Home is Not Always Where the Heart Is: Examining the Inadequacy of Legal Measures in the Deportation of American Intercountry Adoptees

Authors

• Katie X. Kaessinger, Esq.

Library of Congress Authority File

http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n79122466.html

Document Type

Article

Abstract

Despite entering the United States legally as children through intercountry adoption, thousands of American adoptees face deportation as adults because their parents failed to finalize their citizenship. Many of these adoptees have no meaningful linguistic, cultural, or familiar ties to their birth countries, and most have lived in the United States practically their entire lives. This Article explores the legal implications regarding the deportation of intercountry adoptees. More specifically, this Article argues that the deportation of intercountry adoptees reflects a grave systemic failure that violates international human rights law, rather than a mere shortcoming of domestic immigration policy.

Consulting various international human rights instruments, such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, as well as the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Hague Convention of 1993, this Article demonstrates that deporting intercountry adoptees implicates numerous human rights, including the right to a nationality, the right to a family, the principle of non-discrimination, and the principle of the best interest of the child. Further, because States actively facilitate intercountry adoptions, they bear heightened responsibility to ensure adoptees obtain secure and permanent legal status, thus avoiding the nightmare currently plaguing many adoptees today.

This Article concludes by examining four potential legal pathways for addressing this human rights failure: (i) amending the Child Citizenship Act of 2000 to eliminate age-based exclusions, (ii) reinstating judicial authority to block unjust deportations, (iii) imposing due diligence obligations on States involved in intercountry adoption, and (iv) reconsidering adoptive status under the equal protection doctrine. Together, these legal and political reforms would advance adoption’s overall goal of permanence while aligning the United States’ domestic laws more closely with international laws.

Recommended Citation

Katie X. Kaessinger, Esq., Home is Not Always Where the Heart Is: Examining the Inadequacy of Legal Measures in the Deportation of American Intercountry Adoptees, 27 San Diego Int'l L.J. 215 (2026)
Available at: https://digital.sandiego.edu/ilj/vol27/iss2/3