Adoptee Citizenship Act

Floor Speech

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Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Mr. President, I rise today to speak about the Adoptee Citizenship Act, legislation that will secure citizenship for adopted children. I wish to thank Senator Coats for cosponsoring the bill with me, along with Senator Merkley, and Senator Gillibrand is also a cosponsor.

The Child Citizenship Act of 2000 guaranteed citizenship to most international adoptees. This was very important because sometimes children have been adopted, they come over to live in this country for years, and, in fact, for some reason--the paperwork wasn't filed--they do not actually have their citizenship. The problem with that law back in 2000 was that it did not apply to adoptees who were over 18 at the time the bill was passed. I am sure there were some reasons for that, but it really makes no sense because a kid who was 17 at the time and had been legally adopted was no different from a child who was 19 at the time who had been legally adopted.

What our bill does is very limited. It fixes that. The loophole denies some adult adoptees the right to citizenship even though they were legally adopted by U.S. citizens and raised in the United States. They are over 18, so they have for the most part lived in the United States for a very long period of time. In fact, they were over 18 back in the year 2000.

The bipartisan Adoptee Citizenship Act would fix this problem by giving citizenship to international adoptees--people who were legally adopted, who were 18 in the year 2000 or older--regardless of how old they were when the Child Citizenship Act passed. These adoptees grew up in American families, they went to American schools, they lead American lives, yet adopted children who are not covered by the Child Citizenship Act are not guaranteed citizenship. Because of their lack of citizenship, adoptees have been refused admission to college and turned down for jobs. This constant threat to the life they know is unjust, and this bill would simply ensure that international adoptees are recognized as the Americans they truly are.

The bill is especially important in my home State of Minnesota. Many people don't know this, but Minnesota actually has one of the highest rates of international adoption in the country. Minnesota families have opened their homes and their hearts to children from all over the world--from Vietnam, to Guatemala, to Nepal, to Haiti.

As cochair of the Congressional Coalition on Adoption, I have worked with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to support adoptive families and children. Our children--all kids--deserve so much more than a roof over their heads and a bed to sleep in. Each and every child deserves a loving home, a nurturing family, and a brighter future. That is what this bill is all about. It fixes something. It closes a loophole. It has bipartisan support. I ask my colleagues to consider voting for it. There is obviously a lot of interest from adoptees all across the country who have been living with this, through no fault of their own, for years and years and years.

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