Many places around the globe are celebrating Christmas today. Many deported international adoptees are “celebrating” alone without family or friends, far from home and the life they were promised when they were brought “home” to the U.S.

International adoptees have been deported because their adoptive parents (or adoption agencies or U.S. government agencies) failed to get them citizenship when they were children.

Thousands of international adoptees are estimated to be without citizenship, and some don’t even know that they are not citizens. Some find out when they commit a crime (and it can relatively minor) and are deported. Some proudly vote in local and federal elections, not knowing they are committing a felony. Some work hard all their lives and then find out they don’t qualify for Social Security or Medicare.

I do not understand why our U.S. Congress has not yet granted citizenship to all international adoptees. It is the humane, responsible, ethically right action to take, especially by those who are proponents of adoption.

Information is available at Adoptees for Justice and Adoptee Rights Law Center. I’ve written about this issue often, including recently here.

Please take action if you can, asking your U.S. elected federal officials to open their hearts and grant citizenship to all adoptees. Please send hope and resilience to the many adoptees who have been deported. May their loneliness end; may they be welcomed back (well before next Christmas) with family and friends in the U.S., the place that was supposed to be their forever home.