The National Alliance for Adoptee Citizenship, a coalition of advocates for the passage of the Adoptee Citizenship Act of 2019, co-led by KAGC, started an online petition campaign to collect signatures to urge support for the bill from members of Congress. Over the first month, a total of 97 signatures have been collected from supporters in 63 congressional districts across 28 states.
On May 6th, NAAE sent its first round of letters with the supporters’ signatures to 63 members of the House to urge support for the Adoptee Citizenship Act. NAAE plans to send a message of appreciation on behalf of signatories, if they reside in a district represented by a member who has already co-sponsored the Adoptee Citizenship Act. The petition is poised to continue through the end of this Congress, with the letters planned to be sent on a regular basis to members of both the House and the Senate. NAAE has also organized a group of volunteers who will be making phone calls and in-person visits to further raise awareness of the bill and advocate for its support among members of Congress.
Estimates hold that as many as 49,000 adoptees, born overseas and adopted as children by American parents, lack citizenship and live a life in jeopardy of deportation.
The naturalization part of the intercountry adoption process has been complex and lengthy, which is why the Child Citizenship Act was passed in 2000 to retroactively and automatically grant citizenship to the impacted population. However, at the last minute, an age limit was introduced to limit the eligibility to those under the age of 18 at the time of enactment. This led to this large group of those who fell through the loophole, who are now at least 36 years old.
The Adoptee Citizenship Act of 2019 (H.R.2731 / S.1554) was introduced to close this loophole and present a permanent, legislative solution to the intercountry adoptees suffering from the inequality in citizenship. Although there has been a similar legislative effort in Congress since 2001, the crisis unfortunately continues to date. In order to bring a permanent, legislative solution to reality, the National Alliance for Adoptee Citizenship was formed in 2019 with the leadership of the Korean American Grassroots Conference, Adoptee Rights Campaign, and Holt International.