[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 193 (Thursday, December 6, 2018)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1608]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        ADOPTEE CITIZENSHIP ACT

                                  _____
                                 

                           HON. BRAD SHERMAN

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                       Thursday, December 6, 2018

  Mr. SHERMAN. Mr. Speaker, last week, I cosponsored H.R. 5233, The 
Adoptee Citizenship Act of 2018. This is bipartisan legislation that 
seeks to make an important correction to U.S. adoption law.
  Currently, when a child is legally adopted by an American parent and 
is raised by the family here in the U.S., they automatically acquire 
U.S. citizenship. However, when Congress updated the law, it failed to 
address the situation for thousands of families with previously adopted 
children. We need to correct that, which is why I support H.R. 5233.
  This legislation does not create a new loophole that allows anyone to 
game the system These are individuals who legally entered the U.S. They 
were legally adopted as children, and they grew up here believing they 
were U.S. citizens. Unfortunately, through no fault of the children, 
adoptive parents in several thousand cases failed to properly file all 
of the citizenship papers on behalf of their adoptive children, often 
not realizing that it was even necessary after completion of the legal 
adoption process. If you were legally adopted by an American family, 
entered the U.S. legally as a child, and raised in the United States, 
you are an American. I look forward to working with both my Republican 
and Democratic colleagues on this bipartisan effort.

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