[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 1]
[Senate]
[Page 501]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        ADOPTEE CITIZENSHIP ACT

  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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