Immigration Reform 2014: New Bipartisan Bill Seeks Boost In Adoptions Of Foreign Orphan

With a host of sponsors – 32 in the House of Representatives and 17 in the Senate – a new bipartisan bill appears to have the support to address an issue which hasn’t been part of immigration reform debates, but which concerns an important aspect of modern transnational movement: adoptions of foreign orphans, whose numbers currently extend into the millions. Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.), the bill’s chief advocate and mother of two adopted children, says she’s aiming to rally enough bipartisan support for the bill to pass it in Congress by the spring.

The Associated Press reports that the Children In Families First Act would seek to reverse a seven-year downward trend in Americans’ adoptions of foreign orphans – with 8,668 foreign adoptions in 2012 compared to 22,991 in 2004 – by creating a new State Department bureau which would work with NGOs and foreign countries’ governments to find families for foreign orphans. In addition to boosting foreign adoptions by Americans, it would seek to promote domestic adoptions abroad as well as family preservation and reunification and kinship care.

The AP notes that the bill could meet with some opposition among House Republicans reluctant to create another government entity as well as from the White House, which could object to some provisions as unnecessary. The bill comes in large part as a reaction to what many say is an overly restrictive application of the Hague Convention on Inter-Country Adoption, an international treaty which lays out ethical standards for international adoptions. Landrieu was a key player in the US’s ratification of the treaty in 2008, but her hopes that it would both cut back on fraud and increase legitimate adoptions have since been disappointed. "When I helped to pass this treaty, it was everyone's hope that the number would go up - doubled, tripled, quadrupled," she told the AP. "Instead it's down by 60 percent. That's the best evidence I have that what State Department has in place isn't working."