Immigrant Adoptees Who Never Became Citizens Fear Possible Deportation

Here are the morning’s top stories on Monday, July 28, 2025…

• Imagine growing up in the U.S., going to high school, starting a career, having a family – only to learn that you’re not an American citizen. That’s exactly what happened to thousands of children born in other countries and adopted by American parents in the 60s, 70s, and 80s. And now, with the increased immigration enforcement from the Trump administration, there’s concerns about possible deportation.
• The battle over immigration raids across much of Southern California will have another day in court Monday afternoon. The Trump administration is looking to end a temporary restraining order that’s in place, barring indiscriminate immigration stops and arrests.
• Governor Gavin Newsom says he believes California voters will support a plan to redraw the state’s congressional districts to help Democrats in the 2026 election.

Thousands Of Adoptees Were Never Given US Citizenship. Now They Risk Deportation

Shirley Chung was just 16 months old when an American family adopted her from South Korea in 1966. She was raised by a Black family in Texas, went to a mostly white school and attended a mostly Black church. Growing up in a mixed-race family, she became accustomed to questions about her identity. “’What are you? What are you?’ I’ve heard that my whole life,” she said. “From when I was a little girl, and my mother would have to answer the question.”

But one thing she never questioned was her identity as an American. That is, until she misplaced her Social Security card and tried to get a new one. She was 57 at the time. “When I get to the Social Security office, that’s when they told me, ‘We can’t give you your card, you need to prove your status in this country,’” she recalled. “I didn’t know what that meant.” It meant that Chung wasn’t actually an American citizen. Someone — either her adoptive parents or the adoption agency — never completed the paperwork required to establish citizenship, she said.

Advocates believe there are between 30,000 and 70,000 adoptees who never became U.S. citizens. Some have been deported to countries they have no memory of ever living in — sometimes to tragic consequences. Emily Howe is a San Diego-based lawyer trying to help Chung and others like her adjust their immigration status. “The concept of an undocumented adoptee is so egregious and appalling,” she said. These are people who were “shipped overseas through no fault of their own” when they were babies, Howe added. Now that they are in their 40s, 50s and 60s, they’re discovering that they don’t have U.S. citizenship. Howe has consulted with adoption attorneys, immigration lawyers, family law specialists and even international law attorneys to find a solution. But she said there is no easy fix.

America’s outdated immigration laws don’t offer an easy solution — there is no form adoptees can retroactively fill out and no appeals process. Instead, immigration lawyers have to find complicated work-arounds to establish citizenship — either through marriage, children, or some kind of humanitarian or employment visa program. In 2000, Congress recognized that adoptee naturalization was an issue. They passed a law called the Child Citizenship Act, which streamlined the naturalization process for new adoptees. While the law helps children adopted after the year 2000, it did not provide retroactive relief to tens of thousands of people who were adopted decades earlier.

Appeals Court To Hear Arguments On Federal Government’s Immigration Raids 

An appellate hearing is scheduled Monday in the Trump administration’s bid for a stay of a temporary restraining order halting the federal government’s aggressive, month-long immigration sweeps across Southern California.

The order earlier this month from U.S. District Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong bars federal agents from conducting detention stops across much of Southern California unless the agent has “reasonable suspicion” the person stopped is in “violation of U.S. immigration law.” The order prohibits agents from relying solely on four factors, either alone or in combination, that include “apparent race or ethnicity, speaking Spanish or English with an accent, presence at a particular location (e.g. bus stop, car wash, tow yard, day laborer pick up site, agricultural site, etc.), and the type of work one does.”

Attorneys for the Trump administration have argued the immigration sweeps are carefully targeted, not random, and conducted with probable cause to make arrests. But a coalition of civil rights, immigrant rights and local government agencies who sought the TRO, say the raids have violated constitutional protections against unreasonable searches and seizures by conducting warrantless stops on people who simply appear to be Latino.

Newsom Ramps Up California Redistricting Threat As Texas Weighs New Republican Maps

What seemed a few weeks ago like a far-fetched political fantasy ahead of the 2026 midterms has quickly evolved into a high-stakes showdown enveloping states across the country.

As Texas began an off-cycle redistricting process meant to shore up Republicans’ slim House majority, Gov. Gavin Newsom appeared Friday with a group of Democratic legislators from that state, reaffirming his intention for California to respond with new maps of its own that would benefit Democrats. Following a meeting with the Texas lawmakers at the historic governor’s mansion in downtown Sacramento, Newsom told reporters that “everything is at stake if we’re not successful next year in taking back the House of Representatives” — not only blunting President Donald Trump’s agenda, but protecting American democracy. “If we don’t put a stake into the heart of this administration, there may not be an election in 2028,” he said. “They’re not screwing around. We can’t afford to screw around either. We have got to fight fire with fire.”

There’s one major obstacle to the governor’s ambitions, however: While the Legislature draws district lines in Texas, California relies on a bipartisan citizen redistricting commission protected by the state Constitution. In 2008, voters narrowly approved an amendment removing California legislators’ power to draw their own seats. Two years later, voters overwhelmingly passed another amendment expanding the commission’s authority to congressional maps.

The independent commission in California became a national model for advocates who hoped to end the partisan gerrymandering that has contributed to a decline in competitive House seats and the country’s fractious, sectarian politics. Now Newsom, who said he otherwise supports independent redistricting, is exploring multiple options for working around the commission to squeeze more Democratic districts out of California, if Texas follows through on its plan.