What is the Adoptee Citizenship Act of 2021?
The Adoptee Citizenship Act of 2021 (ACA or ACA21) is currently pending in the U.S. Congress. HR1593 and S967 would, if passed, amend U.S. immigration law to repeal a loophole that has operated to deny automatic U.S. citizenship to thousands of intercountry adoptees who were adopted by U.S. citizen parents, some more than sixty years ago. While most people presume that children adopted by U.S. citizen parents receive automatic U.S. citizenship when they are adopted, this is not true for many intercountry adoptees. Many are now adults and do not have U.S. citizenship.
U.S. law currently excludes older intercountry adoptees—those born prior to March 1983—from obtaining automatic citizenship upon their adoption and must typically go through a long and expensive immigration process to naturalize as U.S. citizens. As adults now, they are essentially stateless, are considered immigrants, and are subject to deportation at any time given the current political climate surrounding immigration in the United States.
We must demand passage of the Adoptee Citizenship Act.
UPDATE:
On February 4, 2022 the Adoptee Citizenship Act of 2021 passed in the U.S. House of Representatives as an amendment to the America COMPETES Act of 2022. Many amendments were added to the America COMPETES Act of 2022. While not in its original form, the amendment, essentially, will have the same effect. The Senate Version of the America COMPETES Act of 2022 has already passed. Since the House version now differs; a conference committee will now be appointed to work on any differences. You can read Adoptees For Justice‘s statement here. Additionally, Gregory Luce, founder of Adoptee Rights Law Center, has created a FAQ that explains in lay terms, what it all means, what and whom the “act” includes and what we can expect next.
The amendment reads as follows:
SEC. 80306. CITIZENSHIP FOR CERTAIN CHILDREN BORN OUTSIDE THE UNITED STATES.
(a) IN GENERAL.—Section 104 of the Child Citizenship Act of 2000 (8 U.S. C. 1431 note) is amended to read as follows:
‘‘SEC. 104. EFFECTIVE DATE.
‘‘The amendments made by this title shall take effect 120 days after the date of the enactment of this Act and shall apply—
‘‘(1) to individuals who satisfy the requirements of section 320 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1431), before, on, or after the date of the enactment of this Act; and
‘(2) to individuals who satisfy the requirements of section 322 (8 U.S.C. 1433) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, as in effect on such effective date.’’.
(b) EFFECTIVE DATE.—
(1) IN GENERAL.—The amendments made by this section shall take effect on the date of the enactment of this section
(2) LIMITATION.—An individual who, before the date of the enactment of the Child Citizenship Act of 2000 (Public Law 106-395), satisfied the requirements of section 320(a) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1431(a)), or section 320(b) of such Act, if applicable, is deemed to be a citizen of the United States as of the date of the enactment of this section if such individual is not a citizen of the United States under any other Act.
UPDATE as of 12/29/22:
Efforts to add a stripped-down version of the Adoptee Citizenship Act to a larger Congressional bill failed.
More Information and What You Can Do to Help Those Adopted but Denied Citizenship
Introduced March 25, 2021, the legislation would provide for the automatic acquisition of United States citizenship for certain internationally adopted individuals, and for other purposes. Currently New York House Representatives, John Katko (R-Ny-24) and Sean Patrick Maloney ( D-NY-18) are signed as co-sponsors.