' [Birth Mother] First Mother Forum: South Korean adoptee faces deportation

Saturday, April 4, 2015

South Korean adoptee faces deportation

Jane
With few restrictions on who can adopt internationally, children from abroad may be subjected to abandonment, abuse and even death at the hands of their adoptive parents. No one knows this better than Adam Crapser who was not only excised from his "forever family" and abused in foster care, but now faces deportation.

Adam and his sister were adopted from South Korea by an Oregon family* in 1978 when he was three. The family did not apply for citizenship for Adam. The adoption disrupted when he was ten and the children were separated. Adam was placed in a series of foster and
group homes, ending up with Thomas and Dolly Crapser who abused him over the next four years. They also did not apply to make Adam a U.S. citizen. Eventually the Crapsers were convicted of abuse.


Adam Crapser with youngest daughter
Adam's life spiraled downhill. He became homeless, and was convicted of burglary and assault. With a record and without a green card, it was difficult for him to get a job. Because he could run a business without a green card and immigration papers, he opened a barber shop and an upholstery business. He married and had children. When he attempted to obtain a green card in 2012, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Service commenced deportation proceedings because of his criminal record.

Adam, 39, who lives in Vancouver, Washington, had a hearing on April 2; another hearing is scheduled for June. The government must prove that his criminal convictions demand his deportation. If the government succeeds, Adam may be eligible for asylum because he was abused at the hands of his adoptive parents.

In 2000, Congress made citizenship automatic for intercountry adoptees under 18, but the law was not retroactive, and did not apply to Adam. Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley and Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar** have introduced a bill granting automatic citizenship for adoptees like Adam. We encourage our readers to write to their senators and ask them to support this bill.--jane
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*Although the media reports didn't say how Crapser's adoption was arranged, it seems likely that the much heralded Holt International Children's Services had something to do with it. Holt, founded by Oregon farmers Harry and Bertha Holt in the 1950's, is one of the largest intercountry adoption agencies, and has placed many children in Oregon.

**Not coincidentally, Minnesota is home of Lutheran Social Services, another large intercountry adoption agency. While FMF commends Senators Merkley and Klobuchar for their effort on behalf of Adam Claper and other adoptees, FMF notes that Sen. Klobuchar is an ardent advocate of intercountry adoption. She has sponsored numerous bills to increase the number of children brought to the U.S. for adoption, including the god-awful Children in Families First Act which would require countries to make children available for adoption in the U.S. to be eligible for aid. Thankfully, this bill is dead for now. The fact is that intercountry adoption does little to truly help needy children, but often results in kidnapping, corruption, and abuse. For a perspective from a mother who almost adopted a child from a poor country, read the review from Amazon below to Kathryn Joyce's eye-opening book, The Child Catchers: Rescue, Trafficking, and the New Gospel of Adoption.
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Adoptee from South Korea faces deportation
Deportation hearing begins
Deportation of Adam Crapser
Sen. Amy Klobuchar

FROM FMF
The Child Catcher exposes the stench of international adoption--and domestic adoption too
'Re-homing': Dumping Unwanted Kids
Senate bill encourages more international adoption
Good New Intercountry adoption down again
The Baby Sellers portrays the dark side of international adoption

TO READ

The Child Catchers: Rescue, Trafficking, and the New Gospel of Adoption
By Kathryn Joyce

"I am one of those right-wing, Evangelical Christians that the author seems to not care for...so this may be interesting! I am mom to biological sons and often thought about adopting a daughter from China. I started to research and found out a lot of information about children being kidnapped from their parents in China and was SO disturbed because I had NO idea that this was going on. I don't think most Americans understand that when you pay to adopt of a child in a 3rd world country that you are inadvertently, supporting child trafficking. Whenever a lot of money is involved and there is a demand, regardless of what the demand is for...corruption always comes....and the end does not justify the means. 

"As a Compassion International sponsor to children in Ethiopia, I started to research adoption in Ethiopia, as well as, the orphan crisis and street children there. I went with Compassion Int to Ethiopia to meet my sponsor kids and also met boys at an orphanage. I became a mom to 4 boys at an orphanage. I have been back several times to visit them. I am their mother in every sense except that I am not physically with them all of the time. As I learned more about adoption and met more and more people that had adopted.........I was SHOCKED...the first time...an adoptive parent sitting on my couch in my house said.........."when, I met her mother." When you met her mother?? She has a mother?? YES, but she is very poor and cannot take care of her. SO........you spent 30,000 to take her away from her mother instead of helping the mother keep her own child? I thought it was an isolated incident but I heard it OVER and OVER again! As a Christian, I cannot believe that my fellow Christians do not have a HUGE problem with this."--a reviewer at Amazon

Don't you just love her? 

17 comments :

  1. Isn't Sen. Klobuchar one of the senators currently applying bipartisan pressure on the DRC to send their Congolese children to hopeful adopters in the US, despite DRC having sovereignty over their own country and people? It appears so. http://www.mcconnell.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=PressReleases&ContentRecord_id=1f90ef79-5e8f-470d-a295-16c3b63ccf5d

    Was she also part of the cohort pressuring Russia just as Russia was deciding to stop sending their children for US adoptions?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yes, Klobuchar has a quite a bit on her website about reuniting children their "parents," that is their American would-be adoptive parents. I don't know about pressuring her Russia but it makes sense. There's a small group of senators, Klobuchar, Inhoffe of Oklahoma, others who believe that the solution for the world's poor children is to bring them to the U. S. They were led by adoptive mother former senator Mary Landrieu of LA.

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  3. I will be writing to my senators to urge support of the bill to give retroactive citizenship to adult international adoptees like Adam and would like to know what else we can do to help and support him. I don't care who introduced the bill or what else they have done, this bill is a good one and should be supported by itself no matter what other things the sponsors are involved in. As they say, "politics makes strange bedfellows" and this is one of those times.

    The way Adam has been treated all along is an outrage. Adam has made a good life despite being given nothing but abuse and rejection and deserves at least to have a "forever country" if not family. Seeing the pictures of him as a child breaks my heart, how could anyone do that to such a beautiful innocent child?

    I have a particular distrust of child hoarders, those families who adopt or foster more kids than anyone could decently care for, often special needs children. I've heard too many stories of abuse in these "families" that are really unsupervised group homes. Adam has a real family now with his wife and kids, and he should be allowed to stay there as the American he has been made to be, and should have full rights as a citizen. For those of us born in the US, imagine being deported to the country your grandparents came from, with no language or knowledge or anyone there you know. Too cruel, the punishment does not fit his minor crimes which he already paid in full for. This is the real full horror of international adoption corruption and lack of oversight.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ask your friends and relatives to write their senators. Spread the word. Pass this post on. Friend Adam on Facebook and share his story.

      Delete
    2. Thank you Jane! Will do that, and also try to get CUB to spread the word. We have to help Adam if we care about adoptees and adoption abuse. This is a real life tragedy more important than any movie or TV show.

      Delete
    3. Thanks, maryanne, Perhaps CUB's officers would endorse it with CUB's name. Getting the support of an organization is very helpful.

      I'll email Sen Merkley's office and see if I can get a bill number.

      Delete
  4. Thanks so much Jane, the bill # would be most useful. There is also a petition, I signed it.
    http://action.18mr.org/crapser/
    I also alerted CUB, waiting to hear a response. There is also a Facebook page supporting Adam for those who do that. Anyone else with information on this case, or just want to show support, please let us know.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. For anyone encountering difficulty signing the petition . . . the fields worked for me as soon as I switched to Google Chrome.

      Delete
  5. Support Adam. And the16% of Korean adoptees who were never formally naturalized:

    http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/apr/03/adam-crapser-deportation-korean-adoption-system-immigration?CMP=share_btn_tw

    ReplyDelete
  6. You can listen to Adam talking to Kevin Vollmers here on sound cloud:
    https://soundcloud.com/gazillion-voices/adam-crapser-gazillion-voices-radio

    ReplyDelete
  7. Could this amendment save Adam Crapser from deportation?

    http://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/could-amendment-save-adoptee-adam-crapser-deportation-n337401

    Abridged.
    Adam Crapser has been granted a brief reprieve as his deportation hearings have been delayed until June.

    Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR) and Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) have agreed to co-sponsor an amendment to the Child Citizenship Act of 2000 that would grant automatic U.S. citizenship to all international adoptees, including retroactive citizenship to those such as Crapser who were already 18 when the Act first went into effect.

    Because adoptees were brought to the United States through a legal transaction involving a foreign government, the U.S. government, and an American family, advocates say the U.S. government has a legal obligation to that child.

    "For the U.S. to deport adoptees to a country they likely do not speak the language, do not understand the culture, and do not have any connections or resources is a reprehensible and shameful act," said March. "If members of Congress do not support this amendment, it is equivalent to objecting to the fundamental purpose and values of adoption."

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I understand the intent of Sen Merkley's amendment is to save Adam and other intercountry adoptees facing deportation. The bill is probably being drafted now. I've emailed Sen. Merkely's office to get a number for the bill. We'll know more when we see the bill.

      If Sens Merkley and Klobuchar can't get this bill through, it's possible they could get a bill through granting Adam granting citizenship.

      Delete
    2. Actually that wasn't a question. It was the title of the article.
      Probably my bad for not presenting it in an intelligible way.

      Delete
  8. Mirah Riben has an excellent article supporting Adam on Huffington Post:
    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mirah-riben/adam-crapser-adopted-abus_b_7005562.html
    Please read it and forward it.

    ReplyDelete
  9. At last.
    I was wondering if, and if, when:
    http://adoptioninstitute.org/Deportation-of-adoptees-we-must-do-better

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. About time Donaldson Institute commented! I am surprised there are not more people commenting here on this important issue of adoptee rights.

      Delete
    2. I guess this important - and in Adam's case, urgent - issue just doesn't excite the same kind of interest as reality shows like Sixteen and Pregnant or glorified soaps like Downton Abbey.

      Delete

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