American Adoptees Face Deportation Fears Despite Lifelong Residency

Sat Nov 01 2025 01:09:08 GMT+0200 (Eastern European Standard Time)

A growing number of American adoptees are discovering they lack U.S. citizenship, igniting fears of deportation as immigration policies tighten under the current administration.

Many American adoptees, who believed they were U.S. citizens, are now facing the threat of deportation due to issues surrounding their legal status. Notably, laws have historically failed to guarantee citizenship for all intercountry adoptees, particularly those adopted before 2000. As fears increase under stricter immigration policies, affected individuals are urging for reform to secure their citizenship rights, emphasizing their lifelong ties to America.

Shirley Chung was just a year old when she was adopted by a US family in 1966, born in South Korea to a birth father in the American military. After being placed in an orphanage, she was brought to Texas, where she lived a typical American life, raising a family and becoming a piano teacher.

However, in 2012, her reality changed when she discovered that she did not have US citizenship. This shocking revelation led to an emotional breakdown and raised urgent questions about her status, reflecting a troubling reality for an estimated 18,000 to 75,000 American adoptees who similarly lack citizenship.

Many adoptees have been returned to their countries of origin due to complex legal issues, particularly those adopted before the Child Citizenship Act of 2000, which only granted automatic citizenship to adoptees adopted after February 1983. Advocates are pushing for legislation that would eliminate this age cutoff.

Shirley's experiences are echoed in stories from other adoptees, including a woman adopted from Iran who believed she was a citizen until her attempts to obtain a passport revealed lost immigration documents. This uncertainty has compounded for many since the return of stricter immigration policies under President Donald Trump, increasing fears of deportation amongst individuals who have lived their entire lives in the U.S.

Advocates for adoptee rights argue that this is a solvable issue that transcends party lines, insisting that all adopted children should be afforded the same rights as biological children of U.S. citizens. The political will is deemed necessary for reform that would secure citizenship for those who were promised it upon their arrival in America.

As concerns mount, adoptees like Shirley urge officials to remember their childhood identities as Americans and the promises made to their families decades ago. Shirley passionately calls for compassion, emphasizing that they are not illegal immigrants; rather, they were brought to this country as children with expectations of citizenship.