[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 57 (Wednesday, April 9, 2003)]
[Senate]
[Page S5069]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Ms. LANDRIEU:
  S. 834. A bill for the relief of Tanya Andrea Goudeau; to the 
Committee on the Judiciary.
  Ms. LANDRIEU. Mr. President, I rise today to offer a private bill on 
behalf of Tanya Andrea Goudeau and her family to grant Tanya immediate 
relative status. The Goudeaus adopted Tanya in 2001, but due to 
misinformation and an undue delay in the adoption process, the adoption 
was not completed until a week after Tanya's 16th birthday. As a 
result, Tanya was no longer considered a child under the law and 
therefore was not eligible to receive permanent resident status. 
Currently, Tanya faces deportation to Sri Lanka where she no longer has 
a family to care for her. What is more, she is now legally a part of 
the Goudeau family. Tanya is the Goudeau's daughter and they are her 
parents.
  Tanya Goudeau was born to Mrs. Goudeau's sister in 1984 in Sri Lanka. 
During a visit with the Goudeaus in 1999 at their home in Baker, LA, 
Tanya's mother announced that she was moving and that she did not want 
any further contact with her daughter. Tanya's father had walked out on 
the family 11 years earlier and could not be located. The Goudeaus 
realized that Tanya had no family to return to and they decided to 
adopt her. They could not bear to send their niece back to her native 
home where she would be on her own at age 14. Without any children of 
their own, they lovingly took Tanya into their family and have lovingly 
cared for her for the past 4 years.
  Tanya has overcome her mother's and father's abandonment and after a 
period of adjustment, she has grown to love her new home. She is 
currently a senior in high school with aspirations to earn an advanced 
medical degree. Without the passage of this private bill, Tanya could 
face deportation to Sir Lanka at a time when she should be focused on 
her college degree with the support of her parents. The Goudeaus' 
situation is an unintended consequence of the requirement to complete 
the adoption process before a child's sixteenth birthday. We need to 
grant Tanya immediate relative status to allow the Goudeaus to remain a 
family.
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