Debbie and Paul live in California. In the 1990s, they watched a television show about the plight of special-needs children in Romania. They didn’t learn to read. There wasn’t enough food.
The couple already had three children. But Debbie couldn’t stop thinking about those kids. They refinanced their house to bring home a boy and a girl.
But that wasn’t the end of these children’s troubles. For decades, adoption did not automatically make children citizens. Paul and Debbie, who use only first names to protect their adopted children, have been trying to make them U.S. citizens for years. They consulted with dozens of lawyers. Between the law, the visas they used, and the way birth certificates were written, they still haven’t been able to sort out the mess.
Thousands of children adopted from abroad by American parents never received citizenship. Some adoptees can’t get jobs, driver’s licenses, or passports. Some have been deported to countries that they can’t remember and where they don’t speak the language.
No one knows how many of them there are. Estimates range from 15,000 to 75,000.
The international adoption industry grew out of the wreckage of the Korean War in the 1950s. Americans wanted babies. South Korea struggled to feed many needy infants.
The system focused on moving children to new homes abroad as quickly as possible. South Korea’s government tried to speed up the process. That included relaxing the obligation of agencies to ensure citizenship for adoptees. That model spread around the world.
Some adoptees can fix their status through the naturalization process. They have to join the line as though they’d just arrived. It can take years and thousands of dollars.
But for others, there is no clear solution. The difference has to do with the visa their adoptive parents brought them in on. Many chose the fastest route—like a temporary tourist or medical visa—not imagining complications down the road. Some children entered on adoption visas but were never officially adopted.
The United States had wedged foreign adoptions into a system created for domestic ones. State courts give adopted children new birth certificates that list their adoptive parents’ names, purporting to give them all the privileges of biological children.
But state courts have no control over immigration. After adoption, parents were supposed to naturalize their adopted children. Some never did—either from negligence or lack of understanding of the requirements and steps to follow.
In 2000, Congress passed the Child Citizenship Act. It confers automatic citizenship to adopted children. It was designed to streamline the process for adoptive parents. But it applied only to those younger than 18 when it took effect. Anyone born before February 27, 1983, was not included.
Other bills offering paths to citizenship over the years have come before Congress. But so far, lawmakers haven’t agreed to pass one.
Paul and Debbie’s children both have physical and cognitive impairments. Their son, 43, doesn’t understand the situation he’s in. But their daughter, 46, understands.
“I want to be a citizen really bad,” their daughter says. “I want to be here for a long, long time.”
They’ve called their legislators. Debbie weeps. “My adopted children deserve all the privileges of my birth children. They are no different in our eyes. Why are you looking at them differently?”
All believers are adopted into God’s family. We receive citizenship in heaven. (Philippians 3:20) Unlike the U.S. system, there are no loopholes there.
Pray for adoptees and families who are caught in difficult situations. Ask God to give lawmakers wisdom to fix these problems.
Why? Adoption is supposed to give children all the rights and privileges of biological children. When international adoptees can’t get the citizenship they should have received, that shows breakdowns somewhere in the system.
Recommended Reading: For more about orphans and the importance of adoption, read Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery.
