Adoptee Rights Law Center

Inside Trump’s New Tactic to Separate Immigrant Families

Inside Trump’s New Tactic to Separate Immigrant Families www.nytimes.com/2025/08/05/u...

USCIS: All Redacted and Withheld Pages A Flourish data visualization by Gregory D Luce

I've been tracking redactions and withholding of critical documents from my client's "A Files," which are released as part of a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. It's pretty bad. 🥚 public.flourish.studio/visualisatio...

Donate to Reuniting with My Family After 15 Years — Help Me Give Back, organized by Anna Fisher Hi, my name is Anna. I was adopted from China to the United St… Anna Fisher needs your support for Reuniting with My Family After 15 Years — Help Me Give Back

Hiya, 🥚 peeps. Can we help this intercountry adoptee (and a client) return to China to visit her long-time foster family and her twin sister, from whom she was separated at age 9? It's a really good cause: gofund.me/82625fe8

A Guide to Getting Your OBC in Georgia | Adoptee Rights Law What Georgia's new equal rights law does, plus how adult adopted people can apply for copies of their own original birth records.

I put together some Q&As about Georgia's new law, plus added a video walkthrough of the online application process. Here ya go. 🥚 adopteerightslaw.com/georgia-equa...

Mall of America

Screenshot of a library request to add the book I Would Meet You Anywhere to the library's collection. The request was for the book by Author Susan Kiyo Ito and the response in a blue box at the bottom indicates that "This title will be ordered. You may request it when it appears in the library catalog within 7 to 10 days. If you need assistance, please Ask US. In green in the upper right corner is the word Approved.

Screenshot of the library listing for the book by I Would Meet Your Anywhere by Susan Kiyo Ito. The screenshot indicates that all 3 copies available are in use and that you can can request a hold on the book when it becomes available.

Do your fellow adoptee authors and researchers (and readers!) a favor. Request your local library to add the author's books to the library's collection. It makes a difference. 🥚 cc: @thesusanito.bsky.social

I get so angry with courts when they won’t provide, upon request, an adoptee’s own adoption decree. The court just told one client to bring his mother to get it. He’s 40 years old.

Dear Parents of Intercountry Adoptees | ARLC Two things parents of adult intercountry adopted people should do today to help secure documents related to US citizenship and immigration benefits.

USCIS is now removing and redacting most documents from intercountry adoptees’ immigration files. Here are 2 concrete things adoptive parents can do to help, at least for now 🥚 adopteerightslaw.com/parents-inte...

The Chinese Adoptees Who Were Stolen As thousands of Chinese families take DNA tests, the results are upending what adoptees abroad thought they knew about their origins.

The Chinese Adoptees Who Were Stolen www.newyorker.com/news/america...

USCIS Is Withholding My Clients' Immigration Records at an Alarming Rate New USCIS practices are making the job of securing and proving US citizenship for my clients maddeningly slow, difficult, and absurd.

The absurdity of USCIS withholding my clients' own immigration records, which include adoption decrees, birth records, and other documents that are necessary to determine and prove immigration status. adopteerightslaw.com/uscis-withho... 🥚

Screenshot of text describing the standard to remove information from a FOIA request to USCIS. In yellow highlighted marker are the words "We have completed the review of all documents and have identified 69 pages that are responsive to your request. Enclosed are 4 pages release in their entirety and 24 pages released in part. We are withholding 41 pages in full.

I just received another FOIA response from USCIS and they removed the names of every person mentioned in 69 pages of records. EVERY PERSON, except one: my client, whose own name was not redacted. Her adoptive parents' names were removed from all records, including the decree. Absurd.

Screenshot of an official record involving an adoption. The title of the snippet is "PARENTS" and it lists below a Father and Mother, though the names of the Father and Mother have been redacted by the use of white opaque boxes. The adoption is from Ukraine and the adoptive parents are US citizens.

For the first time EVER, USCIS has redacted the names of ADOPTIVE PARENTS in my client's immigration file (not to mention birthparent names, sibling names, and even the names of judges and officials involved in the adoption). Unbelievable. We're going to appeal. 🥚

For example, let's say I represent an intercounty adoptee who lives in Iowa but their adoption was finalized in California. You'd have to petition the court in CA to get the decree --- and I'm not licensed to practice there, making it even trickier.

Dear state legislators: please change your laws so that adoptees can easily request a certified copy of their own state-issued adoption decree. It's insane that it takes a formal court petition to get a critical document--particularly to secure US citizenship. I'm tired of it.

Any adoptees out there doing immigration work? Thinking about forming a group of us just to keep our morale up and to talk shop. 🥚

Latest from the Citizenship Clinic | Adoptees United Inc. What's happening with the AU Citizenship Clinic as of April 2025.

The @adopteesunited.bsky.social Citizenship Clinic picked up 39 new cases in the past month. We're incredibly busy, and for good reason. Here's what's happening. 🥚https://adopteesunited.org/april-2025-latest-citizenship-clinic/

Fireworks at night over downtown Atlanta with foreground of highway with long exposure headlights creating a light path. Over the image in large white capital letters is "GEORGIA!!"

Georgia will soon be the 16th state to affirm or restore the right of all adult adopted people to obtain their own original birth records. SB100 passed the House earlier today after easily passing the Senate before. It heads to the governor. Great work by the Georgia Alliance for Adoptee Rights

National Action: NO on the SAVE Act Contact your U.S. representative today and request a NO VOTE on the SAVE Act, which will disenfranchise millions of US voters.

This bill must not pass. Please contact your US congressional rep. Among millions of people, it also disproportinately impacts adoptees, especially intercountry adoptees adopteerightslaw.com/action/call-...

Screenshot of bill description for South Carolina senate bill S0485, which states: S 0485 General Bill, By Cromer Summary: Adoption A BILL TO AMEND THE SOUTH CAROLINA CODE OF LAWS BY AMENDING SECTION 44-63-140, RELATING TO BIRTH CERTIFICATES FOR ADOPTED INDIVIDUALS, SO AS TO ALLOW AN ADOPTED INDIVIDUAL WHO IS SEVENTY YEARS OF AGE OR OLDER TO OBTAIN COPIES OF RECORDS PERTAINING TO THE INDIVIDUAL'S ADOPTION, INCLUDING THE ORIGINAL BIRTH CERTIFICATE.

I kid you not. 🥚

State Level Legislation: An Update | Adoptees United Inc. Join us for an update and discussion about pending state-level legislation in 2025 that could impact adopted people.

Coming up on Wednesday, hope to see people there.🥚 adopteesunited.org/state-level-...

Yep. Message me. There is a group there.

Eliminating these positions is an unconstitutional overreach and a continued assault on maintaining at least some guardrails against executive branch abuse of power. As someone who has used the ombudsman to push cases to completion, it's a sad day. I hope there's a lawsuit to stop it.

§272. Citizenship and Immigration Services Ombudsman (a) In general Within the Department, there shall be a position of Citizenship and Immigration Services Ombudsman (in this section referred to as the “Ombudsman”). The Ombudsman shall report directly to the Deputy Secretary. The Ombudsman shall have a background in customer service as well as immigration law. (b) Functions It shall be the function of the Ombudsman— (1) to assist individuals and employers in resolving problems with the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services; (2) to identify areas in which individuals and employers have problems in dealing with the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services; and (3) to the extent possible, to propose changes in the administrative practices of the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services to mitigate problems identified under paragraph (2).

The USCIS ombudsman, also required by federal law (with one ombudsman for each state) has been critical to get USCIS to do its job, from the mundane (USCIS sitting on immigration applications) to the critical (reducing massive backlogs) Here's that law: www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/...

(b) Functions The functions of the Ombudsman shall be to— (1) Establish and administer an independent, neutral, and confidential process to receive, investigate, resolve, and provide redress, including referral for investigation to the Office of the Inspector General, referral to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services for immigration relief, or any other action determined appropriate, for cases in which Department officers or other personnel, or contracted, subcontracted, or cooperating entity personnel, are found to have engaged in misconduct or violated the rights of individuals in immigration detention; (2) Establish an accessible and standardized process regarding complaints against any officer or employee of U.S. Customs and Border Protection or U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or any contracted, subcontracted, or cooperating entity personnel, for violations of law, standards of professional conduct, contract terms, or policy related to immigration detention; (3) Conduct unannounced inspections of detention facilities holding individuals in federal immigration custody, including those owned or operated by units of State or local government and privately-owned or operated facilities; (4) Review, examine, and make recommendations to address concerns or violations of contract terms identified in reviews, audits, investigations, or detainee interviews regarding immigration detention facilities and services; (5) Provide assistance to individuals affected by potential misconduct, excessive force, or violations of law or detention standards by Department of Homeland Security officers or other personnel, or contracted, subcontracted, or cooperating entity personnel; and (6) Ensure that the functions performed by the Ombudsman are complementary to existing functions within the Department of Homeland Security.

These offices are critical to USCIS accountability---and federal law requires it. To do its job, the detention ombudsman, for example, must have unfettered access to detention facilities, detainees, and USCIS records. Here's the law: www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/...

Homeland Security makes cuts to civil rights and immigration oversight offices DHS confirms it is implementing a reduction in force in three oversight offices as part of the effort to cut the federal workforce.

This week the Trump administration announced eliminating critical USCIS oversight offices: the Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties (CRCL), the Office of the Immigration Detention Ombudsman and the Office of the Citizenship and Immigration Services Ombudsman www.npr.org/2025/03/21/n...

Like we predicted, infants abandoned in Indiana baby boxes are placed for adoption . . . by the fire department.

Latest from the Citizenship Clinic | Adoptees United Inc. What's happening today with the citizenship clinic, what we've learned so far, and what we are watching for in the future.

What we've been up to: 118 requests for service, 88 active cases, 66 FOIAs, 23 countries, 33 states. All to prove or secure US citizenship for intercountry adopted people. It's the @adopteesunited.bsky.social Citizenship Clinic adopteesunited.org/latest-citiz...

Today in court I successfully got an order to put an adoptee client’s biological father on the original birth record. The client now qualifies for German citizenship as a descendant of Jews persecuted and murdered by the Nazis. 🥚

Mutual Aid Fund A fund to help adopted people who are in a temporary crisis or have expenses related to legal or immigration issues. Current focus: travel costs for me to appear for a mid-March naturalization interview for an intercountry adoptee client without US Citizenship, whose case is in Los Angeles. Total Request: [$800.00 is stricken through and a new value of $600.00 is indicated] (his sister has now funded my hotel stay). Raised as of February 15, 2025: $415.00. Remaining amount needed: $185.00.

UPDATE: 🥚 Mutual Aid Fund request is nearly complete for a ICA client who has a naturalization interview in mid-March in Los Angeles. His sister has paid for my hotel stay and we need to raise $185 to close the final gap. Deets/donations: adopteerightslaw.com/contact/mutu... THANK YOU!

This will definitely impact intercountry adoptees who do not have readily available proof of US citizenship. It's part of what we are trying to correct through the @adopteesunited.bsky.social Citizenship Clinic and we are in talks with some states about this specific issue