Here is an article in the Houston Chronicle about a very sad incident. A man was arrested and then he was deported to Mexico, simply because the system didn't recognize him as a citizen of the U.S. Even though he was legally adopted by parents in Texas, he is now stuck in a kind of limbo ~ a citizen of nowhere.
Now, I realize that this tangled mess started for him due to his illegal activity as an adult. It is certainly my prayer and expectation that such criminal circumstances will never involve any of my children. But, I've heard of other odd ball situations that don't stem from any crimes being committed, that still resulted in this kind of immigration mess for an adoptee. These kinds of hassles can arise for any international adoptee who does not have
proof of their U.S. citizenship. So, as parents, it is our responsibility to dot every
i and cross every
t for the sake of our children.
As our family prepares to take this "journey to documentation" for the third time, I did a little interview with myself about this issue.
How do you make sure your children are recognized by the U.S. government as citizens of the United States of America?
We get them their very own official Certificate of Citizenship through the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service.
How do you do that?
We apply through the USCIS, pay a boatload of money, then wait for weeks or months for an invitation to do some more stuff.
That sounds like a big pain. Is it?
Of course it is. We have to work through a government agency, remember?
Is that all there is to it?
No wait, there's more! After all that waiting and expenditure, we get to load up our whole family and drive over 8 hours round trip to the USCIS office where we go through security, wait an inordinate amount of time in a poorly ventilated and packed waiting room, then have our baby "interviewed" by a staff member who will hopefully approve our child to get that coveted COC.
You said this costs your family a boatload of money. Are you kidding? Do you really have to pay for this, since your child is already legally yours and is already entitled to American citizenship as an adoptee?
Yes. And by "boatload" I mean $460 per certificate. Plus we get to add in the cost of that great family vacation across the state to that lovely USCIS office waiting room. Our child is already legally ours, we have the birth certificate to prove it, and we have legally completed the adoption in every way. But we still have to get the COC.
You seem a bit frustrated by the whole thing. Why?
Because the Child Citizenship Act of 2000 provides that children who are adopted by American citizens will automatically receive citizenship. It's the child's right, it's fair, and it's the law. But the system just doesn't work that way for many children who are adopted from abroad. And because we can't trust that all agencies in the U.S. government will EVER work from the same playbook of laws, we have to take this extra step to secure our child's PROOF of citizenship. Yes, It's thoroughly aggravating.
Well, then, why do you keep doing it? Why not just roll the dice and hope your child never gets caught in a messy government web of foolishness? We keep doing it because we love our kids too much to take that chance. And we don't trust the government any further than we can toss it.
