As Congress works to resolve the important issues around DACA, please do not forget another group of foreign-born children who were brought into United States legally, and adopted by U.S citizens, yet do not have U.S. citizenship.   There are the internationally adopted persons who fell into a loophole that was created when Congress passed the Child Citizenship Act of 2000.  (Read Adopted Persons Deserve Equal Protection.)

An unintended consequence of the drafting was that adopted individuals who were already 18 years old as of February, 2001 were not included in the language, and therefore did not receive automatic citizenship.  Unless their U.S. parents were well-informed and understood the pitfalls of not putting their children through the naturalization process that was in place prior to 2001, and if their children were adults at the time the law changed, this entire population of individuals were excluded from achieving citizenship through their adoption.  Although living here their entire lives, legally, and as part of a U.S. citizen family, they remain vulnerable to deportation, cannot vote, and cannot enjoy all the privileges they should have received, and which all children who are adopted internationally through the legal process, now receive. 

This is a call to action for anyone interested in correcting this injustice, to contact your Congressional leaders and ask them to support legislation that will make citizenship automatic for internationally adopted persons, regardless of how old they were when the original Child Citizenship Act took effect.