Following the highly publicized deportation of Korean adoptee Adam Crapser in the fall of 2016, another adult adoptee was deported at the end of the year. Viviana Cogswell Hill, adopted from Colombia with four siblings, was deported on December 27, 2016. Her visa application is pending, but she chose to be sent back now rather than spend any more time in the detention center. Cogswell Hill has a young son whom she had to leave behind, and she does not speak the language of her birth country.

Please contact your elected officials to support the Adoptee Citizenship Act (S.2275, H.R.5454), which seeks to close a loophole in the Child Citizenship Act of 2000. The CCA granted automatic citizenship to international adoptees, but did not apply to adoptees 18 or older when it went into effect.

We also urge all parents who adopted internationally to complete their child’s citizenship paperwork, including obtaining a certificate of citizenship.