passed the Child Citizenship Act, which automatically grants citizenship to adopted children.

But the law only simplifies the process for adoptive parents, not for adoptees, and so only applies to those under 18. Anyone born before February 27, 1983, is excluded. An estimated 15,000 to 75,000 people are without citizenship.

There is no government mechanism for foster children to know whether they have been granted citizenship. They often find out by accident when they apply for passports or welfare benefits. One elderly woman learned this when she was denied Social Security, to which she had contributed all her life. If they ask the government about their status, they risk being reported as being here illegally.

Without securing U.S. citizenship, adoptees may be unable to find jobs or driver's licenses, and some are ineligible for government benefits such as financial aid and Social Security.

A woman named Joy Alessi was adopted from South Korea when she was 7 months old in 1967. As an adult, she learned that her parents never naturalized her and she lived in seclusion for decades. She finally became a naturalized citizen in 2019 at age 52. She said she was robbed of all the years of American citizenship she took for granted, like student loans.

Leah Elmquist served in the U.S. Navy for a decade, but she is not a citizen. She was adopted from South Korea as a baby in 1983, just six months too old to be eligible for citizenship under a 2000 law. She eventually became a naturalized citizen after a fraught immigration process that included taking a citizenship test.

Ngoc Anh (according to AP)

Source: https://www.congluan.vn/hang-nghin-nguoi-duoc-nhan-lam-con-nuoi-tai-my-co-nguy-co-bi-truc-xuat-post318574.html