The American adoptees who fear deportation to a country they can’t remember

Shirley Chung was just one year old when she was adopted by an American family in 1966.

Shirley was born in South Korea, and her father was a member of the US Army and returned home shortly after Shirley was born. Because of her inability to adapt, her mother placed her in an orphanage in the South Korean capital, Seoul.

“He abandoned us, that’s the best way I can put it,” says Shirley, now 61.

About a year later, Shirley was adopted by an American couple, who brought her back to Texas.

Shirley grew up living a life similar to that of many young Americans. I went to school, got my driver’s license, and worked as a waiter.

“I moved, breathed, and got into trouble like many American teenagers in the ’80s,” Shirley says. “I’m an ’80s kid.”

Shirley had children, married, and became a piano teacher. Life went on for decades without any reason to doubt its American identity.

But in 2012, her world collapsed.

She lost her Social Security card and needs a replacement. But when she went to her local Social Security office, Shirley was told she needed to prove her status in the country. In the end, she discovered that she did not have American citizenship.

“I had a small mental breakdown after I discovered that I was not a citizen,” she says.

Shirley is not alone. Estimates of the number of American adoptees who lack citizenship Ranging from 18,000 to 75,000. Some intercountry adoptees may not know that they lack U.S. citizenship.

Dozens of adoptees have been deported to their countries of birth in recent years, according to the Adopte Rights Law Center. A man born in South Korea and adopted by an American family as a child — only to be deported to his country of birth due to a criminal record — committed suicide in 2017.

The reasons why many adoptees in the United States do not have citizenship are varied. Shirley blames her parents for failing to complete the correct paperwork when she came to the United States. She also blames the school system and the government for not highlighting that she does not have citizenship.

“I blame all the adults in my life who dropped the ball and said, ‘She’s here in America now, and she’ll be fine.’

“Well, am I? Will I be okay?”

Another woman, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of drawing the attention of the authorities, was adopted by an American couple from Iran in 1973 when she was two years old.

Growing up in the American Midwest, she faced some racism, but generally had a happy upbringing.

“I settled into my life, always knowing that I was an American citizen. That’s what I was told. And I still believe that today,” she says.

But that changed when she tried to obtain a passport at age 38 and discovered that immigration authorities had lost important documents supporting her claim to citizenship.

This complicated her feelings surrounding identity.

“I personally do not classify myself as an immigrant,” she says. “I did not come here as an immigrant with a second language, a different culture, family members, or ties to the country I was born in… My culture has been erased.”

“You’re told that you have these rights as an American — to vote and participate in democracy, to work, to go to school, to raise your family, to have freedoms — all of these things that Americans have.

“Then suddenly they started pushing us into the immigrant category, simply because they blocked us from legislation. We should all have equal citizenship rights because that was promised through adoption policies.”

For decades, intercountry adoptions approved by courts and government agencies did not automatically guarantee U.S. citizenship. Adoptive parents sometimes failed to secure legal status or citizenship for their children.

The Child Citizenship Act 2000 made some progress in rectifying this, granting automatic citizenship to international adoptees. But the law only covers future adoptees or those born after February 1983. Those who arrived before then were not granted citizenship, leaving tens of thousands in limbo.

Supporters have been lobbying Congress to remove the age limit, but those bills failed to pass the House.

Some, like Debbie Principe, whose two adopted children have special needs, have spent decades trying to secure citizenship for their families.

She adopted two children from a Romanian orphanage in the 1990s after watching them on Shame of the Nation – a documentary about the neglect of children in orphanages in the wake of the 1989 Romanian Revolution, which sent shockwaves around the world when it was broadcast.

The most recent citizenship denial came in May, she said, and was followed by a notice stating that if the decision was not appealed within 30 days, she would have to turn her daughter over to the Department of Homeland Security.

“We will be lucky if they are not arrested and deported to another country that is not even their country of origin,” Princip said.

These concerns about adoptees and their families have increased since President Donald Trump returned to the White House, with his pledge to “immediately remove all aliens who enter or remain in violation of federal law.”

Last month, the Trump administration said that “two million illegal aliens left the United States in less than 250 days, including an estimated 1.6 million who voluntarily deported themselves and more than 400,000 who were deported.”

While many Americans support deporting illegal immigrants, there is uproar over some incidents.

In one case, the United States deported 238 Venezuelans to a maximum security prison in El Salvador. They were accused of being members of the Tren de Aragua gang Although most of them do not have criminal records.

Last month, US officials arrested 475 people – more than 300 of them South Korean citizens – who they said were working illegally at Hyundai’s battery facility, one of Georgia’s largest foreign investment projects. The workers were taken in handcuffs and chains to be detainedWhich sparked massive anger in their homeland.

Adopte rights groups say they have received a flood of requests for help since Trump’s return, and some adoptees have gone into hiding.

“When the election results came back, the requests for help really started pouring in,” said Greg Luce, attorney and founder of the Adopte Rights Law Center, adding that he had received more than 275 requests for help.

The adoptee, who arrived from Iran in the 1970s, said she began avoiding certain areas, such as the local Iranian supermarket, and shared an app with her friends so they could always access her location, in case she was “overrun.”

“At the end of the day, they don’t care about your back story. They don’t care that you’re here legally and it’s just a mistake on the paperwork. I always tell people this one piece of paper just ruined my life,” she said.

“For me now, I feel stateless.”

The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to a request for comment.

Despite adoptees being left in limbo for decades, Emily Howe, a civil and human rights attorney who has worked with adoptees across the United States, believes it’s just a case of political will that should unite people from across the political spectrum.

“The solution should be clear and straightforward: adopted children should be on par with their biological siblings of their parents who were US citizens at the time of birth,” Ms. Howe said.

She added: “The applicants have two, three or four parents who are US citizens, and are now in their 40s, 50s and 60s. We are talking about infants and young children who were shipped abroad through no fault of their own and were legally accepted under US policy.”

“These are people who were literally promised they would become Americans when they were two years old.”

Shirley wishes she could get the US president into a room, so she and others like her could explain their stories.

“I ask him to have some compassion. We are not illegal aliens,” she said.

“We were put on planes as little children. Just please listen to our story and please fulfill the promise America gave to every one of the children who boarded those planes: American citizenship.”