Adoptee Citizenship Act of 2021 introduced in Congress
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 4, 2021
Contact: Katelyn Hemmeke, (872) 302-4890, khemmeke@hanacenter.org
CHICAGO, Illinois — On March 4, 2021, the Adoptee Citizenship Act (ACA) of 2021, H.R. 1593, was introduced in the U.S. House and Senate. Now is the time for our Korean American, immigrant, and adoptee communities and allies to mobilize and make sure that Congress passes the ACA in 2021, granting retroactive citizenship to all intercountry adoptees.
Out of the 500,000 foreign-born, legally adopted individuals who have been brought to the U.S. since the 1940s, thousands were not naturalized and thus left without citizenship, including an estimated 18,603 Korean American adoptees. If passed, the Adoptee Citizenship Act will grant retroactive citizenship to all intercountry adoptees regardless of their age or when they were adopted. It will also create a pathway for adoptees who have been deported to return to the U.S.
Korean adoptee filmmaker Tammy Chu made this powerful short documentary titled “We Are American,” highlighting the precarious situations and struggles of adoptees without citizenship and the critical need to pass the Adoptee Citizenship Act. Emily Warnecke, whose story is featured in the film, is a Korean American adoptee without citizenship and a member of HANA Center’s partner organization Adoptees For Justice. Emily shared:
“I grew up believing I was a U.S. citizen, and worked and paid taxes for decades. I only found out that I am not a citizen when the U.S. government tried to deport me, which was a very traumatic experience. I am disabled now and unable to work, but don’t qualify to receive unemployment insurance or disability benefits, so I am barely able to make ends meet. I live with the fear of being separated from my family, my home, and my country—the only one I have ever known. I pray every day for a solution to help all intercountry adoptees who are in the state of limbo I am in, without citizenship.”
Intercountry adoptees should have the full rights of U.S. citizenship, like their U.S. citizen parents and siblings. Click the link below to sign and send a letter directly to your Senators and Representative urging Congress to pass the Adoptee Citizenship Act now.