Help adoptees
Help adoptees
The absence of justice hurts, yet the application of justice is only common sense. But, more often than not, the intelligence to insure justice mysteriously disappears.
This is what happened to approximately 35,000 foreign-born adoptees of American parents: One would think legal adoption of foreign-born children in the United States would guarantee American citizenship. Think again. A large number of adopting American parents for one reason or another failed to apply for American citizenship for these children. This would have guaranteed all rights of citizenship for their foreign-born adoptees.
Many adoptees, now adults with families of their own, have been cruelly torn from their spouses and children in deportation proceedings to countries of their birth, where they are unfamiliar with the language and culture only because their adopting parents failed to apply for their American citizenship. They were never considered American citizens and did not have any rights of American citizenship. With political encouragement, pending legislation could fix this grave injustice.
In an effort to correct such injustices, the Adoptee Citizenship Act was introduced in Congress in 2015 by Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota as Senate Bill 2275, which would grant retroactive citizenship to all foreign-born adoptees, including those who already were deported. So far, this bill has not passed in Congress.
In the interest of justice, please contact your senator and congressional representative to urge passage of the Adoptee Citizenship Act.
In the meantime, if you are the parent of a foreign-born adoptee, age 19 or older, please protect your adopted child’s rights by applying for American citizenship if you have not already done so.
In the interest of justice, thank you.
Janet Ashkenazy
Honokaa
Mahalo, service club
While taking down the Christmas tree, I started thinking what a value to the community Hilo’s Y’s Men &Women Service Club Christmas tree program is.
My wife and I have lived here for 15 years now, and for almost all of that time have bought our tree there. For all of that time we have never had a bad tree or unpleasant experience at the lot. Their effort to make buying a tree a warm and meaningful thing is true to the Christmas and aloha spirit!
Anyone can buy a tree at a big box store; contributing to the service club’s cause is in the true spirit of the season.
Gregg Niceley
Pahoa