It's been a while since I posted on my blog, and I wish to slowly start this again.
I got a call from Korea from a man with ties to a government official, who was approached by a Korean-American with alarming news about the potential threats to adoptees being mass deported under the Trump administration.
The Korean-American man, who apparently did not have the full facts, stated to the government official that the Korean government needs to prepare for the 20,000 adoptees that will be deported back to Korea as they have no US citizenship, and that Trump would deport them all. He also stated that there have been 40,000 children that have been adopted to the US over the years, and 20,000 of them are with no citizenship. I couldn't help but laugh at this story.
I corrected the gentleman who called me and told him these facts:
1. There have been over 110,000 children that were adopted from Korea to the US, not 40,000.
2. 20,000 adoptees are the ones that have not been clearly verified whether they have citizenship or not. Many adoptees have moved on and could not find or locate them to verify citizenship status. It doesn't mean that all 20,000 adoptees are without citizenship. It's just that they have not been verified.
3. The Trump deportation program mainly applies to the illegal immigrants that came into the US under the Biden/Harris administration. While the statistics on the illegal entries by the migrants vary, depending on the source it ranges anywhere from 12 million to 20 million. ICE has reported that 643,000 people had criminal history, and over 13,000 people had a murderous background. It is no wonder why the Trump administration would focus on these groups of illegal border crossers.
4. As it has been in the past for many years, adoptees without citizenship have not, and will not be deported, other than those with criminal records. As long as adoptees do not commit crimes, the US will not deport them. Because of this, many adoptees that have found out that they didn't have citizenship later applied and obtained citizenship. So Trump's deportation plan would not include the adoptees that came in legally.
5. During the 70 years of intercountry adoption, only 10 adoptees have been deported back to Korea (according to NCRC). These adoptees all have criminal records. The stories of these adoptees have been spread so widely within Korea that most Koreans think there are thousands of adoptees who are being deported, or will be deported.
6. I and my members at MPAK, and a few other organizations have campaigned against deporting any adoptees, regardless of whether they have committed crimes or not as they entered this country legally. Somewhere along the adoption process, the filing of citizenship fell through, and many adoptees grew up without knowing their citizenship status. But the current adoption laws and process have removed this error.
