Shirley Chung was just a year old when she was adopted by a US family in 1966. Born in South Korea, her birthfather was a member of the American military, who returned home soon after Shirley was born. Unable to cope, her birth mother placed her in an orphanage in the South Korean capital, Seoul.
He abandoned us, is the nicest way I can put it, says Shirley, now 61.
After around a year, Shirley was adopted by a US couple, who took her back to Texas.
Shirley grew up living a life similar to that of many young Americans. She went to school, got her driving licence and worked as a bartender. I moved and breathed and got in trouble like many teenage Americans of the 80s. I'm a child of the 80s, Shirley says. She had children, got married, and became a piano teacher, living decades without a reason to doubt her American identity.
But in 2012, her world came crashing down when she found out she lacked US citizenship after requesting a replacement for a lost Social Security card.
Shirley is not alone. Estimates range from 18,000 to 75,000 American adoptees who may not have citizenship, with several being deported back to their countries of birth in recent years, according to the Adoptee Rights Law Center.
Another woman, adopted from Iran in 1973, faced similar obstacles—discovering at 38 that immigration authorities lost important documents supporting her citizenship claim, leaving her feeling stateless.
The Child Citizenship Act of 2000 sought to grant automatic citizenship to international adoptees, but it excluded many who were adopted before February 1983, leaving thousands in limbo.
Recent political climates have exacerbated fears among adoptees, prompting some to go into hiding. Legal advocates report an uptick in pleas for help as the deportation threat looms larger.
Shirley, like many others, urges for understanding and compassion from lawmakers, emphasizing that those like her are not illegal aliens but children who were promised American citizenship when adopted. Please hear our story and please follow through with the promise that America gave each one of the babies that got on those planes: American citizenship, she pleads.
