Known popularly as the Adoptee Citizenship Act of 2015, the bill reportedly will close the gap left by the Adoptee Citizenship Act of 2000, which left thousands of older cross-country adoptees in the US without the protection of US citizenship (and newer ones with) because adoption agencies, adoptive parents and even INS/ICE in the past failed to comply or follow-through with US law when these adoption were finalized. S2275 will automatically grant US citizenship to all IA’s upon finalization, and their new families will not be required to apply for naturalization for their internationally adopted children.

Despite the myth of the “forever family,” currently older international adoptees are subject to deportation to their countries of origin for any reason the national security state deems appropriate. Jao Herbert, adopted as child from Brazil and reared in Wadswrotoh, Ohio, near Akron, for instance, was deported after he was convicted of a misdemeanor pot charge . Federal law left the judge no wiggle room. He was subsequently murdered outside his home in Campinas. Like other adoptee deportees he had no familial ties, or cultural and language skills left over from his country of origin. Strangers in a strange land. Continue Reading →