Standing Up for International Adoptees’ Rights
AI Rendering
At Adoptee Advocates of Michigan, We stand in unwavering solidarity with international adoptees impacted by a system that fails to recognize and uphold their fundamental rights—one that strips them of their identity, and in some cases, their rightful place in this country.
As children, international adoptees are brought to the United States with the promise of a better life. Too young to understand borders or legal systems, they trust the narrative: they are chosen, brought here to belong, to be part of a family. But for far too many, that promise came at an unimaginable cost.
Through the process of international adoption, these individuals can lose much more than their birth country, language, and culture. They lose fundamental human rights, rights that should be protected under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) is an international treaty adopted in 1989 that outlines the civil, political, economic, social, health, and cultural rights of children. These include the right to know their origins, to preserve their identity, and to grow up in an environment that respects their heritage. Almost every UN member country has ratified it—196 countries total. The United States is the only UN member state that has signed but not ratified the UNCRC.
The injustice deepened in 2001, when the Child Citizenship Act was passed. While the law granted automatic U.S. citizenship to certain foreign-born adoptees, it did not apply retroactively. This oversight left countless adoptees brought to the U.S. before 2001 without citizenship. For many, this reality only became clear when applying for college, a job, or a passport. Some found out when they were detained by immigration authorities, while others were even deported to countries they don’t remember, where they have no ties or support systems.
This isn’t just an issue of legal oversight, it’s a betrayal of trust. These children were promised family, stability, and security. Instead, they’ve faced the harsh reality that their place in the U.S. was never guaranteed. They were told they were “one of us,” only to discover that they were excluded from the very protections and rights granted to those born here. Their stories are not footnotes in a policy document, they are living, breathing reminders of what happens when systems fail children.
International adoptees do not ask for pity, they demand accountability. They want the recognition, the justice, and the citizenship that should have been theirs from the start. We stand with them in their fight for their rights.
Congress has introduced the Protect Adoptees and American Families Act, also known as the Adoptee Citizenship Act of 2025, continuing the decades-long fight to secure U.S. citizenship for all people adopted into American families. The bill was introduced in the House on September 18, 2025, by Representatives Adam Smith and Don Bacon, and in the Senate on September 19, 2025, by Senators Mazie Hirono and Susan Collins.
Thousands of adoptees brought to the U.S. as children still live without citizenship. Contact your members of Congress today and urge them to support this crucial legislation. Every adoptee deserves citizenship.
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