104 Iowa L. Rev. 2123 (2019)

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Abstract

The Child Citizenship Act of 2000 has provided automatic U.S. citizenship to countless foreign-born adoptees. Within the Act exists a noticeable gap in coverage for those U.S. international adoptees who were over the age of 18 as of the Act’s passage in 2001. As a result, tens of thousands of U.S. adoptees are considered deportable non-citizens. The deportation of a handful of U.S. adoptees, men and women who had lived nearly their entire lives in the United States, has generated significant media attention and public sympathy. However, Congress has yet to pass legislation, namely the Adoptee Citizenship Act, amending the Child Citizenship Act to retroactively grant citizenship status to those left unprotected. Adoptees and their advocates cannot wait for this protection to be granted. This Note provides alternative arguments and sources of law that adoptees and advocates should consider in deportation proceedings and in broader legislative lobbying efforts. In particular, this Note argues that the Child Citizenship Act, as it stands, cannot withstand equal protection scrutiny, encouraging courts to apply a more heightened standard than rational basis review. These arguments aim to persuade courts to reverse the deportable status of many U.S. international adoptees and to further motivate Congress to amend the Child Citizenship Act.