Column: Make all international adoptees citizens

My name is Amanda Renee Kim Lowrey, also known as Kim Eun-Ja. I was adopted from South Korea in 1976 to the United States, where I grew up with my parents, three brothers and a sister near Washington, D.C. I have been fortunate enough to call Oahu home for the past 15 years where I currently work for the Department of Health.

At the time of my adoption in 1976, international adoptees were not guaranteed citizenship with their adoption. Even with my father being an active- duty member of the military, my mother and I had to lobby on Capitol Hill for my citizenship. I was fortunate that my parents were able to complete both arduous adoption and citizenship processes, and I became a naturalized citizen in 1979.

Since the end of World War II, the United States has welcomed hundreds of thousands of adoptees from countries abroad with the promise of “a better life” with rights, protection and opportunities. Imagine my horror then, when I learned that many adoptees were not granted these considerations.

Due to any number of honest mistakes, bureaucratic oversights and, at times, abuse, some adoptees were not granted citizenship despite being adopted by U.S. citizen parents. When adoptive families are not well screened, prepared or supported, adoptees bear the brunt of the neglect and our chances of living a “normal” life are vastly diminished. Adoptees without citizenship are unable to vote, pursue higher education, access federal programs, and are at risk for detention and deportation to countries unknown.

In 2000, Congress passed the Child Citizenship Act, which granted automatic citizenship to adoptees who were under the age of 18 at the time of enactment. Due to the loophole created by an arbitrary date cutoff, it left out tens of thousands of adoptees — including an estimated 18,603 from South Korea.

The Adoptee Citizenship Act of 2021 is a common-sense bill with bipartisan support that “closes this loophole and provides citizenship automatically to all adoptees.” Hawaii’s own U.S. Sen. Mazie Hirono co-sponsored the legislation and in February, the U.S. House passed the bill as an amendment to a broader bill package. It is now awaiting passage by the Senate, so the president can sign it into law.

Our elected officials can and must pass the Adoptee Citizenship Act this year. It is imperative that the U.S. fulfills the promises made to adoptees, sending countries, and birth and adoptive families alike. Adoptees, brought to the U.S. with the promise of becoming full Americans, deserve citizenship now. Those who have been deported must be brought home. It’s time to stop forcing adoptees to live in the shadows and to allow us to pursue our dreams.

If you are interested in taking action, please contact Sen. Hirono and voice your support for an intact Adoptee Citizenship Act and the urgency with which Congress must pass it this year.

Amanda R.K. Lowrey, Ph.D., is a food safety specialist for the Hawaii Department of Health; she volunteers for groups such as the Hawaii Academy of Science and Korean Adoptees of Hawaii.