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Adoption Without Citizenship and the Fragility of Belonging: How U.S. Law Fails Intercountry Adoptees

  • Darci Siegel
  • Apr 30
  • 7 min read

Shirley Chung was a year old when she was adopted from South Korea by a Black-American family and brought to Texas in 1966.[1]  Phillip Clay, also from South Korea, was eight when he was adopted in 1983 by a family in Philadelphia.[2]  Like many intercountry adoptees raised in the United States, they grew up in “all-American families,” learned English, attended American schools, and identified as American citizens.[3] What they also had in common was the realization—much later in life—that they were not legally recognized as American citizens.[4]


When Shirley Chung was fifty-seven, she misplaced her Social Security card and was denied a replacement until she proved her citizenship.[5] She later discovered that she was not a citizen because her adoptive parents, or the adoption agency, never completed her naturalization paperwork.[6] Like Chung, many adoptees lack citizenship because their adoptive parents did not realize citizenship was not automatic upon the adoption’s finalization, were deterred by the cost, or were dissuaded by the paperwork necessary, and abandoned the application process altogether.[7] Chung described the realization as a profound identity crisis: “You’re not white enough, you’re not Black enough, you’re not Korean enough, and now you’re not American enough,” she explained, “[n]ow your future is no longer secure.”[8] For Chung, a single missing document unraveled a lifetime of belonging.


Phillip Clay discovered he was not an American citizen at thirty-eight.[9] For years, he struggled with bipolar disorder, alcohol use disorder, and substance use disorder, leading to arrests and ultimately, his deportation to South Korea in 2012—a motherland he left decades prior.[10] Clay struggled after returning to Seoul. He experienced homelessness, did not speak Korean, had no local family or friends, and could not receive appropriate mental health or substance abuse care.[11] Without proper support, Clay was hospitalized after attempting to take his life in 2017.[12] Subsequently, he continued to suffer and was continuously rejected by clinics which did not have English-speaking staff.[13] That same year, when Clay was forty-two, he jumped from the fourteenth story of an apartment building and died.[14] His death underscores the compounded failures of the United States adoption, immigration, healthcare, and criminal systems—all of which failed to recognize him as American and cast him out of the only country he called home.


Chung and Clay are not alone. Since the 1940s, Americans have adopted more than 500,000 children from overseas, and “as many as 200,000 adoptees” lack U.S. citizenship and are thus vulnerable to deportation.[15] To address concerns that many legally adopted individuals were living in America without citizenship, Congress passed the Child Citizenship Act (“CCA”) in 2001.[16]The CCA amended Section 320 of the Immigration and Nationality Act and included a provision permitting “a child born outside of the United States [to] automatically become[] a U.S. citizen.” [17] Such citizenship is limited to children under eighteen, who are lawful permanent residents, have at least one U.S. citizen parent, and reside with that parent.[18] Crucially, these requirements must have been satisfied on or after February 27, 2001, the CCA’s enactment date.[19] As a result, the law created a significant gap: while it grants automatic citizenship to post-2001 adoptees, it provides no retroactive relief to the hundreds of thousands of children adopted earlier and fails to offer recourse for deported adoptees.[20]


This lack of retroactivity left adoptees like Chung and Clay vulnerable to detection, detention, and deportation and without any legal remedy. Nearing retirement, Chung is particularly at risk.[21] For decades, the Department of Education, the IRS, and Social Security Administration treated Chung as a citizen.[22] She was allowed to enroll in school, pay taxes, and contribute to Social Security.[23] Because she was never informed of her lack of citizenship status, however, her ability to remain in the United States now hangs in the balance and she is not be able to access the benefits she spent years earning.[24]  For Clay, his deportation was also his death sentence.[25]


While citizenship is a civil right, as many as 75,000 adoptees remain without citizenship because they were older than 18 when the CCA went into effect.[26] While undocumented adoptees may apply for citizenship, the Trump Administration’s commitment to deportation, cracking down on crime, and restoring “law and order” has provoked immense fear within the adoptee community.[27] Many adoptees are terrified that applying for citizenship will alert authorities of their status and that they will face denial or deportation.[28] Moreover, once adoptees return to their countries of origin, their citizenship status may remain precarious as they might be unaware of the local citizenship process and become undocumented yet again.[29]


For more than fifty years, adoptees, advocates, and legislators have fought for equal rights legislation for adoptees.[30] Most recently, the Adoptee Citizenship Act of 2024 was introduced to make “citizenship automatic for international adoptees who were legally adopted by American citizens, regardless of age.”[31] However, no action followed after referral to the House Judiciary Committee.[32] Thus, until Congress fixes the CCA’s lack of retroactivity, thousands of internationally adopted children brought to the U.S. before the law’s effective date remain excluded.


Congress can close this gap by passing legislation like the Protect Adoptees and American Families Act of 2025 (“PAAF”).[33] This Act addresses the CCA’s age-based exclusion and ensures citizenship to intercountry adoptees regardless of their age, provided they meet the statute’s remaining requirements.[34]  While the PAAF Act does not resolve all of the citizenship issues that intercountry adoptees face—for example, the Act does not address: (1) individuals who were not fully or finally adopted, (2) those who overstayed the IR-4 visas and were not subsequently adopted, or (3) those who do not have proof of lawful entry into the country—it establishes a broader pathway to citizenship for pre-2001 adoptees and allows deported adoptees to apply for an immigrant visa.[35]


For intercountry adoptees like Clay, this remedial Act could ensure that deportation no longer equates to a death sentence. For adoptees like Shirley Chung, it could finally provide legal recognition of the life she has long lived and the contributions she has made in the United States. Without timely legislative action, America will continue to fail the very children it welcomed as its own and leave thousands of intercountry adoptees to live and die in a country that promised them a family but never guaranteed their right to belong.


[1] Gustavo Solis, Thousands of Adoptees Were Never Given US Citizenship. Now They Risk Deportation, KPBS (Jul. 18, 2025), https://www.kpbs.org/news/border-immigration/2025/07/18/thousands-of-adoptees-were-never-given-us-citizenship-now-they-risk-deportation[https://perma.cc/69EY-FUQB]

[3] Solis, supra note 1; Nina Ahmad, The Adoptee Citizenship Act: What You Should Know and What You Should Do, Tʜᴇ Cɪᴛʏ ᴏғ Pʜɪʟᴀ. (July 20, 2017), https://www.phila.gov/posts/mayors-office-of-public-engagement/2017-07-20-the-adoptee-citizenship-act-what-you-should-know-and-what-you-can-do/ [https://perma.cc/H2LR-XH7S]

[4] George Wright, The American Adoptees Who Fear Deportation to a Country They Can’t Remember, BBC (Oct. 30, 2025), https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cwy1n438dk4o [https://perma.cc/DW5D-SG28]; Sang-Hun, supra note 2.

[5] Solis, supra note 1, Wright, supra note 4.

[6] Solis, supra note 1.

[7] Wright, supra note 4, Sang-Hun, supra note 2, Oғғ. ᴏғ Cɪᴛɪᴢᴇɴsʜɪᴘ, Fᴀᴄᴛ Sʜᴇᴇᴛ: Fᴏʀᴍ N-400, Aᴘᴘʟɪᴄᴀᴛɪᴏɴ ғᴏʀ Nᴀᴛᴜʀᴀʟɪᴢᴀᴛɪᴏɴ Fɪʟɪɴɢ Fᴇᴇs (2024), https://www.uscis.gov/sites/default/files/document/

fact-sheets/OoC_FactSheetOnNatzFees_V3_508.pdf [https://perma.cc/6VRK-8SZF] (noting that filing fees can range from $710 to $760; even if parents are eligible for a fee waiver, the cost may still be at least $380).

[8] Gustavo Solis, Thousands of Adoptees Were Never Given US Citizenship. Now They Risk Deportation, KPBS (July 18, 2025), https://www.kpbs.org/news/border-immigration/2025/07/18/thousands-of-adoptees-were-never-given-us-citizenship-now-they-risk-deportation[https://perma.cc/69EY-FUQB]

[9] Chris Fuchs, Deported Adoptee's Death Heightens Calls for Citizenship Bill, NBC Nᴇᴡs (Jun. 2, 2017), https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/deported-adoptee-s-death-heightens-calls-citizenship-bill-n767341 [https://perma.cc/VN3M-2EJ6].  Phillip Clay was born in 1974.  Id.  In 2012, Clay was “[d]eemed legally undocumented” and deported to Korea; born in 1974, he was 38.  Jeff Gammage, Adopted from Korea as a Child, Deported as an Adult — Philly Man Takes His Life, Pʜɪʟᴀ. Iɴᴏ̨ᴜɪʀᴇʀ (Jun. 2, 2017), https://www.inquirer.com/philly/news/pennsylvania/philadelphia/adopted-from-korea-as-a-child-deported-as-an-adult-philly-man-takes-his-life-20170602.html [https://perma.cc/P3JE-A2PC].

[10] Taylor Weik, Deported Adoptee's Remains to Be Returned to U.S., NBC Nᴇᴡs (July 11, 2017), https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/deported-adoptee-s-remains-be-returned-u-s-n781671 [https://perma.cc/8MHH-XBCF]; Sang-Hun, supra note 2; Fuchs, supra note 9.

[11] Sang-Hun, supra note 2; Fuchs, supra note 9; Gammage, supra note 9.

[12] Sang-Hun, supra note 2.

[13] Id.

[14] Sang-Hun, supra note 2; Fuchs, supra note 9; Gammage, supra note 9.

[16] Williamson, supra note 15, Policy Manual: Chapter 4 – Automatic Acquisition of Citizenship After Birth (INA 320), U.S. Cɪᴛɪᴢᴇɴsʜɪᴘ ᴀɴᴅ Iᴍᴍɪɢʀ. Sᴇʀᴠ.(Feb. 3, 2026), https://www.uscis.gov/policy-manual/volume-12-part-h-chapter-4 [https://perma.cc/9HGL-Y26X]

[17] Policy Manual: Chapter 4, supra note 16.

[18] Obtaining U.S. Citizenship Under the Child Citizenship Act, U.S. Dᴇᴘ’ᴛ ᴏғ Sᴛᴀᴛᴇ (Oct. 24, 2024), https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/legal/travel-legal-considerations/us-citizenship/child-citizenship-act-of-2000.html[https://perma.cc/2NWJ-KBUR] (“Children who were under age 18 on or after February 27, 2001 can obtain U.S. citizenship under the CCA if they meet the law's requirements. To obtain U.S. citizenship, a child born outside the United States must meet all of these requirements before age 18: (1)  Have at least one U.S. citizen parent by birth, naturalization, or adoption, (2) Be a lawful permanent resident of the United States and show a permanent resident card or an I-551 stamp in the child's passport, (3) Reside (or have resided) in the United States in the legal and physical custody of a U.S. citizen parent.”).

[19] Id.

[20] Policy Manual: Chapter 4, supra note 16;  Policy Manual: Chapter 1 – Purpose and Background, U.S. Cɪᴛɪᴢᴇɴsʜɪᴘ ᴀɴᴅ Iᴍᴍɪɢʀ. Sᴇʀᴠ. (Feb. 3, 2026), https://www.uscis.gov/policy-manual/volume-5-part-f-chapter-1 [https://perma.cc/36HK-NNSX]; Wm. Robert Johnston, Historical International Adoption Statistics, United States and World, Johnston Archive (Nov. 15, 2022), https://www.johnstonsarchive.net/policy/adoptionstatsintl.html [https://perma.cc/EPN7-T5HV] (reflecting that between 1953 and 2000, approximately there were 274,846 adoptions to the United States).

[21] Gustavo Solis, Thousands of Adoptees Were Never Given US Citizenship. Now They Risk Deportation, KPBS (July 18, 2025), https://www.kpbs.org/news/border-immigration/2025/07/18/thousands-of-adoptees-were-never-given-us-citizenship-now-they-risk-deportation[https://perma.cc/69EY-FUQB].

[22] Wright, supra note 4.

[23] Id.

[24] Id.; Solis, supra note 1.

[25] Sang-Hun, supra note 2.

[27] Wright, supra note 4, President Trump Returned Our Nation to Law and Order,Tʜᴇ Wʜɪᴛᴇ Hᴏᴜsᴇ (Feb. 24, 2026), https://www.whitehouse.gov/articles/2026/02/president-trump-returned-our-nation-to-law-and-order/ [https://perma.cc/2KHX-UUZA]; Securing Our Borders, Tʜᴇ Wʜɪᴛᴇ Hᴏᴜsᴇ (Jan 20, 2025) https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/securing-our-borders/[https://perma.cc/Q7TK-DKU8](President Trump clarifying that he will promptly remove “all aliens who enter or remain [in the U.S.] in violation of federal law”).  

[28] Wright, supra note 4 (depicting an Iranian adoptee who agreed to be interviewed by the BBC, but asked that her identity remain anonymous “for fear of attracting the attention of authorities”); Sang-Hun, supra note 2; Williamson, supra note 15.

[29] Sang-Hun, supra note 2.

[30] Today is Truly Historic, Nᴇᴡ Yᴏʀᴋ Aᴅᴏᴘᴛᴇᴇ Rɪɢʜᴛs Cᴏᴀʟɪᴛɪᴏɴ (Jan. 15, 2020), https://nyadopteerights.org/today-is-truly-historic/ [https://perma.cc/2KDG-BZ8D]

[31] Sens. Blunt, Hirono, Collins, Klobuchar, Murkowski, Duckworth Introduce Adoptee Citizenship Act of 2021, Hᴏʟᴛ Iɴᴛ’ʟ (Mar. 26, 2021), https://www.holtinternational.org/sens-blunt-hirono-collins-klobushar-murkowski-duckworth-introduce-adoptee-citizenship-act-of 2021/#:~:text=The%20CCA%20guarantees%20

[32] Adoptee Citizenship Act of 2024, H.R. 8617, 118th Cong. (2024).

[33] Protect Adoptees and American Families Act, H.R. 5492, 119th Cong. (2025).

[34] Congress Introduces the Protect Adoptees and American Families Act, Aᴅᴏᴘᴛᴇᴇs Uɴɪᴛᴇᴅ (Sep. 21, 2025), https://adopteesunited.org/congress-introduces-protect-adoptees-american-families-act/ [https://perma.cc/W7RN-PZGK]

[35] FAQ: U.S. Citizenship and Intercountry Adoptees, Aᴅᴏᴘᴛᴇᴇ Rɪɢʜᴛs Lᴀᴡ Cᴛʀ., https://adopteerightslaw.com/faq-adoptee-citizenship/ (last updated Jan. 29, 2026) [https://perma.cc/8T6X-YXSS]

 
 
 

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