Adam is joined by guests Joy Alessi, Raana and Sungkwan Jang in the second installment of our series on the issue of Adoptees Without Citizenship. In this part, we review the progress that was made in advocacy for an adoptee citizenship bill this year and also the challenges that were faced. We also discuss the expectations for 2021 and give our end of year thanks to all the volunteers and organizations that worked tirelessly on this issue.

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Adam (@snbatman)

REFERENCED RESOURCES:

USA Today article: https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/news/investigations/2020/12/16/international-adoption-does-not-guarantee-adoptees-us-citizenship/6310358002/

Korean American Grassroots Conference (KAGC): https://kagc.us/

Adoptee Rights Campaign: https://adopteerightscampaign.org/

Adoptees For Justice: https://adopteesforjustice.org/

GUEST BIOGRAPHIES:

Sungkwan E. J. Jang - Serves as the program director at the Korean American Grassroots Conference (KAGC), the largest nationwide network of Korean American voters and a non-profit organization based in Washington, D.C. In this capacity, he directs legislative relations, public relations, digital strategies, and education programs, with an emphasis on organizing youth voters. Since 2016, Sungkwan has worked with over 1,500 undergraduate students from 120 universities in voter registration drives, guest lectures and workshops, and civic action training. He has worked on the Adoptee Citizenship bill for the last two years.

Joy Alessi - An adoptee from South Korea, Joy discovered that she had not received U.S. citizenship during her U.S. adoption or thereafter. Since learning that thousands of international adoptees share similar legal failures, Joy has worked to educate both advocates and policymakers of the problem’s adoptees face without citizenship protection. As Executive Director of the Adoptee Rights Campaign, Joy’s work focuses on building effective resources for impacted adoptees and supporting passage of the Adoptee Citizenship legislation.

Raana - An impacted adoptee, she has been advocating for U.S. citizenship rights with Adoptee Rights Campaign since 2016.

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