Some people adopted into American families as children lost contact with their adoptive parents or never had their citizenship paperwork completed, leaving them outside the reach of legal protection. Many have become entangled in drugs or crime, or suffer mental health problems. They live lonely, isolated lives as strangers in a gray zone that belongs to neither Korea nor the United States. Critics say the Korean government bears responsibility for adoptees, who were once a source of foreign currency much like the miners and nurses sent to Germany, the construction workers sent to the Middle East and the soldiers sent to Vietnam.
Kil Myung-soon, chairwoman of the World Hug Foundation (WHF), said in an interview with Seoul Economic Daily on the 27th that the organization continues to help adoptees obtain citizenship despite far harsher conditions under President Donald Trump. "We are stepping forward to build housing for adoptees on a church site in Manhattan, New York, that was donated to us," she said.
Kil emigrated to the United States in the mid-1980s. When her husband, who ran a printing business there, died of cancer a few years later, she raised three children alone in her early 40s. She took over the printing business, put her children through to marriage, and then went into mission work in China and Africa. The turning point came in 2016. After hearing from an acquaintance that many Korean adoptees without citizenship were exposed to crime or faced deportation, she began helping a handful of them. The following year she established WHF, a nonprofit public-interest foundation, to put legal aid and funding structures in place. Antonio Rivera, a New York state government employee of Puerto Rican descent whose family included a Korean War veteran, took the post of president at the time and has worked alongside her since.
About 35,000 overseas adoptees entered the United States on IR-4 visas, which required them to apply separately for citizenship at age 16, rather than IR-3 visas, which conferred citizenship automatically. Roughly 20,000 of them were Korean. Under the Child Citizenship Act, adoptees born after the end of February 1983 are granted citizenship, but those born earlier have no such protection. "Adoptees needed their adoptive parents to complete the citizenship process when they turned 16, but many ended up without legal status because a parent died early, the adoption was annulled, or they ran away from home," Kil recalled. "I kept thinking about how lonely and hard their situation must be, and that is why we launched the citizenship campaign."
Among adoptees in their 40s to 60s who lack legal status, a considerable number have been in and out of prison over drug problems or criminal cases. Some do not know they are without legal status until they discover during voting or an inheritance process that they have no citizenship, and some are deported. There are cases of adoptees deported to Korea who taught English with help from a church and then became caught up in drug cases or bank robberies. "U.S. immigration authorities took the hard line that citizenship cannot be given to criminals," she said. "We explained what circumstances they had lived in and why they committed crimes, and we saved some, but it was not enough."
Of the seven people who obtained citizenship with WHF's help, one eventually won citizenship after a long struggle with the support of volunteer lawyers and went on to work in a U.S. senator's office. But that is an exceptional case. Review procedures for nine more adoptees have effectively been halted by the Trump administration's anti-immigration policies. The political environment has deteriorated to the point where the work of helping adoptees obtain citizenship itself carries risk.
WHF has also worked to draw political attention, holding fundraising dinners with figures from politics, business and religious circles. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer has taken a steady interest in the adoptee issue and given generous support, and Rep. Adam Smith, a Democrat, introduced an adoptee citizenship bill that passed the House but failed to clear the Senate. Kil expressed particular gratitude to them, adding, "Republicans are not friendly on this, so drawing out bipartisan cooperation is what matters."
Kil urged the Korean government to make diplomatic efforts to resolve the adoptee issue while also considering ways for adoptees to settle in Korea. She asked the Lee Jae-myung administration to take an active role, unlike previous governments, on behalf of adoptees abandoned by everyone. Even grasping the scale of the problem is difficult: WHF estimates that 600 to 700 adoptees have been deported to Korea, while the government cites a far lower figure. "Korea earned foreign currency through overseas adoption, but now it must fulfill its responsibility," she said. "I met with Consul General Kim Sang-ho in New York to look for ways to cooperate, and I hope the government steps forward." She added that adoptees who return to Korea inevitably struggle with differences in culture and language, but said, "If we create jobs and housing in regions facing extinction, such as streets lined with restaurants, it could be a win-win for both sides."
She is also pursuing what she calls the "Manhattan Project" to help adoptees settle stably in New York. The plan is to receive part of a local church site in Manhattan as a donation and rebuild the existing two-story building into a 12-story structure with 102 households, housing adoptees, families of war veterans and single mothers. "An American pastor in their 90s donated the site, moved by WHF's work," she said. "We need about $50 million for the project, so I hope companies that can expect tax benefits from donations or publicity will pool their strength."
WHF was also active in volunteer work during the COVID-19 pandemic, distributing large quantities of masks, sanitizer and food boxes to vulnerable groups. It continues to support single-mother households and visit nursing hospitals at Christmas and Thanksgiving. "I hope companies, the government and citizens will come together to build a world that moves forward together," Kil said.