What is Happening with International Adoptees and the Citizenship Crisis?

What is Happening with International Adoptees and the Adoptee Citizenship Act?

What is the Adoptee Citizenship Act and what is happening with international adoptees and U.S. citizenship? What is being done to help them? We talk with Joy Alessi, Director of the Adoptee Rights Campaign and three adult adoptees that found out once they were adults that they were not citizens.

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Hit the Highlights

What do we mean by adoptees without citizenship
How do adoptees end up without citizenship?
A broad history of the issue
Adoptee Stories: Impact of lack of citizenship on people’s lives and families
- 3 stories of adoptees without citizenship (Adoptees may use alias or initials to tell their stories.
  
  Mike: Adopted from Colombia – share experience of being in the immigration system and how his status impacts his family.
  
  Bianca: Adopted from Yugoslavia/Macedonia – share experiences of being a mother whose family is vulnerable because of her stateless status. Her struggles to secure a driver’s license.
  
  Leah: Adopted from South Korea. Enlisted in the Navy and will share her personal story about serving her country and living without citizenship.
- How does it feel to have no citizenship in the country you know as home?
- Fear of deportation?
- How does not having citizenship affect their everyday life?
Do only adoptees who have broken the law have to worry about this issue?
Adoptee Citizenship Act: What would it do and where does it stand.
Call to action
- Ask your House representative and Senators to co-sponsor the Adoptee Citizenship Act
- Donate to the Adoptee Rights Campaign https://adopteerightscampaign.org/
- Follow Adoptee Rights Campaign on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram and share their messages widely!!