Please help Mike Davis, adopted from Ethiopia in 1972 by a U.S. Army officer, return to the United States. Mike is now 60 years old, living thousands of miles from his family (including grandchildren he has never met), and dealing with medical and dental issues. His GoFundMe will help improve his health, which is important for him as an older person, but, even more importantly, will raise funds for a legal resolution to getting him U.S. citizenship and bringing him back home.
Mike was deported to Ethiopia from the United States in 2005. In the mid-1990’s, he discovered that his citizenship had not been processed correctly. He got in some legal trouble, served his time, and was then deported. The U.S. allows international adoptees, here with the legal approval and oversight of both the sending country and the United States, to be deported if they cannot prove citizenship. For almost 20 years, Mike has lived in Ethiopia, a place where, when he arrived, he had no friends, could not speak the language, and had no way to make a living. In the U.S., he’d run several successful small businesses, married, and was supporting his family.
Mike hopes that this fundraiser will help with legal representation of his case, so that he can return to America, which he considers his home: where he grew up on Army bases with his dad, where he set up businesses, where his wife, children, and grandchildren are.
I have been friends with Mike for several years now. We talk occasionally on WhatsApp, and keep up to date on Messenger. He is one of the writers in our book Lions Roaring Far from Home: An Anthology by Ethiopian Adoptees. Mike is a good, kind, humble person who has held on to his faith and his hope through all the hard years.
I am grateful to the Ethiopian adoptee community in Addis who have befriended him, to the adoptees who have offered him their support, and to the adoptive families and others who have visited him in Ethiopia and brought him medicines, candy, and the balm of their time and interest. Deep gratitude to those of you who have donated so far to his GoFundMe.
I have no doubts the loneliness and isolation have challenged him, but Mike does not complain. He’s had no legal trouble for decades. He’s among the oldest of Ethiopian adoptees, and, I believe, deserves to spend his later years among his family and friends here in the United States.
Please donate whatever you can to Mike’s GoFundMe. Your support is deeply appreciated, and will go primarily to Mike’s legal representation. A small part will go to help pay for a needed root canal and other dental work as well.
Please also share this GoFundMe, and help bring a good man home.