Thousands of Adopted Children at Risk of Mass Deportation
The Trump administration’s sweeping immigration crackdown is now rattling international adoptees, fearing that they could be next. According to The Independent, hundreds of thousands of people adopted from overseas are increasingly worried they could be caught up in expanded ICE enforcement—even those who have lived in the U.S. for decades. Minneapolis-based nonprofit Adoptees United told the outlet they estimate roughly 200,000 foreign-born adoptees grew up without automatic U.S. citizenship due to gaps in past immigration law. The anxiety comes after an aggressive federal enforcement push that sparked widespread fear in Minnesota, including among people living in the U.S. legally or on a path to citizenship. Legal experts say the concern isn’t entirely unfounded. Family law attorney Mónica Dooner Lindgren told The New York Times that enforcement efforts in the state have appeared to be targeting “all people of color,” while federal courts have cited over 7,000 cases of wrongful ICE detention. Lawmakers have yet to offer inclusive protections for international adoptees. A bill proposed to the House of Representatives in September—the Protect Adoptees and American Families Act—would grant automatic citizenship to all international adoptees, but it has not made progress.














