Claire Galofaro and Kim Tong-Hyung for the Associated Press report that the United States has brought hundreds of thousands of children from abroad to be adopted by American families. But along the way it left thousands of them without citizenship, through a bureaucratic loophole that the government hasn’t fixed. Some of these adoptees live in hiding, fearing that tipping off the government could prompt their removal back to the country the U.S. claimed to have rescued them from. Some have been deported. Read more.
A bill to help these adoptees was introduced in Congress is supported by a bipartisan coalition. But it has yet to pass. Advocates blame the contentious immigration debate for stalling any effort to extend citizenship to adoptees who are legally the children of American parents.
There is no government mechanism for alerting adoptees that their parents did not secure their citizenship. They usually find out by accident, when applying for passports or government benefits.
