Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) and Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) have introduced the Citizenship for International Adoptees (CIA) act, ostensibly to help international adoptees not covered by the Child Citizenship Act (CCA) of 2000 to acquire U.S. citizenship.

When children arrive as immigrants in the U.S. from other countries for the purpose of adoption, they depend on their adoptive parents to get them citizenship. For a variety of reasons, some parents did not get the paperwork done. The Child Citizenship Act of 2000 provided automatic citizenship for internationally adopted children under 18; older adoptees were not included.

Some of those adoptees, who are now full-grown adults, even grandparents, don’t know they aren’t citizens. They may assume they are. Some find out they are not citizens when they apply for jobs, a passport , a security clearance, or other situation. Many non-citizen adoptees live in fear of not being able to get their government benefits such as Medicare and Social Security, and of being arrested and/or deported. Some find out about their status when they commit a crime, and those folks can then be subject to deportation. International adoptees have been deported as result of not being citizens, if they commit certain crimes, and even after they save their sentences.

If we are to have any defensible ethical position about international adoption, all international adoptees should be considered full family members, just like biological children. Adoptees are not “less than” or “not quite.” They should not be subject to deportation when the failure to acquire citizenship was not theirs–they arrived here as children. It was the responsibility of the adoptive parents to get them U.S. citizenship. There is currently no easy path for adult adoptees not covered by the CCA to get citizenship.

To my mind, the CIA bill has two major flaws.

• The legislation will still allow international adoptees to be deported.

• The legislation does not help deported international adoptees to return to the U.S.

To the first point: international adoptees (who could be in their 30’s, 40’s, 80’s) could be subject to deportation.

Sen. Lee’s press release acknowledges this: “Specifically, the bill instructs the Secretary of Homeland Security to issue a certificate of citizenship if adoptees establish through an application that their adoption was lawfully completed, that they resided in the legal physical custody of their U.S. citizen adoptive parents, that they have not committed serious criminal offenses, and that they meet other standard criteria under the INA.”

Here’s some additional important information. According to the Adoptee Rights Law Center, the CIA bill “sets up at least fifteen separate criminal or moral categories as tools to test qualifications for citizenship; institutes U.S. immigration law’s far-reaching “good moral character” inquiry; includes a clause related to criminal gangs, and requires comprehensive criminal background checks—all with no limitation as to how far back immigration officials can search to find something to disqualify you (the adoptee).”

That’s quite a high standard that adoptees have to meet.

Imagine a family with both biological and adopted children. The non-adopted sibling who committed those offenses would not be deported, yet the international adoptee would, even after having served their sentence. 

How are the supporters of this bill justifying this?

And how are they supporting legislation that does not provide a path back to the U.S. for international adoptees who have been deported?

Relatively speaking, the number of deported international adoptees is small, though global. They served their time in terms of whatever crime they committed. One has died by violence in Brazil; one had died by suicide in Korea. Many are deeply lonely and struggling mightily, having been sent back to a country where they have no family, don’t speak the language, and have great difficulty finding work.

Deportation is something that should never happen to international adoptees–unless you believe that these adoptees were never really part of their families.

Is that what the supporters of this CIA bill believe?

Sen. Lee notes that the National Council for Adoption supports this bill. He also names the Barker Adoption Foundation and Holt International among the adoption agencies endorsing the bill.

My children (all adults now) were adopted through Barker. I am puzzled to see that NCFA, Barker, and Holt support legislation that would still deport international adoptees, and that would not allow deported adoptees to return.

Do these agencies not believe adoptees are full members of their adoptive families? Are they okay with adoptees, whom the agencies placed with U.S. families, being deported, because the adoptees did not obtain citizenship through no fault of their own?

The United States has adopted the most children internationally, and is the only country that deports international adoptees.

I am puzzled by the support of adoption agencies for this bill, which is harmful to adoptees. I will continue to try to figure this out, and will write more soon. If anyone has any insight, please let me know.