[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 121 (Tuesday, September 11, 2012)]
[House]
[Pages H5842-H5844]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
NORTH KOREAN REFUGEE ADOPTION ACT OF 2011
Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass
the bill (H.R. 1464) to develop a strategy for assisting stateless
children from North Korea, and for other purposes.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The text of the bill is as follows:
H.R. 1464
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of
the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``North Korean Refugee
Adoption Act of 2011''.
SEC. 2. SENSE OF CONGRESS.
It is the sense of Congress that--
(1) thousands of North Korean children do not have families
and are threatened with starvation and disease if they remain
in North Korea or as stateless refugees in surrounding
countries;
(2) thousands of United States citizens would welcome the
opportunity to adopt North Korean orphans living outside
North Korea as de jure or de facto stateless refugees; and
(3) the Secretary of State and the Secretary of Homeland
Security should make every effort to facilitate the immediate
care, family reunification, and, if necessary and
appropriate, the adoption of any eligible North Korean
children living outside North Korea as de jure or de facto
stateless refugees.
SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS.
In this Act:
(1) Foreign-sending country.--The term ``foreign-sending
country''--
(A) means--
(i) the country of the orphan's citizenship; or
(ii) if the orphan is not permanently residing in the
country of citizenship, the country of the orphan's habitual
residence; and
(B) excludes any country to which the orphan--
(i) travels temporarily; or
(ii) travels as a prelude to, or in conjunction with, his
or her adoption or immigration to the United States.
(2) Hague country.--The term ``Hague country'' means a
country that is a signatory of the Convention on Protection
of Children and Cooperation in Respect of Intercountry
Adoption, done at The Hague on May 29, 1993.
(3) Non-hague country.--The term ``non-Hague country''
means a country that is not a signatory of the Convention on
Protection of Children and Cooperation in Respect of
Intercountry Adoption, done at The Hague on May 29, 1993.
SEC. 4. STRATEGY ON ADOPTION OF NORTH KOREAN CHILDREN BY
UNITED STATES CITIZENS.
(a) In General.--The Secretary of State, in consultation
with the Secretary of Homeland Security, shall develop a
comprehensive strategy for facilitating the adoption of North
Korean children by United States citizens.
(b) Considerations.--In developing the strategy under this
section, the Secretary shall--
[[Page H5843]]
(1) consider the challenges that United States citizens
would encounter in attempting to adopt children from North
Korea who are currently living in Hague countries and non-
Hague countries regardless of their legal status in such
countries;
(2) propose solutions to dealing with the situation in
which a North Korean refugee child does not have access to a
competent authority in the foreign-sending country;
(3) propose solutions to dealing with North Korean refugee
children who are not considered habitual residents of the
countries in which they are located;
(4) evaluate alternative mechanisms for foreign-sending
countries to prove that North Korean refugee children are
orphans when documentation, such as birth certificates, death
certificates of birth parents, and orphanage documentation,
is missing or destroyed;
(5) provide suggestions for working with South Korea to
establish pilot programs that identify, provide for the
immediate care of, assist in the family reunification of, and
assist in the international adoption of, orphaned North
Korean children living within South Korea;
(6) provide suggestions for working with international
adoption agencies and aid organizations in Asia to identify
and establish pilot programs for the identification,
immediate care, family reunification, and international
adoption of North Korean orphans living outside North Korea
as de jure or de facto stateless refugees;
(7) identify other nations in which large numbers of
stateless, orphaned children are living who might be helped
by international adoption; and
(8) propose solutions for assisting orphaned children with
Chinese fathers and North Korean mothers who are living in
China and have no access to Chinese or North Korean
resources.
(c) Reporting Requirement.--Not later than 180 days after
the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of State
shall submit a written report to Congress that contains the
details of the strategy developed under this section.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentlewoman from
Florida (Ms. Ros-Lehtinen) and the gentleman from California (Mr.
Berman) each will control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from Florida.
General Leave
Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Mr. Speaker, I kindly ask unanimous consent that
all Members have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks
and to insert extraneous materials into the Record on this measure.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentlewoman from Florida?
There was no objection.
Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may
consume.
I rise in strong support of H.R. 1464, the North Korean Refugee
Adoption Act, of which I am a proud cosponsor.
I want to thank my good friend from California (Mr. Royce), who is
the chairman of the Subcommittee on Terrorism, Nonproliferation, and
Trade on our Foreign Affairs Committee and who is a longtime advocate
on North Korean human rights and refugee issues, for introducing this
important bill.
We are all too keenly aware of the extreme repression, the
malnutrition, and the poverty suffered by so many inside North Korea
today. Those threats often take the greatest toll on children.
{time} 1820
Imagine what happens when a child's natural protectors--parents--are
no longer in the picture. Imagine what happens when that child is born
or orphaned inside China when the child lacks legal status or
dependable access to social services: malnutrition, abuse,
exploitation, lack of education. These are the horrors that are faced
by orphans of North Korean origin who are effectively stateless and
without protection.
Mr. Speaker, the United States is home to the largest ethnic Korean
population outside of Northeast Asia, and many of the nearly 2 million
Americans of Korean descent have family ties to North Korea. Numerous
American families would like to provide caring homes to these stateless
North Korean orphans. H.R. 1464 is a responsible first step toward
making that possible.
This bill does not ignore the unique challenges involved with
ensuring that North Korean adoptees are genuine orphans and not
fraudulent victims of trafficking. It does not change U.S. immigration
law, nor the legal standards for adoption. It does not reduce the need
for China to begin abiding by its refugee convention obligations to
vulnerable North Koreans within its borders. And it does not diminish
our commitment to assisting intact refugee families or to reunifying
families that are separated.
What it does do, Mr. Speaker, is require that our State Department
take a broad look at the diplomatic and documentation challenges facing
American families who would like to adopt North Korean orphans and
report to Congress on potential strategies to address them.
Doing the right thing is not always easy.
I especially want to applaud those adoptive parents, both past and
future, who invest their own lives and homes to provide loving families
for some of the world's most endangered children. H.R. 1464 is a
welcome step forward, Mr. Speaker, and deserves our unanimous support.
With that, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. BERMAN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 1464.
I would like to thank the sponsor of this legislation, the gentleman
from California (Mr. Royce), as well as the chairman of the Foreign
Affairs Committee, Ms. Ros-Lehtinen, for their leadership on this issue
and for their work in supporting the plight of North Korean refugees.
Despite North Korea's efforts to appear ``strong and prosperous''
this year to celebrate the 100th birthday of the country's founder,
vast numbers of its people live in dire conditions. Sadly, the North
Korean regime's misguided priorities, pouring hundreds of millions of
dollars into its so-called ``space program,'' its nuclear programs, and
its massive military only underscore its cold-hearted callousness and
blatant disregard for its own citizens.
Thousands of North Korean children do not have families to care for
them and are threatened with starvation and disease if they remain in
North Korea or as refugees in neighboring countries, especially China.
Many of the children that have fled the north are hiding and live in
mortal fear of being caught and sent back to North Korea where they
would face severe punishment and even death. Equally terrifying is the
prospect of being sold into bondage by human traffickers in China.
As a beacon of hope for the rest of the world, the United States must
do all it can to help these vulnerable and destitute children. That's
why I'm proud to be a cosponsor of Mr. Royce's legislation, H.R. 1464,
the North Korea Refugee Adoption Act. This bill calls on the
Secretaries of State and Homeland Security to formulate and report to
Congress on a strategy for facilitating the adoption of North Korean
children by U.S. citizens. Passage of this bill will be the first step
in helping the thousands of North Korean child refugees living alone in
foreign lands, and it would provide a glimmer of hope to the American
families who would welcome the opportunity to adopt North Korean
orphans.
The impending passage of this bill speaks to the broad bipartisan
consensus in Congress regarding the atrocious human rights situation in
North Korea. As innocent men, women, and children flee the repressive
North Korean regime at great personal risk, we have a moral obligation
to assist them. H.R. 1464 is not merely about adoption, but also an
issue of human rights for the North Korean people. We must continue
working to ensure that the North Korean people are not forgotten and
that orphaned North Korean children will get the care and support they
need.
I urge my colleagues to support this bill, and I reserve the balance
of my time.
Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Mr. Speaker, I'm so pleased to yield 6 minutes to
the other gentleman from California (Mr. Royce), the chairman of the
Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Terrorism, Nonproliferation and Trade,
and the author of this important bill.
Mr. ROYCE. I thank the gentlelady for yielding.
Mr. Speaker, this is the North Korean Refugee Adoption Act of 2011,
and I want to thank Chairman Ros-Lehtinen and Ranking Member Berman for
their support of this bill, and also I think we should thank the
numerous Korean American organizations
[[Page H5844]]
from around this country that tirelessly advocated on behalf of its
passage. They are the groups that originally came to me with the heart-
wrenching problem that these orphans face, and they suggested an idea
for a solution. I would like to recognize the Defense Forum Foundation,
the North Korea Freedom Coalition, the Korean Church Coalition for
North Korea Freedom, the Korean American Coalition, the Korean Churches
for Community Development, the 300 Pastoral Coalition, and the 318
Partners. These are the groups that suggested that with a lot of hard
work we might get this legislation through. They put through countless
phone calls and meetings and rallies up here on Capitol Hill and I
think really helped generate the widespread support that this bill has
today.
Of course, the bill stems from the problem that for over 50 years
North Korea has been one of the world's most repressive regimes. Every
imaginable freedom that we enjoy here--speech or assembly or
association or worship, and actually oddly enough, even the right to
smile--is denied in North Korea by one statute or another. Meanwhile,
the regime's elites live in luxury. Of course, the people, especially
in the rural areas of North Korea, starve.
It is little wonder why tens of thousands of North Koreans, many of
them women and children, flee to China. For many, it's a last resort.
It's a final chance to avoid starvation for those children and avoid
unspeakable oppression. Yet that choice is not always an easy one. That
path to freedom is very perilous. Those fleeing North Korea often make
their journey during the winter, and they cross over that Tumen River
as it's frozen. Those temperatures there are subzero, and the terrain
is treacherous. It is an obstacle course of checkpoints and of
informants, and they make that a very dangerous journey. Sadly, but not
surprisingly, many refugees succumb to the elements. There are many
bodies frozen along that bank.
Those that survive also face dangers from human traffickers. As one
dissident told National Geographic, crossing the Tumen was easy
compared to what happened next as she was tricked into getting into a
car that belonged to a sex trafficker. For the next year, she remained
locked in a room, forced into selling her body. The result of all of
this is that many North Korean orphans are left in China. Worse yet,
they are stateless and they are without identification. Estimates show
that thousands of children are left stateless in the border region
between North Korea and China, and there they suffer. If they're sent
back to North Korea, they suffer unimaginably.
Mr. Speaker, this is why we need to pass this legislation. This bill
is a good first step in responding to this human rights crisis.
Specifically, this bill would have the State Department develop a
strategy for assisting stateless children from North Korea.
{time} 1830
While many American families would welcome the opportunity to adopt a
North Korean orphan, many hurdles remain. For example, children must
certify that they have lost their parents or legal guardians and that
they have absolutely no one to rely on. A child orphan in North Korea
would have a very hard time proving that attestation.
Most of these children have great difficulty proving this to their
own understanding, and they have no death certificate of parents, and
many have no proof that they truly are orphans. By passing this bill,
we will be taking an important step towards solving these problems.
We are not committing to any particular policies, but we are
committing to doing what we can to help these defenseless children. We
are trying to create a win/win for these desperate young ones, orphans
living in deplorable conditions and their potential new families.
Again, I thank you, Chairman Ros-Lehtinen, I thank you for your
support, and we thank the numerous American Korean organizations, and
we thank Ranking Member Berman for all of this help. I urge my
colleagues to support this important bill.
Mr. BERMAN. Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time, and I
urge support for the legislation.
I yield back the balance of my time.
Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Mr. Speaker, I think Mr. Royce did a wonderful job
in summing up our bipartisan position.
With that, I yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the
gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Ros-Lehtinen) that the House suspend the
rules and pass the bill, H.R. 1464.
The question was taken; and (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the
rules were suspended and the bill was passed.
A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.
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