State of Utah Adopts Resolution in Support of Citizenship For All Adoptees

Feb 18, 2022

Salt Lake City, Utah – On February 17, the Governor of Utah signed Utah State Concurrent Resolution to Support Internationally Adopted Individuals (1 SCR 6). Adopted by unanimous vote of the Utah State Legislature the day before, the resolution urges Congress and the President of the United States to support all efforts that will secure citizenship for all intercountry adoptees. Introduced in the U.S. Congress in March of 2021, the Adoptee Citizenship Act of 2021 is a federal bill that would grant citizenship to individuals who were legally adopted as children by U.S. citizen parents, thereby resolving a technical oversight in existing law caused by an arbitrary age cut-off date in the Child Citizenship Act of 2000. Since its introduction in the 117th Congress, the Adoptee Citizenship Act has amassed significant bipartisan support, with 63 cosponsors in the House and 11 cosponsors in the Senate. Utah Congressman John Curtis is the bill’s lead House Cosponsor.

Advocates for 1 SCR 6 with lead Sponsor, Senator Jani Iwamoto

Senator Jani Iwamoto, lead Sponsor of 1 SCR 6 and the first Asian American woman to serve in the Utah State Legislature, stated: “As a state that believes in keeping families together, this resolution is an important statement by all Utah legislators of our deep concern about the technical oversight that exists in our federal law. The lack of U.S. citizenship status leads to severe impacts on the lives of intercountry adoptees, including deportation, breaking up families, and forcing these individuals from the only home country they know–and to a country in which they do not know the language or culture or have any social ties. We have a responsibility to these individuals who were brought to the U.S. as children decades ago, and had every expectation that their citizenship matched that of their adoptive U.S. citizen parents.

KJ, a Utah adoptee without citizenship, shared: “I would like to be able to work, to have health insurance, to not fear things in life. I have anxiety issues and PTSD from some of the issues I have faced with immigration. Words can not even describe what it would mean to me to finally have the citizenship I deserve.”

Korean-American adoptee and volunteer with Adoptees For Justice, Sara Jones reflected: “Adopted individuals want to be valued in our families and communities in which we are raised. This Utah state resolution moves us forward to achieving that for adoptees. I am so pleased that our Utah state legislators unanimously agree that internationally adopted individuals should have U.S. citizenship and all of the economic opportunities and protections that extend from citizenship.”

To learn more about the challenges experienced by adoptees without citizenship and take action to advance passage of Adoptee Citizenship Act of 2021 in the 117th U.S. Congress, please visit: www.adopteesforjustice.org.