Amy Klobuchar: “I rise today to speak about the Adoptee Citizenship Act, legislation that will secure citizenship for adopted children.…”

“I rise today to speak about the Adoptee Citizenship Act, legislation that will secure citizenship for adopted children. I wish to thank Senator Coats for cosponsoring the bill with me, along with Senator Merkley, and Senator Gillibrand is also a cosponsor. The Child Citizenship Act of 2000 guaranteed citizenship to most international adoptees. This was very important because sometimes children have been adopted, they come over to live in this country for years, and, in fact, for some reason--the paperwork wasn't filed--they do not actually have their citizenship. The problem with that law back in 2000 was that it did not apply to adoptees who were over 18 at the time the bill was passed. I am sure there were some reasons for that, but it really makes no sense because a kid who was 17 at the time and had been legally adopted was no different from a child who was 19 at the time who had been legally adopted. What our bill does is very limited. It fixes that. The loophole denies some adult adoptees the right to citizenship even though they were legally adopted by U.S. citizens and raised in the United States. They are over 18, so they have for the most part lived in the United States for a very long period of time. In fact, they were over 18 back in the year 2000.…”